Dairy Management and Butter Making. That a very high temperature, or a very low one, has some effect upon the amount of cream which may be raised from any given quantity of milk, is a proposition which will readily be assented to by almost every one who has any acquaintance with the affairs of a dairy. But very few seem to have any but the most vague and inaccurate impressions in regard to the exact amount of influence exerted in this way by any given range of temperature. Judging from the wild guessing and the very diverse answers given, within a limited sphere, to certain questions intended to bring out the prevailing opinions concerning this matter, we would say that the largest number of those engaged remedy. For this purpose he ordered a shallow open cistern to be made of woud, with a rim of about three inches along each side and to be lined with thin sheet lead. Water could be made to flow through this cistern to the depth of three inches. At its lower extremity was a hollow plug having perforated holes, at least three inches above the bottom, through which the water could make its escape as fast as new supplies of hot water came from the feeding pipe. When the new milk is brought in, the pans are placed in this cistern, and hot water immediately let in flowing along tube which conducts it away. When the water has till it rises to the height of the holes perforated in the been used and become cool, the plug is drawn and the cistern emptied entirely of water. By this means and in the care of a dairy would answer or 'guess' a long by letting in hot air from his kitchen, the dairy attains way from the exact truth in reply to a question as to the degree of temperature at which milk will throw up the largest amount of cream. Very few, indeed, we think, could come very near to exactness if asked to calculate the amount of loss suffered by diminution of cream from any certain quantity of milk during a month or a season of very warm or very cold weather. Very few could tell whether the amount of loss from this source would warrant any given amount of outlay for the purpose of being able to regulate the temperature of the milk-room by the employment of means to raise the temperature in cold weather, and to lower it in that which was very hot and sultry. In many large dairies it would be a matter of considerable pecuniary importance, to be able to determice accurately the amount of loss from the diminished quantity of cream, caused by a temperature either too high or too low. The amount of expenditure which might safely or profitably be made in obviating this injurious influence could then be calculated with a satisfactory degree of certainty. To such as may desire information and reliable data in regard to this matter we submit an abstract of some observations lately made to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, by a distinguished dairy farmer of that country, of whose mode of feeding dairy cows some account was given, a few weeks ago, in the columns of this paper. As a considerable falling off in receipts from the dairy was observed by Mr. Horsfall, the gentleman referred to, in the month of November of a certain year, and as no change had taken place in the number or circumstances of his cows, or in their food, he was led to inquire into the cause. He found that the same quantity of milk was brought to the dairy-maid, and that the deficiency arose solely from a less quantity of butter. The weather had been very cold. Upon testing the quantity of butter obtained from the cream of 16 quarts of milk he found that there were only 16 ounces in the place of 26 ounces had during warmer weather from the cream of the same quantity of milk. On trying the temperature of the milk-room be found it somewhat below 40 degrees; and it then occurred to Mr. H. that the deficiency of butter most probably arose from a too low temperature in the dairy. To raise the temperature was the obvious a temperature, in winter, of from 52 to 54 degrees. At this temperature Mr. H. again obtained 26 ounces of butter from the cream of 16 quarts of milk. This was an increase of a little over 50 per cent. By using cold water in summer through the same contrivance the milk can be kept from souring as soon as it otherwise would. In both seasons-summer and winter-Mr. H. obtains the largest yield of butter, when his dairy is about from 52° to 55° of Fahrenheit's thermometer. United States Agricultural Society. A GRAND NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF STOCKHorses, Cattle, Sheep and Swine-open to competition to all the States of the Union, and to the British Provinces, will be held by the UNITED STATES AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, in the City of BOSTON, on TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY and FRIDAY, October 23d, 24th, 25th and 26th. TWENTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS have been guaranteed by patriotic gentlemen of BOSTON and its vicinity to defray the expenses; the City of Boston has generously granted to the Society for present use, a fine public square of fifty acres ; and TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS Will be offered in PREMIUMS, in the various departments. The previous Exhibitions of this Society-at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1853, and at Springfield, Ohio, in 1854-were eminently successful, and no eforts will be spared to make the present SHOW, eombining as it does, the Four Great Departments of FARMING STOCK, superior to its predecessors. The Premium List, with the Rules of the Exhibition will be forwarded to all who will address the President or Secretary, at Boston, to that effect. It is earnestly hoped that all Breeders and owners of Fine Stock will feel it to be a duty, as it certainly is for their interest, to contribute to the Show. The List of Entries, Exhibitors and Award of Premiums, and all the proceedings of the Exhibition, will be published in the JOURNAL of the SOCIETY, for 1855. Annual Members of the Society, who desire to receive the Journal, should remember to renew their subscripMARSHALL P. WILDER, President. WILLIAM S. KING, Secretary. tions. Cultivation of Winter Wheat. No soil can produce wheat unless it contains, in an available condition, all the inorganic elements of plants. It does not follow, however, that if these are present in sufficient quantity, the soil will produce good wheat. Indian corn is composed of precisely the same elements as wheat, and the proportions are nearly identical; yet we have much land that produces excellent corn, that is not adapted to wheat culture. We know so little in regard to the manurial requirements of Indian corn, that we can offer no chemical explanations of this fact. We know that wheat requires in the soil, a large quantity of ammonia, for the production of a good crop; and nearly every well established fact in regard to corn culture goes to show that the same is true of this crop. We come to the conclusion therefore, that while it is probable there are some chemical causes why one soil is better adapted to wheat culture than another, yet that, so far as we can see at present, the difference is owing principally to the mechanical conditions and texture of the soil. land too fine and loose for wheat. When wheat is sown on a clover sod after one plowing, it is not advisable to plow it too deep; if the sod is, all covered and a good "seed bed" obtained that is enough. Subsoil; and plow deep for corn and root crops, and if you summer fallow, for wheat also, but if wheat is sown at one furrow on a clover sod turned under immediately before seeding, we should seldom go more than six inches deep. The best large field of wheat we ever saw in England, was on a calcareous loam that had been two years in red clover, grazed with sheep, which, a considerable portion of the time, were allowed a lb. of oil-cake per day. It was plowed about three inches deep, just before sowing, and a bushel and a half of seed drilled in per acre, one foot apart in the drills. The yield was 55 bushels per acre. The question of thick or thin sowing, which was agitated so fiercely a few years ago by DAVIS, MECHI, HUXTABLE, and other ultra agricultural reformers, is now pretty much decided. A peck of seed to the acre is amply sufficient, as they contended, if it all grows, and the crop escapes wire worms, winter-kill, &c; but it is found that those who practice such extreme thin seeding always lose more from these causes than those who sow thicker, and that these losses more than counterbalance the gain from saving a bushel or two of seed per acre. Taking into consideration the many pests that infest our wheat crop, we are inclined to think, that, if anything, we sow too thin. Two bushels per acre is none too much when sown broadcast, or a bushel and three pecks when sown by the drill. The majority of English farmers sow three bushels per acre, and we know some of them who sow 3 and even 4 bushels per acre. This would be greatly too much in our climate, but we must not err in the other extreme. The best artificial fertilizer for wheat is unquestiona Wheat delights in a compact, calcareous loam, rather clayey than sandy. We have heard farmers say that they preferred a sandy to a clayey soil for wheat, but this opinion arises from the fact that most of our clay land, needs underdraining. A calcareous clay that is underdrained, or naturally dry, is better for wheat than a sandy soil under similar conditions. Why it is, we know in part;-the double silicate of alumina and soda parts with its soda and absorbs ammonia from rain water, the atmosphere, and from any other bodies containing it. Sand does not possess this property; and herein lies one reason why a clay soil is better for wheat than a sandy one. Clays, too, have the power of absorbing and retaining moisture to a much greater extent than sand. But we can overcome both these draw-bly Peruvian guano. The lumps of the guano should backs by an extensive cultivation of clover, peas, turnips, &c., on the sandy soils. These plants absorb ammonia from rain water and the atmosphere, and thus accomplish the same end as the double silicate of alumina and soda, while the carbonaceous products arising from their decomposition in the soil give the soil an increased capacity for absorbing and retaining moisture. These considerations lead to the conclusion that the farmer has the means in his power to make a sandy soil as good for wheat-growing purposes as a clayey one, in every respect, so far as we can see to the contrary with the little light we possess on this subject, except in its mechanical condition. As we have said, a wheat soil must be compact. If it is not so naturally, mechanical means should be employed to compress it. Treading light wheat land in the fall or early in the spring with sheep, is frequently beneficial, and a good heavy roller is decidedly advantageous. Crosskill's Clod Crusher, compressing land, as it does, similarly to the treading of sheep, is found very useful on sandy wheat fields in England. We are earnest advocates of deep plowing and thorough pulverization of the soil, but these must not be carried to excess in wheat culture. It is easy to make the light first be sifted out and crushed. It can then be mixed with muck in equal parts, or sown alone, broadcast, at the rate of from 200 lbs. to 400 lbs. per acre. It should be harrowed or cultivated in, thoroughly incorporating it with the soil, before sowing the seed. This we prefer; on very sandy soil, it might be advisable to sow 100 lbs. per acre in the fall after the wheat is sown, and another 100 lbs. early in the spring. On heavy land it should always be sown in the fall, and the longer it is incorporated with the soil before the seed is sown the better. The earth is a stomach in which food for plants is digested and prepared; and time should be allowed for it to accomplish this before the plants require nourishment. On light soils, however, there is danger of its leaching if sown too early; and there is less necessity for doing so, as from the admission of air, light and heat, chemical changes take place much more speedily in sandy soils than in those of a close texture. Plaster is frequently recommended for wheat, and there are many instances recorded where it has proved very beneficial, but the mass of testimony is against it. In the wheat growing districts of this state, it is frequently sown on wheat in the fall; but it is rather with an eye to its effect on the clover, to be sown the following spring, than to any action it has on the wheat. Many will object to this, and contend that plaster does good on wheat. To this we would say, that if plaster acts well as a manure for wheat on your land, by all means use it. When it sells from $2 to $5 per ton, it is the cheapest of fertilizers on all soils where experience shows it to de beneficial. At present, experience -or what is simply a short cut to experience, experiment-is the only guide in this matter. The same may be said in regard to salt as a manure. Many instances are recorded where it has had a magical effect. Some such have come under our observation. As a general rule however, salt is of little benefit on wheat. Prof. WAY suggests that salt acts by increasing the solubility of the silicate of alumina and ammonia. Water containing salt will take up a very much larger quantity of this salt than pure or ordinary rain water. He has expressed the opinion that the silica which forms the stiffening of the straw of wheat, is taken up by the plant in the form of this salt-the ammonia evaporating as the silicic acid is deposited on the straw. If this ingenious hypothesis proves correct, we have at once an explanation of the well known fact that salt stiffens the straw of wheat, and has a tendency to retard excessive and injurious luxuriance. We would say of salt, as of plasler, it is cheap, and every farmer should experiment and ascertain its effect on his own soil. Analysis, in the present state of chemical science, will not aid, though when this subject is better understood, it is highly probable that may prove useful. Culture of Indian Corn, &c. as my EDITORS OF COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-I have raised corn in drills for several years, and adopted general practice, being satisfied it produces more by that mode of culture than in hills, and no more labor to cultivate, with the exception of cutting up. I have made no actual test by way of experiment, yet I am satisfied that the yield is very considerable more. It ears better in drills. Each stalk of corn requires, in our latitude, about 3 square feet of ground, the same as the mangold wurtzel or the ruta baga; and the best possible product which could be obtained, would be by planting them singly at equal distances apart, about 20 inches. I have known an acre of corn cultivated this way, which was said to produce 130 bushels of shelled corn. Owing to the abundance of weeds, we have the nearest approximation to this, we can conveniently cultivate, in planting in drills three feet apart and a foot asunder in the drill. This will enable the corn, at the last dressing, just as the tassel appears, to cover the whole ground, and prevent the further growth of weeds. If the ground could then produce weeds, it could produce more stalks of corn. I plow deep, turn sod, manure, or whatever nutritive matter there may be on the ground, under, and then so cultivate as not to have that matter disturbed during the year, making the ground as near a hot-bed as possible; then use the cultivator, hand or plow, to exterminate the weeds. If there are no weeds or grass, no dressing is required. The ground is best pulverized by the fermentation beneath, and this mode is composting the manure for after crops. Probably rotted manure dragged in at the surface of the ground, and then frequently stirred up, would produce as good or even a better crop of corn, but not so good for the after crops. Some years ago I had a field well manured with fresh long manure-straw thrown daily iuto the barnyard-I should say about 20 cords to the acre, cultivated in the way above stated, which produced about 60 bushels of corn to the acre; a good crop of barley succeeded, and then a good crop of winter wheat, when it was seeded down and used for meadows. On the fifth year in meadow, the eighth from the manuring, there was a severe drouth, but that field yielded at least 2 tons of hay per acre, while the adjoining meadow of the same quality of land and seeded the same time, which had not been manured, yielded about a half ton per acre. The land was a clay loam, intermixed with shift gravel. I do not discredit your correspondent Mr. BREWER'S statement, in favor of shallow plowing for corn, as good corn can be raised without any plowing at all. The squaws of Squawkey Hill, Livingston Co., formerly raised corn by pulling up the old stalk and planting the seed in the hole produced thereby, and after the corn was up, digging the ground with hoes. I have grown good corn in the garden by spading up merely for the hills or drills, and then spading the whole ground by way of hoeing Mr. BREWER cultivates his ground after the corn is up. I think it is more practicable to do so before planting. The modus operandi of the growth of corn is but little known. A few observations have led me to believe but little of the nutriment of corn passes up through the roots. I have often observed that stalks of corn pulled by the crows, and held to the earth by a single fibrous root, laying flat upon the ground, would grow about as well as those standing; and two years ago, when dressing my corn the last time, I observed a stalk 2 feet in length, disengaged from the field by a hard lump of earth about the size of a pint bowl, and on inspecting it I found no appearance of the roots passing through the lump. I set the same carefully up between two stalks, so that it should stand up, and often after that inspected it, and found it doing well until the brace roots were so prominent I could not distinguish it from the others. Hence I conclude the corn is principally fed through the leaves, and the manuring, the moisture, and cultivation, should be such as to gradually send up a certain gas through the growing season. Perhaps this could be done by sowing manure from time to time through the season, without disturbing the earth, but certainly can be done much easier by turning manure deep under so as to produce a fermenting mass the summer through. In this way the ground will be mellow at harvest, even if not stirdressing; it is the weeds which require exterminating. red after planting. The corn needs neither hoeing nor I have left part of a field, where there were but few weeds, by way of experiment, without any cultivation after planting, and found no difference in the product. The land was a clover lay, turned under in May, plowed eight inches deep, dragged, marked, and planted with sod under. This was on a gravelly loam soilupland alluvial. I have plowed this spring on bottom alluvial from 12 to 17 inches deep for corn. Can tell the result better hereafter. L. Strachan Place, July 25, 1855. லவசி Sunshine and her Calf Essex, the property of B. & C. S. Haines, Elizabethtown, N. J. SUNSHINE--Red; calved April, 1852; sire, imported Duke of Exeter (10152)-Dam, Snowstorm, by imported Duke of Wellington (3644)-g. d. Old Snowstorm, by imported Alexander (4)-gr g. d., Fashion, by Otto (9463)-gr. gr. g. d., Kicker, by Moscow (9413-)gr. gr. gr. g. d., Princess, by Wellington (684)-gr. gr. gr. gr. g. d., Old Princess, by Wynyard (703). ESSEX-Red; calved December 10th, 1854; sire, imported Wolviston (10176)-Dam, Sunshine, as above. The season of the year reminds us that we may once more address the friends of this paper, now ere long to enter upon its Twenty-third volume. To the Twenty-second. for 1855, we confidently refer as an improvement on its predecessors, and an earnest of still farther effort in the future. We beg its readers to give it a thorough examination, either by the side of its own past issues, or those of any other similar work. With its circulation the present year, we have been very much encouraged. It has increased largely when most have fallen off. Its correspondents have never been more able. The commendation of its friends has never been more hearty. And thus we are lead to look forward to 1856, with renewed hopes and enlarged plans. THE CULTIVATOR, at its present price and value, ought to reach a circulation of from FORTY to FIFTY THOUSAND COPIES, and this we have no smali prospect and expectation of obtaining. EVERY FARMER should take it and read it. If we consider how vast their numbers are, how large a portion of them take no Agricultural paper at all, even this extended circulation will seem in comparison small. And if ever FIFTY CENTS was so invested by a Farmer as to produce the greatest good and the largest returns, it will have been paid for a subscription to THE CULTIVATOR. Will not our friends take hold of this matter earnestly? Every subscriber obtained should be induced to lend his assistance to the good work, and the lists, thus made up, would be unprecedented in the history of Agricultural papers. We depend upon their aid. The past has shown their estimate of our labors. To the future we look for repeated assurances of their confidence. With the heavy crops and "easy times" that are now promised the Agricultural classes, their exertions in behalf of the CULTIAVTOR must be successful. The Country Gentleman. This paper, the circulation of which has been constantly increasing since its first year, and especially during 1855, will enter with January upon its Seventh Volume. It is rapidly gaining ground, and as a weekly paper for the Farmer and the Farmer's Family has no equal. We know that many do not wish to take any other weekly than their home paper, which they feel it their duty to patronize, and to these we offer the CULTIVATOR. But to the readers of that paper, who have had opportunities of judging of the character and style of our publications, and who have been thereby led to take more enlarged views of the subject, we offer the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN with confidence, as containing a very considerably greater quantity and variety of matter on strictly rural subjects, and besides, as furnishing a complete Record of Passing Events, and a Miscellaneous Department calculated to interest, amuse and instruct every member of a family. In its Horticultural and Fireside Departments, it supplies all that is desired in a family paper by those who possess but a strip of land for garden operations, and its Farm pages will be found alone to contain more for the benefit of larger Agriculturists than the similar department in any of our cotemporaries. These being the facts, we look forward to a large increase in the support extended to our Weekly for 1856. We shall be glad to furnish sample copies, and to have the attention of all who are interested in any way in Rural pursuits drawn to the subject. THE CUT WORM.-A correspondent of the New England Farmer, whose cabbages, tomatoes, &c., the cut worm frequently destroyed, wrapped around the stem of each plant, before transplanting, a piece of paper, extending from a short distance above the root to the first leaf. It is done quick, and is a perfect rémedy. The paper lasting till the plant is large enough to take care of itself. |