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land. To gain this doubtful reputation the milk is set away in the usual manner to raise cream. After the milk has stood for eight or ten hours, the cream is taken off and kept by itself; in as many more hours the milk is again skimmed, and the result placed by itself; sometimes a third skimming is practiced. The first cream will produce butter far superior to the best butter made in the usual manner; it forms the best English butter, and will sell for three times as much as if made from the third lot. The last lot forms an article which is only butter in name. The second lot will produce an article equal to that made in the usual way.

Cream which rises quickly, whether by natural or artificial means, will make much better butter than that which rises slowly. Cream raised at a temperature of 77° makes more butter, of a better quality, than at a lower temperature.

Cream which is sour before it is churned, will make better butter than sweet cream; the cream must become acid before the butter will separate. Butter which "comes" quickly is not so good as that which occupies more time. Mr. Ayton, a celebrated English dairyman, says good butter cannot be made from cream with less than one hour and a half's churning. The churning, if continued after the butter has formed, makes the butter soft and light colored, but is said to increase the weight. The cream should never be warmer than 55°, nor colder than 50°, when put in the churn.

ter should be churned. Ayton gives 1 hours, with the cream at 50°; Allen and Barclay 34 to 4 hours, cream at 50° to 55°; Ballantyne 1 to 13 hours, cream at 53°. No doubt exists but that cream at a temperature of from 50° to 55° will make the most butter of the best quality. Let us now examine into the exact chemical composition of butter.

If fresh butter be heated to 180°, and then washed in warm water, a colorless fluid oil is obtained, which, on cooling, becomes a solid white substance, which when submitted to great pressure is separated into two portions, viz: the solid portion, or margarine, and a fluid called oleine, or butter oil. Butter made in May contains of margarine 68 per cent., butter-oil 30, butric acid 2 per cent. Summer butter contains more butter oil than winter; the former contains of margarine 40, the latter 65°; the former of butter-oil 60, the latter 35. The margarine melts at 118°; butter heated to or above this point, looses its good qualties as butter. — Geo. P. Rogers in Germantown Telegraph.

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The Midge" and the "Weevil." The insects above named are quite distinct in their species, form and habits, though frequently confounded with each other, by persons who ought to know better. The "midge" is a popular but incorrect name for the wheat-fly, Cecidomya Tritici, which is a small fly resembling the mosquito in form, which appears in wheat fields in the beginning of June, and the females

The following experiment, with its result, may deposit their eggs in the blossoms of the wheat. be interesting to dairymen :

Five equal quantities of cream from the same lots were taken. No. 1 was heated to 50°, and was raised by churning to 60°, churned 4 hours, and gave one pound fifteen and a half ounces for a gallon of cream. No. 2, was heated to 55°, raised by churning to 65°, churned 3 hours, gave one pound fifteen and one-sixth ounces per gallon. No: 3, heated to 58°, raised by churning to 67, churned in 3 hours, gave one pound fourteen ounces per gallon. No. 4, heated to 60°, raised by churning to 68°, churned in 3 hours, gave one pound twelve and twothird ounces per gallon. No. 5, heated to 66°, raised by churning to 75°, churned in 24 hours, and gave one pound ten and a half ounces per gallon.

The butter of Nos. 1 and 2 was rich, firm and well-tasted; No. 3 was good, but softer; No. 4 was soft and spongy; No. 5 was very poor indeed. Each of these lots contained 15 gallons of cream, weighing 8 pounds per gallon.

Authorities disagree as to the time which but

The eggs hatch in about eight days, and the well known little, yellow maggots make their appear

ance.

The weevil is a little beetle which belongs to the same family as the curculio which infests the plum tree. It is called Curculio granarius, and in its perfect state is a small beetle of a brownish red color, about one-eighth of an inch long. This insect, both in the larva and perfect state, is very destructive to stored wheat, devouring the flour and leaving nothing but the skin or bran. Its powers of multiplication are very great, a single pair being capable of producing six thousand descendants in a single year. The female weevil deposits her eggs on the wheat after it is housed, and when the young grubs are hatched, they immediately burrow into the grain, and as fast as one grain is consumed they go into another, and so on until the time comes when they are to become perfect beetles. They then come out of the wheat in the form of beetles and lay their eggs for another brood. These insects may be effectually destroyed by kiln-drying the wheat.- Western Rural.

Agricultural Reconstruction.

For the moment, material is vastly more important than political reconstruction to the late slave-holding States, and their system of agriculture should be modified to meet the abrupt change in their system of labor. The first change which must occur, and which will eventually prove equally beneficial to all parties concerned, will be the sub-division of landed estates, leading to better cultivation, to an extent to render the fractions each more profitable than the original estate. For the slovenly, careless management of many of the larger Southern plantations, must de substituted the careful thrift of the North, and from the North must be introduced machinery; next, several staple crops, which, though not grown now in the South, can be cultivated to better advantage there than where now located. Among them we will cite four great agricultural interests which are annually looming up into greater importance: dairy products, wool, hops and fruit. While intending to treat each of these subjects in successive numbers, we will, for the present, confine ourselves to the first-the dairy and its products. This interest has assumed vast proportions in New York, Ohio, and other Northern States within the last ten or fifteen years. Oneida and Herkimer counties, for instance, annually convert the milk of 46,000 cows into cheese, and that cheese of a quality to supersede the average English cheese in the English market. The American Dairyman's Association, a large and influential body, sent a first-class man, Mr. Willard, to Europe, to obtain information upon the dairy management of the various countries there, and they issue annually a valuable report of some 130 pages, devoted to their own peculiar interest. The following extract from this report will give some idea of the magnitude of the dairy interest in the State of Ohio: According to census reports, there were in Ohio, in 1859, 696,309 milch cows, and in 1860 the amount of butter manufactured in the State, according to assessors' returns, was 33,078,750 lbs., and of cheese, 20,788,074 lbs. ; but in 1865 the number of milch cows had fallen off to 690,337, and of butter products to 32,554,835 lbs., and of cheese 16,940,213 lbs. Allowing an average of six acres of land for each cow, we have 4,142,022 acres devoted to keeping cows. Calling each cow worth $50, and each acre of land $50, and supposing that for each 15 cows there must be a team and farm implements, &c., of the value of $500, we have:

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the amount of capital invested in the dairy husbandry of Ohio, the interest of which, at six per cent., is $1,587,131 per annum.

The value of the butter made in Ohio in 1865, at fifteen cents a pound, was $2,541,047, and allowing one-third of the milk produced in the State to have been consumed in its unmanufactured state, we have a total value of $18,461,245 for the dairy product of Ohio in 1865.

Now, what is most striking to a Marylander, a Virginian, a Carolinian, or indeed to any rea der acquainted with what is called the Piedmont country, from the Pennsylvania line to Georgia, in drawing a comparison between the facts, as stated in the above report and as they exist in the South? At the North the superiority of the cows, the high price of the grazing land and the shortness of the season; at the South, inferiority of cows, cheapness of land, and length of season. He knows full well there are vast bodies of land much greater than that devoted to the dairy in Ohio, and in some respects under similar treatment, better grass land to be had on an average of five dollars an acre. He knows that where he has to feed cattle in winter one month, they have to be fed any where north of Mason and Dixon's line ten weeks.

Can the Southern country to which we allude breed good cows and produce fine beef? Steenberger, living in the valley of Virginia, near New Market, held for years a monopoly of the beef markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. George Patterson, on the hills near Sykesville, in Maryland, has had for years a herd of Devons of his own breeding unequalled even in England. As for butter, who has ever tasted in New York anything superior to the Waverley and Hampton butter, or that made in Baltimore and Howard counties, by Howard and Ramsey McHenry? And as for milk, there is not a private dairy on the continent yielding as many gallons per annum as that of Ross Winans in Baltimore.

For an estimate of the cost of cheese-making we recur to the Report of the Dairymen's Association, and give the remarks of Mr. Storms, of Montgomery County, New York: "I suppose the average number of acres in dairy farms is about one hundred and twenty, and these should carry, one year with another, fifteen cows, a span of horses, and other necessary stock. From these cows there should be made 11,500 pounds of cheese, and butter sufficient for the family, if

made at a factory. At eleven certs a pound this amounts to $1725. Add $100 for sale of pork, and we have $1835 as receipts. For expense accounts, we have interest on land at $80 per acre, and $2,000 in stock and machinery $840; a man at $30 a month, eight months; a woman at $13 a month, sometimes, and an extra hand in haying and harvest, one month, $52; this amounts to $238, leaving $587."

It will be observed here that the land is estimated at $80. The Southern dairymen should then have the advantage of his Northern competitor by the difference of between $5 and $80 | in the cost of land, and a grazing season of at least three months longer. We are satisfied that with the Northern system of combination-that is, cheese factories judiciously located throughout the mountainous regions of the Southern States for the manufacture of the milk of whole neighborhoods into cheese, the country would add to its resources another element of almost incalculable wealth.

The object of the writer is not only to open the eyes of his suffering countrymen to a great source of agricultural wealth bitherto neglected, but to show the dairymen at the North who contemplate emigration to other lands, the advantages offered them throughout the whole of the mountain region of the Southern States, and to assure them that the Southern people have one quality left, at least, which has survived the ruin of civil war, and that is hospitality. Any man, be he from Europe, from the Eastern States, or where he may, will be kindly received, and treated according to his deserts.-Turf, Field and Farm.

The Colorado Potato Bug.

As I predicted, this new potato bug is now destroying all our crops this year. I planted where no potatoes had been raised in the field; part of them on last year's corn land, and part on hazel, broke last year. No hiding from the destroying appetite of this insect. All our crop, everywhere, is this year being destroyed by them. Picking by hand is resorted to, and by this process, if those who try it are fortunate enough to get half a crop, will cost them $2 per bushel. The inventive genius of the universal Yankee is called out, and Pitchforth & Benson have patented a machine to kill the bugs by horse power. It is constructed with a reel similar to a reaper. This reel runs parallel with the potato row, and knocks the bugs off into a box, the bottom of which is a moving canvass, which passes between two rollers and mashes the bugs with great slaughter.

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Notwithstanding all machinery, all patent nostrums, and all kerosene oils, no remedy will save our potato crop. I, last winter, advised the farmers of Michigan and Indiana to plant largely of potatoes, for this whole Mississippi Valley, from St. Paul to Cairo, will have to buy their potatoes or go without. No doubt, some small districts of country in this great northwest, will raise a few, but we must buy our potatoes or go without. We are planting largely of sweet potatoes, but, owing to the lateness of getting them out, we must have a continued wet summer, and dry, warm September, to perfect the crop. We shall resort to many other garden vegetables, but my own taste will prefer the apple and other fruits, to take the place of the potato. Put up largely of canned fruit, including the grape. No better fruit comes on to my table than canned grapes.

Will not this devouring bug eat other vegetation than the potato? Yes, they are as fond of the egg-plant as of the potato. Their next choice is the tomato fruit and vine. Many tomato vines were destroyed last year by them. They ate my cucumber, melon and squash vines some. Predictors say this bug will have its day, and soon pass off. Give me a reason, "show me a sign," and I will believe. I never believe without being able to give a reason for my belief. Will our friends in Kansas, Nebraska, and Western Iowa, please tell us whether they are on the decrease, where they have been five or six years?Cor. Northern Furmer.

"How DOTH THE LITTLE."-Within the almost boundless sphere of natural history, perhaps there is no one subject more interesting and instructive than that within such a small body as that of the bee there should be contained apparatus for converting the "virtuous sweets" which it collects into one kind of nourishment for itself, another for the common brood, another for the royal, glue for its carpentry, wax for its cells, poison for its enemies, honey for its master; with a proboscis as long as the body itself, microscopic in its several parts, telescopic in its mode of action; with a sting so infinitely sharp that, were it magnified by the same glass which makes a needle's point seem a quarter of an inch, it would yet itself be invisible; and this, too, a hollow tube; that these varied operations and contrivances should be enclosed within half an inch in length and two grains of matter, while in the same small room the large heart of at least thirty distinct insects is contained, is surely amazing in an extraordinary degree.-American Bee Journal.

The American Farmer.

Baltimore, October 1, 1867.

ADVERTISEMENTS.-We call attention to our advertisements generally, and take pleasure in the fact that, so far as we are able to judge, they are without exception those of reliable and respectable business men. In the departments of fertil

TERMS OF THE AMERICAN FARMER. izers and of fruit trees, there is ample room to

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THE STAR DRILL.-We are sorry to learn that our report of the result of trial of this drill at the college has discouraged some of our friends from using it. We meant simply to say that the condition of the ground at the time allowed no trial at all of the implement, but it stands nevertheless on its merits, as testified in the certificates of its use last year.

A correspondent of the Maine Farmer says: "Many a housewife may be glad to know, when she has a piece of fresh meat she wishes to keep a few days, that it can be successfully done by placing it in a dish and covering it with buttermilk. I have practised the plan for years." What will keep the buttermilk?—AM. Far.

choose from, and every branch of businees in which farmers are interested is represented by one or more respectable dealers. We can but express our surprise that so few commission men seem to understand their interests in this respect. Our friends Hewes and Warner, of whom we took occasion to speak some months ago, find it profitable to renew and enlarge their advertisement. They are not content with building up a little business among their personal friends, but by judicious advertising are gathering custom from far off States. They are eminently worthy of confidence.

DRAINING. A friend in North Carolina gives an animated account of the evils resulting from excessive rains, and asks for information on the subject of draining, and especially as to making drain tile. We will do the best we can to accommodate bim next month, but in the mean time, let us say, that where there is difficulty in getting tile, they need not be thought essential. Green poles, of almost any kind, laid two parallel and one on top, so as to secure a free passage of the water, make a good substitute, thongh not so permanent. They may be laid in lengths of ten feet.

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FREDERICK COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.— This society purchased last week the lot of ground, containing fourteen acres, belonging to General Edward Shriver, and seven acres of Mr. Falconer, lying in the eastern suburbs of Frederick, Md., for which it paid seven thousand dollars.

AGRICULTURAL FAIR.-The Agricultural and Mechanical Association of Washington county, Md., has determined to hold its fair on the ground of Richard Wise, Esq., a short distance west of Hagerstown. The time fixed is the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th of October next.

Our Educators.

Reading and writing come not by nature. Where there is no profession of scholarship, criticism is disarmed. We are well contented, therefore, with the every day good-sense of farmers who dress their thoughts in such phrase as their opportunities and experience have given them command of. Indeed in this regard we claim for ourselves exemption from criticism; for while our teachings of Agriculture and Horticulture are fair game, we profess not Orthography, Etymology and Syntax, beyond that degree that fairly answers our purpose of plain speech to unpretending people.

most potent, for good or evil to our reputation without the State for sound learning.

Let us proceed now to examine this Teacher only in our Farmer style, going to the beginning and calling attention to a few passages among many, which we have marked in reading.

In the first editorial of first number, among other remarkable thoughts, the writer finds nothing that he can compare with "the grand uniform system of State policy, such as regulates the free schools of Maryland," for a "uniform system of home instruction," except perhaps it be the Bible; he assures the teacher that his duties are "interlarded with thorns," and closes as follows:

"We live in a progressive age; onward, up

of art and science. Man seems to be emulating omniscience. The world is rising in an effulgent blaze of mental glory. Amid this scene of splendid enchantment and misery, the "Maryland Educational Journal" takes its place to battle with error," &c.

Shall an Old Farmer then presume to be the critic of others? Perhaps not; but as the Father of a family of Young Farmers, he may ex-ward, EXCELSIOR! is the cry in all departments amine the credentials of their Teachers. In doing this he will not be exacting in the "Ologies," but he will claim that there be exhibited a decent respect for those "proprieties," which he learned of, but did not learn, in the "Old | Stone School House," where he got Murray's abridged by heart and heartily hated it. "English Grammar," said that authority, "is the art of speaking and writing the English Language with propriety." Whether this be a good definition or not, we do not care, but this is what we claim, that our Teachers be at least capable of speaking and writing our English Language Failing of this, we close the book, and end the examination; such a one cannot teach our Farmer boys.

Prominent among the teachers whom the recent movement in behalf of Public Instruction In Maryland has brought into life is

The Maryland Educational Journal. It comes to us in its early numbers with the Imprimatur of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Rev. L. VanBokkelen, LL.D., and other gentlemen very prominent in their connection with the Public School System of the State. They are its Editors. It is the "Organ of the State Board of Education," and "Devoted to Popular Instruction and Literature."

In its latest issue it is announced that for reasons "which we think will be apparent, we have been reluctantly compelled to omit the 'Editorial Committee' names which have appeared on this Journal," and "have entered into an arrangement with that whole-souled, energetic, experienced and popular educator," (most just praise,) "Rev. Dr. C. K. Nelson, of St. John's College."

When we have said that such a Journal was "prominent" among our means of instruction, might we not have added most prominent, and

This may be fine writing, but the style is not adapted to every day life, and Farmer boys should be warned against it.

"The Educational Interests of the Age" is the high sounding topic of an article of three pages, beginning on page 6. The first idea we get here is, that the writer must think the mental discipline of his reader the chief "Educational Interest." He brings our powers of attention to trial at once. He involves his thoughts in unusual words, and his words in hard sentences, and writes altogether, in language, not easily "understanded of the people." All this tends to fix the attention of the (persevering) reader, and when he gets at the thought, there is still something to think about. We must make one or two specimens illustrate, as far as we can, the character of this article both as to matter and

manner.

"The system pursued in many of these (educational) institutions is more mechanical than intellectual. They cultivate the memory mechanically in the use of mere words, while the substance of the intellect is almost altogether disregarded. Committing words to memory mechanically is not an intellectual exercise. The memory may be crammed full of words and crippled by the cramming, while the intellect may be untouched, or if affected at all, it may be in sharing the cripple the memory has received by the mechanical process to which it has been subjected."

We have thought that memory is just as truly intellect as judgment or imagination, and that it

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