Soil Culture. J. H. Walden

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ should be from sixty to sixty-five degrees—perhaps sixty-two is best. This had better always be determined by a thermometer immersed in it.

      Many churns have been invented and patented; and every new one is, of course, the best. A cylinder is usually preferred as the best form for a churn, and the churning is performed by turning a crank. An oblong square box is far better than a cylinder. In churning in a cylinder, it may often occur that the cream moves round in a body with the dasher, and so is but slightly agitated. But change that cylinder into an oblong square, and the cream is so dashed against the corners of the box that a most rapid agitation is the result, and the churning is finished in a short space of time.

      Any person of a little mechanical genius can construct a churn, equal to any in use, and at a trifling expense. It is well to make a churn double, leaving an inch between the two, into which cold or warm water can be poured, to regulate the temperature of the cream. This would be a great saving of time and patience in churning. Those who use the old-fashioned churns with dashes can most conveniently warm or cool their cream, by placing the churn containing it in a tub of cold or boiling water, as the case may require, until it comes to the temperature of sixty or seventy degrees.

      To make butter of extra quality for the fair, or for a luxury on your own table, set only one third of the milk, and that the last drawn from the cow. The Scotch, so celebrated for making butter of more marrowy richness than any other, first let the calves draw half or two thirds of the milk, and then take the remainder. This makes the finest butter in the world.

      Preserving Butter depends upon the treatment immediately after churning. Success depends upon getting the buttermilk all out, and putting in all the salt you put in at all, immediately—say within ten minutes after churning. Some accomplish this by washing, and others by working it, being much opposed to putting in a drop of water. Those who use water in their butter, and those who do not, are equally confident of the superiority of their own method. But all good butter-makers agree, that the less you work butter, and still remove all the milk, the better it will be; and the more you are obliged to work it, the more gluey, and therefore the poorer the quality. Very good butter is made by immediately working all the milk out and salting thoroughly—working the salt into every part, without the use of water.

       Working over butter, the next day after churning, should be nothing more than nicely forming it into rolls, without any further working or any more salt. An error, that spoils more butter than any other, is that of doing very little with butter when it first comes out of the churn, because it must be gone through with the next day. Many do not know why their butter has different colors in the same mass—some white, and some quite yellow, and all shades between. The reason always is, putting in the salt immediately on churning, but neglecting to incorporate that salt into every part of the mass equally: thus, where there is most salt there will be one color, and where less, another. Another evil is, when the salt is thus put in carelessly, while much buttermilk remains, that salt dissolves; and when the butter is worked over the next day, the salt is mostly worked out, with the milk or water left in, the previous day. The addition of more salt then will not save it. It has received an injury, by retaining the milk or water for twenty-four hours, from which no future treatment will enable it to recover. We recommend washing as preferable; it has the following advantages: it cools butter quickly in warm weather, bringing it at once into a situation to be properly worked and salted. The buttermilk is also removed more speedily than in any other way; this is a great object. It removes the milk with less working, and consequently with less injury, than the other method. These three advantages, cooling in hot weather, expelling the milk in the shortest time, and working the butter the least, lead us to prefer using water, by one hundred per cent. We have for years used butter that has been made in this way, and never tasted better. Butter made in this way in summer will keep well till next summer, to our certain knowledge. Immediately after churning, pour off all the milk and put in half a pailful of water, more or less according to quantity; agitate the whole with the dasher, and pour off the water. Repeat this once or twice until the water runs off clear, without any coloring from the milk, and nearly all the buttermilk is out; this can all be done in five minutes after churning. Press out the very little water that will remain, and put in all the salt the butter will require, and work it thoroughly into every part. All this need occupy no more than ten minutes, and the butter is set away for putting up in rolls, or packing down in jars the next day. Such butter would keep tied up in a bag, and hung in a good airy place. Best to put it down in a jar, packed close; put a cloth over top, and cover with half an inch of fine salt. The only difficulty in keeping butter grows out of failure to get out all the milk, and thoroughly salt every particle, within fifteen minutes after churning. Speedy removal of buttermilk and water, and speedy salting, will make any butter keep.

      This subject is so important, as good butter is such a luxury on every table, that we recapitulate the essentials of good butter making:—

      1. Keep everything sweet and clean, and well dried in the sun.

      2. Milk the cows, as nearly as possible, at the same hour, and draw the milk very quickly and very clean.

      3. Set the milk, in pans three inches deep, in good air, removed from anything that might give it an unpleasant flavor, and where it will be at a temperature of fifty to sixty degrees.

      4. Churn the cream at a temperature of sixty-two degrees.

      5. Get out the buttermilk, and salt thoroughly within fifteen minutes after churning, either with water or without, as you prefer. Mix the salt thoroughly in every particle. Put up in balls, or pack closely in jars the next day.

      6. Remember to work the butter as little as possible in removing the milk; the more it is worked, the more will it be like salve or oil, and the poorer the quality: hence, it is better to wash it with cold water, because you can wash out the buttermilk with much less working of the butter.

      7. To make the best possible quality of butter, use only one third of the milk of the cows at each milking, and that the last drawn.

      8. In the winter, when cream does not get sufficiently sour, put in a little lemon-juice or calves' rennet. If too white, put in a little of the juice of carrot to give it a yellow hue.

      BUTTERNUT

      This is a rich, pleasant nut, but contains rather too much oil for health. The oil, obtained by compression, is fine for clocks, &c.

      The root, like the branches, are wide-spreading, and hence injurious to the land about them. Two or three trees on some corner not desired for cultivation, or in the street, will be sufficient. A rough piece of ground, not suitable for cultivation, might be occupied by an orchard of butternut-trees, and be profitable for market and as a family luxury. The bark is often used as a coloring substance.

      CABBAGE

      The best catalogues of seeds enumerate over twenty varieties, beside the cauliflowers, borecoles, &c. A few are superior, and should, therefore, be cultivated to the exclusion of the others.

      Early York is best for early use. It is earlier than any other, and with proper treatment nearly every plant will form a small, compact, solid head, tender, and of delicious flavor. No garden is complete without it.

      Early Dutch, and Early Sugarloaf, come next in season to the Early York, producing much larger heads.

      Large York is a good variety, maturing later than the preceding, and before the late drumheads.

      Large Drumhead, Late Drumhead, or Large Flat Dutch, are the best for winter and spring use. There are many varieties under these names, so that cultivators often get disappointed in purchasing seeds. It is now difficult to describe cabbages intelligibly. Every worthless hybrid goes under some excellent name.

      A Dutch cabbage, with a СКАЧАТЬ