BUTTER FROM SOUR-MILK.-EXPERIMENTS WITH MUCK. 51 decomposition of milk. When it is new and fresh, the butter or oleaginous part separates more perfectly from the whey or butter-milk, than it does when old and sour; and even it is possible for a chemical union to take place between the parts, when sour, that would be difficult to separate by the process of churning. out a tolerable share of practical observation, em- | bors, and churn their milk together, in order to bracing a pretty wide tract of country from a little preserve a good quality in their butter. This will north of Boston to a short distance within the at once be obvious in examining the nature and tropics; and after all I have seen, and some I have tried, I am perfectly satisfied that here a man can enjoy more of those great objects of rational pursuit in life, health and contentment, than at any other place I have known. Our country is sufficiently productive, and resources sufficiently numerous, to gratify all our rational wants with only that degree of labor which is essential to our mental and physical comfort, and too poor to excite those feelings of avarice that derange so often the mental, moral, and physical harmony of our organization. While we are removed on one side from that lassitude, ennui, and muscular relaxation, of a tropical climate, we are equally protected on the other from the severity of the northern winters, the cause of much severe pain, besides the mortality produced in colds, consumptions, rheumatisms, &c., equal, perhaps, to the bilious fevers of the malarious districts of our southern climate. But I have digressed-I intended only to give you my opinion of this, as a sheep-growing country. JOHN J. MCCAUGHAN. Palmetto Farm, Mississippi City, December 1st, 1843. BUTTER FROM SOUR MILK. Milk becomes sour, in consequence of the fermentation of the whey which it contains; and the cause of butter being rancid, is the fermentation of the whey that remains incorporated within it. If butter be made from new milk, and the whey be totally extracted therefrom, it will remain fresh for several months without salting; yet, if made from sour milk, howmuchsoever it may be salted, and carried into a tropical climate, it will become rancid in a few weeks, unless kept cool by ice or some other means. Butter made from new milk will more perfectly imbibe salt, in like manner as fresh, untainted meat; but when made from sour milk, it will not readily combine with salt, neither will putrid meat receive salt at all. B. EXPERIMENTS WITH MUCK. As you considered my lucubrations on marl of sufficient importance to publish in your December number, I now forward you an account of a little experiment with swamp mud, or what, I reckon, you call muck at the north. As many of the farmers in Orange county, and elsewhere, are in the habit of churning their milk I had a few acres of swamp on the corner of my sweet, and fresh drawn from the cow, as our corplantation, which, in particular seasons, I have no respondent thinks is the best method, we should doubt has been the cause of some sickness among be glad if they could inform us whether butter a part of my negroes who had their quarters there. thus made, keeps longer than that made from the I accordingly determined, two years ago this cream of the loppered or soured milk. Previous to few days, by digging a ditch through the centre month, on draining it. This I easily effected in a our late visit to Orange, we supposed that it did; four feet deep and five feet wide. As I had read but we were informed there, by many with whom much of the virtue of swamp-muck with you at we conversed, that such was not the fact, at least, the north, I thought I would try it on cotton in a so far as our northern climate was concerned. different field, though nearly of the same quality of soil as that on which I spread the marl. I put Whether the rule holds good for the tropical cli-on about the same quantity and in the same way mate, we did not inquire. We presume there are those in Orange county, who have shipped butter to the West Indies, and can give us full information on this point. New York, Jan. 4th, 1844. IN a late number of your paper, in the account of your visit to the Orange county dairies, you remark that the milk is suffered to stand upon the cellar-bottom until it becomes loppered, or sour, and that the people have an idea that it makes more butter in that state, than in any other, and of a better quality. This statement is believed to be incorrect, as far as the quality of the butter is concerned, and it is doubtful whether there would be more in quantity, if the whey or butter-milk were properly extracted. It is a well-known fact, that in many parts of Europe, as well as several instances in our own country, there are farmers who have not cows in sufficient numbers to churn every day themselves, but unite with their neigh as I did marl, but for some reason it did not produce as good an effect as the marl, though I ́anticipated a better one. Another little experiment I made with the muck was more successful. I had a barrel of lime left over from a small job done by my masons, and this I mixed with two wagonloads of muck, and laid it up in a heap for three months. This compost I applied in March to my garden, and it had a wonderful effect on the growth of the vegetables during the whole season-better I think even than the usual quantity of stable-manure I am in the habit of using. Now did the lime make the difference? (a) If it did, I shall almost regret it, as lime is too costly as I am situ ated to use as a manure for my land. C. Mc. D. Sumpter District, S. C., Dec. 12th, 1843. (a) The difference must undoubtedly be attributed to the lime, in consequence of its destroying the acidity of the muck, and hastening the decom position of the vegetable matter in it. That which was applied to the cotton-field without admixture with lime, will require more time to display its good effects. We presume these will be fully apparent another year, although if lime could have been added, it would unquestionably have increased its value. Will our correspondent note the difference between the crops on the muck and marled fields another year without adding any more to them this season, and give us the result? We presume ere this that C. McD. is in possession of the last number of our second Volume, where he will find a capital article, page 367, on the value of muck as manure. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. THE 19th century presents the singular anomaly, of an age, skilful to a degree beyond any that has preceded it, in all the arts that minister to the comforts and luxuries of man, with the single exception of that art, which is alone the base and support of all others--the art of an enlightened agriculture. All the elegancies of life too, and the refinements of intellectual culture, the useful and recondite sciences, literature, poetry, music, painting, and sculpture, have been patronised, illustrated, and studied, under every advantage, and have thus been pushed far toward their maximum of improvement; yet is the foundation of this varied and beautiful superstructure, the only portion of the edifice which is destitute of strength, order, symmetry, or design. And if we look back through the history of the ancients, reaching, according to the most approved chronology, much farther than 6,000 years, we find no record from which we can learn that any branch of the world's ancestry has been wiser, in this respect, than their descendants of the present day. We shall not attempt to account for this gross and most inexcusable neglect, beyond the effect of that principle, which may almost be taken as an axiom in human conduct, that man's exertions are withheld, just in the ratio of the Deity's munificence. Supreme Benevolence has wisely provided for the success of the humblest efforts of unenlightened reason, in its struggles to procure from the earth the elements of subsistence; and on the very threshold of this success, have all human efforts been arrested. Content with having achieved the bare means of existence, the human mind has been stayed in this vast field of inquiry; and has turned away from it, if not with loathing, at least with indifference, and with a keen and delighted relish to other and less important and less praiseworthy objects of ambition. Whence comes this lack of reason, this short-sightedness to our own best interests? We must acknowledge ourselves incompetent to give the answer, and we gladly assign the solution of this difficult problem to our modern philosophers, who are so worthily busying themselves with "the law of progress;" from whom alone must light come, if it come at all. Whatever the cause may be, certain it is, that the world has hitherto taken but the initiatory steps in the art of agriculture; and this broad land, like the western hemisphere in the days of Columbus, remains a terra incognita, an unexplored continent, inviting the most intelligent research, and ready to repay its explorers, with the highest rewards. It may be true, indeed, that portions of this goodly land have been heretofore discovered by the Northmen of preceding times; and even inhabited by a refined race of Aztelans possessing a high degree of culture; yet to the present race of man, no chart or history has been bequeathed, to point out its location or well-defined boundaries. Whatever discoveries may have been made in this great art in the early ages of the world, by the Egyptians, or other early civilized nations, who possibly, may have inherited from the antediluvians, a science and practice far beyond any thus far reached by successive generations-it is certain, that modern inquirers must re-discover it for themselves, if they wish now to have it in possession. We would not be ungrateful for the worthy and efficient service, rendered, since the commencement of the present century, by the devoted sons of genius, who have given a portion of their time to the elucidation of the principles of agriculture, and who have begun a systematic investigation of the laws of nature, that needs only to be followed up, rigidly and unremittingly, to result in all the benefits which may be fairly demanded at their hands. But, we ask, what has been the success in this all-important pursuit, that will compare with the improvements in the mechanic arts, as shown in the application of steam, machinery for the manufacture of the different fabrics from wool, cotton, silk, the metals; and the various other new and important aids rendered to the useful occupa tions of the present day? With the facilities afforded by the above inventions, one person can now do as much, as could have been accomplished by twenty, without them, only 40 years ago. Can any approximation to such improvement be shown in the cultivation of the soil? We speak not of the mechanical instruments of the farm, which have measurably, and perhaps to the extent which could reasonably have been expected, participated in the modern progress of improvement. Our meaning is much broader and deeper, and includes the whole science of agriculture, in all its varied phases and relations. We look to, and demand for agriculture, that enlarged and liberal measure of discovery, which will enable the hu man race to provide sustenance for its thousand millions of inhabitants, now covering the face of the earth, destined, probably, hereafter, to be indefinitely augmented; with an approximation to that certainty and success, that attends human labor in the other departments of life. We prepare our land and sow it to wheat, or plant it in corn; and after much doubt and uncertainty, reap from the first an average, in these United States, probably, not exceeding 14 bushels; and gather from the last, not more than 20 bushels per acre. Yet we have seen under favorable circumstances, that the former has yielded 80 bushels, and the latter over 180 bushels per acre. We claim, that abating AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. somewhat for the accidents of seasons, unusual droughts, humidity, or frosts; or perchance, the destruction following upon the eccentricities of the elements, as a hail-storm, or whirlwind, on an ungarnered crop, we might look for the highest results from every well-directed effort, with the same confidence that we now look to the attainment of any given speed from a steamboat, after providing it with a suitable model, engine, and fuel; or the weaving a definite number of yards by a powerloom, properly constructed, and moved by the requisite force. To accomplish thus much, we have but to place our soil, and seed, and culture, in the same precise conditions, that have once been so successful; and yet how seldom is this achieved, even on the same field, and under the same direction as may have been before employed. If we look beyond the discoveries hitherto applied, and bring to the science of agriculture such analogies as are appropriate to the subject, as shown from the progress of human invention in other departments of enterprise, we may reasonably expect developments in aid of this object, which would now be considered as perfectly Utopian. What brilliant results may yet crown the researches of the devotee of agricultural science, and what green and enduring wreaths of glory are destined to circle the brow of genius, who may hereafter successfully explore this hitherto almost untrodden And how the comforts of this world, and its means of subsistence will be multiplied, when all the aids to its cultivation are rendered, which mankind have a right to demand. waste. experiments following each other in well-arranged success. But with legislatures constituted as at the present day, we can not, probably, look to a single one of our 26 state governments, for the object desired; and as for Congress, nothing can be hoped from that quarter. From $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 is the amount of our annual peace appropriation for war; and this preparation for human butchery, is all legitimate and proper; but an appropriation of one twentieth of this amount, to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and carry comfort and conand infirm, and afford thrift and abundance to all, solation to the diseased and destitute, the aged would, in the opinion of our strict constructionists, rend our constitution to tatters. Verily the extremes of human wisdom and folly, like the continued extension of the arch of a circle, finally meet in the same point. We have then our deficiencies for the present and past, and our hopes for the future pointed out. Where are the remedies for the former, and the and reliable foundations for the latter? proper Hopeless then, as may be the realization of the First and mainly, it may be answered, in bringing the right minds to the just and full consideration of this subject; and secondly, and as a necessary desired aid from any present legislation, we have sequence to the former, the application of the to expect it, if at all, from individual bounty alone. requisite amount of funds, which shall secure Here indeed, is a glorious field for immortality, man who shall have the good sense and liberality, genius of the highest caste, under all the circum- for one sufficiently enlightened to grasp it, and the stances of advantage, essential to its fullest effect. Briefly, and in a form that all may comprehend, to found the first Agricultural College on the ena fame for all coming time, before whose brightwe say; we want an agricultural institution, found-larged and munificent plan proposed, will secure ed and arranged on the best principles which can come dim, or distinguishable only by its intensity be dictated by enlightened experience, soundness that of an Alexander or Napoleon would bejudgment, and a shrewd common sense; and so We must confess our hopes in the beneficial reguarded, as to be unassailable by the corruptions of darkness. of party, and beyond the reach of any hostile innovations of the fickle multitude; and such an in-sults of the present efforts in the cause of agriculstitution should be endowed with a permanent fund of one third, to half a million of dollars. In this institution, we would place a chemist and geologist; an anatomist and physiologist; a botanist; an enpractical agriculturist, who tomologist; and a should give embodiment and effect to the suggestions of science, and run each out to a clear, distinct and definite result. These professors should be such as the choicest spirits of the age could af ford; surrounded with all necessary assistants, books, and apparatus, and a well-conducted, and sufficiently-extended farm; and their services should be secured by a compensation perfectly adequate to their entire independence for life. Under these circumstances, we should have a series of ture-our inquiries and discussions-our treatises and periodicals-our agricultural premiums and shows-come up to this extent, and scarcely more: they are awakening the public mind to a sense of its deficiencies; they are discovering the vacuum which yet remains to be filled. They are the crepuscular light which heralds the coming morn, but they are not the glorious effulgence of the king of day. But his approach is indicated beyond the possibility of doubt; and ere long the world will be in the full enjoyment of his benignant rays. They are not the Light so long looked for, and so much desired, but they are "the witnesses of that light." We shall soon have, not only one, but a multi tude of agricultural colleges, and when they have had time fully to mature their fruits, a certain and overwhelming abundance will crown the efforts of every enlightened agriculturist. But we must have them, unassociated with other departments of human investigation and acquirement, where they would be exposed to a foster-mother's kindness. They must be planted, in all the vigor of manhood, on an immoveable basis, where agriculture, and nothing but agriculture, shall be the theme and sole object of pursuit, to both professor and student. And well might they content themselves with the study of this single science, that embraces within its comprehensive grasp, (however disdainfully it may heretofore have been considered, by flippant scholars and shallow philosophers,) almost the entire range of the natural sciences, embodying as they do, the most abstruse, as well as the most beautiful investigations of the human intellect. New York, Jan. 6, 1844. THE CRANBERRY. R. L. ALLEN. THIS delicious fruit is coming into such general use, and is becoming so important an article of export, and so much interest is now taken in its cultivation, that I propose giving a concise account of the same, and its general history. The common American cranberry (oxycoccus macrocarpus) is found growing in a wild state in swampy soils, in the eastern, middle, and western states. The first account we have of the cultivation of this fruit, is by the late Sir Joseph Banks, who in 1813, produced from a bed 18 feet square. 3 Winchester bushels; being at the rate of 460 bushels to the acre. Capt. Henry Hall of Barnstable, Mass., has cultivated this fruit for the last twenty years. His method is to spread on his swampy ground a quantity of sand-this is to kill the grass; but where sand is not at hand, gravel will answer the same purpose. He then digs holes four feet apart each way, and puts in the holes sods of cranberry-plants about one foot square. As this plant naturally grows in a very wet soil, it is generally supposed it will not thrive in a dry soil; but this idea is erroneous. Mr. Sullivan Bates of Billington, Mass., has cultivated the cranberry on a dry soil for several years with the utmost success--having produced 300 bushels to the acre on several acres, and his fruit double the usual size. His method is to plow the landspread on a quantity of swamp-muck, and after harrowing the soil thoroughly, set out the plants in drills twenty inches apart,-hoeing them the After this no cultivation is needed. By both the above methods the plants will cover the ground in three years. first season. From my own knowledge of the cranberry for the last thirty years, should I design commencing the cultivation of this fruit on an extensive scale, I would try it on both swampy and dry soils. I would drain the swampy soil, plow it as early as possible in the spring, and set out the plants on the plan of Mr. Bates. To show the rapidity with which cranberry. plants increase, I will add this statement from an English work on fruits An English gentleman had only a few plants, these he cut in small pieces or cuttings, and set them out in a green-house. In the spring he prepared some swampy ground by spading it 12 inches deep. In a bed 150 feet long, and 4 feet wide, he set out seventy-five cuttings in one drill through the length of the bed, putting the cuttings two feet apart in the drill, and yet in three years the plants completely cov ered the ground. In Massachusetts the cranberry-crop is once in a few years cut off by the late spring frosts. This may be prevented where a meadow is so situated as to be flowed. The water should not be over one or two inches deep on the cranberries, nor be left on later than the last of May in this climate. If kept on till it becomes warm, it will kill the vines. Perhaps the best management would be something as they flood rice-fields at the south, or water meadows in England-let the water on while the weather is coldest, and then take it off as it moderates. Sometimes, in the eastern states, the cranberries are destroyed by a frost in September; where water is convenient and plenty, the meadow could be flowed on cold nights at this season, as well as in the spring. Previous to shipping cranberries, they should be run over a platform slightly inclined. The rotten and bruised fruit will not run off, but stick going down the platform, and are scraped off and thrown away. The perfect fruit is then put into tight barrels, and when headed up filled with water, and in this manner they arrive in Europe, in perfect order, and have frequently sold in foreign ports at $20 per barrel. Rakes are now made for the express purpose of gathering cranberries, and although these rakes tear the vines somewhat, yet the crop is not diminished by raking; on the contrary, it has been increased. Some years ago, a gentleman in Massachusetts commenced raking his little patch of one fourth of an acre. The first year it produced 12 bushels, the next 18, the third 25, and so on till his last harvest, when the crop amounted to 65 bushels. This increase is easily accounted for ling up a few of the vines loosens the ground, and by the method of gathering with rakes-the pulalthough not intended, yet in fact the raking acts as a partial cultivation. To promote the cultivation of this fruit, the American Institute is making arrangements to supply horticulturists with plants early in the spring, in either large or small quantities; and I would recommend those wishing to purchase, in this vicinity, or New York, to get their supplies in this way. (a) Philadelphia, Jan., 1844. B. G. BOSWELL. (a) The editor or this paper will take pleasure in executing any orders which may be forwarded him for this purpose, as the American Institute will allow him the privilege of selections. Any other fruits required he will also procure of the best kinds, and at the lowest rates. DRAINING SWAMP-LANDS.-WORN-OUT LANDS.-SILK CULTURA. DRAINING SWAMP-LANDS. 55 their attention in Massachusetts to raising fruits, SILK CULTURE. A FARMER upward of 70 years of age, in this vicinity, having subscribed for an agricultural paper, and observing an article in it upon draining swamp-lands in England, immediately bethought him of what could be done with about six acres near his own dwelling. It was a perfect frog-pond, thinly covered with tamerack, spruce, and alders. He dug a ditch round the whole of it, with an outlet at one corner, and the winter following, when the swamp was frozen, went on and cut down all the wood and brush, carried off the wood, and heaped the limbs and brush for burning. The next summer being a dry one, he burned off nearly everything combustible. The next year, what was previously swamp became dry and compact enough to bear a heavy yoke of oxen; he then had an anchor made with three sharp flukes or prongs, which would catch under the roots, and with this he French treatise on silk handed me, a part of which SINCE I met you in New York, I have had a dragged out nearly every stump and root on the is translated. It recognises the use of the mul six acres. These were heaped up into piles, and berry-leaf for making paper of all kinds, and the when dry, burned. He now marked the wet fibrous bark for fabrics. While I have been day spots, and the winter following, sledded from a and night examining the subject, French ingenuity gravelly hill joining the swamp, sufficient dirt to has stepped in before me, and done up the thing; make those spots dry and hard. The next year but it has not given the whole manner of operahe harrowed the land and sowed with timothy, ting, which we need. Have you not some mngeclover, and red-top, and, instead of an unsightly nious mechanics to construct a machine, with the frog-pond, and rookery for blackbirds to harbor and best means of separating the bark from the wood, destroy his corn, he has a beautiful meadow yield- and the best mode also of converting the foliage ing three tons of hay to the acre. He has given into good paper? It will be done sooner or later it a light top-dressing of manure to warm and I am confident; but we want it in the spring, parsweeten it, and now wonders that generation after ticularly to use up the stalks to be headed down generation should have passed away without hav-in April or May. The first No. of the translation ing made this simple improvement. Worcester, Mass., Jan. 4, 1844. WORN-OUT LANDS. J. THOMAS. from Mr. Fraissinet, you will see in the Hampshire Gazette of this week, on the subjects of mulberry paper and bark-silk. No. 2 may appear next week, and is very important to silk-growers, showing that there is nearly 100 per cent. difference in the use of foliage for raising cocoons. That to 1 FIND Massachusetts is full of worn-out land- produce one cwt. of cocoons, 20 to 22 cwt. of folilarge farms, not a tittle of which are cultivated, age of grafted, or trees propagated by grafting as they ought to be. These frequently have large buds, cuttings, or layers, is necessary; while houses on them, many of which have cost more twelve to thirteen cwt. of leaves from seedlings will than the farms would sell for. The sons of their accomplish the same result. If such be the fact, owners, instead of staying at home and educating and that the trees from seed are more hardy and themselves for cultivating these lands in an im- durable than any other mode of propagation, why proved manner, in many instances emigrate south may it not be useful to renovate mulberry plantaand west in quest of a fortune, which one half the tions every few years? This idea is not altogeth time they do not obtain after years of hard strug-er new; an eminent and skilful botanist advanced gling and suffering, or they turn merchants and soon fail, or take to a starving profession already too full and overflowing; leaving their father, after draining every cent they can from him for a college education or an outfit, to carry on the farm as he best may in his old age. Thus situated, he can not afford to hire laborers to assist him, and he has no heart to make improvements himself; he therefore goes on in the old routine, makes what he can, and sends his yearly gains, if any there happen to be, to purchase new lands in the west. I find such a course as this, one of the greatest bars to improvement in my native state. Many of the farmers now are alarmed at the facilities which the western railroad offers for bringing western produce to Boston; but I think these fears are without cause, for they can turn a similar suggestion to me on the introduction of the Canton and Asiatic seeds. As respects myself, I have, and can raise, plenty of seeds of the best kinds from my plantations. It may be found, that as the trees acquire age, the ground will be filled with roots, and that many decay and die. Since my return from New York, a discovery has been made here by competent and experienced operators, and by sure tests, that the Pongee silk, so called, is a vegetable production, (as I had supposed, from the fibrous bark,) and that it never passed through the silk-worm. The test is satisfactory to my mind. To encourage the silk culture, a bounty is needed, and I hope our good legislature will encourage new beginners. We had a bounty which has expired by its own limitation. I wish for something |