Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-09-22
AGRICULTURAL.
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
To SAVE RENNETs.

viii DhCh
be but little curd, and what there is,
take out carefully and throw away
Do not wash the inside of the rennets,
but salt well, and stretch on a crooked
stick, and hang up to dry in a moder-
ately cool place. Rennets a year old
are generally believed to have milder
cheese than those of less age. To pre-
pare for use. put one gallon of water,
about milk warm, add a little salt, soak
about ten days. rubbing it well a num-
Der of times while soaking to get out
the strength, then take out, salt, and
dry again for future use. Strain the
liquor into jar, put in little more
salt that will dissolve. Tie up in bag
about half an ounce each of cloves, Gin
namon and sage, also a lemon cut in
slices, and drop into the liquor. Keep
in cool place, and stir each time be-
fore dipping out. Put enough rennet
into the milk to have the curd ready
to cut up in thirty minutes after the
milk is set.
CHEAP SMOKE HOUSE.
A correspondent of an exchange gives
the following as his plan for building a
smoke house: mo farmer should be
without a good smoke house, and such a
one as will be fire-proof and tOlerably
secure from thieves. Fifty hams can
be smoked at one time In a smoke house
seven by eight feet square. Mine is
six by seven, and is large enough for
most farmers. 1 first dug all the ground
out below where the frost would reach,
and filled il mp to the surface with small
stones. On this laid my brick floor.
in lime mortar. The walls are brick,
eight inches thick and seven feet high,
with door on one side two feet wide.
The door should be made of wood, and
lined with sheet-irOn. For the top
put on jOists, two by four set up edge
wise, and eight and half from centre
to centre, covering with brick, and put
on heavy coat of mortar. L built a
small chimney on the top in the centre.
arching it over and covering it with a
single roof in the usual way. An arch
should be built on the outside, with q
small iron door to shut it up, similar to
stove door, with a hole from the arch
through the wall of the smoke house.
aud an iron CRATE over it. This arch Is
much more convenient and better to
put the fire in than 30 burfd the fire in
side the smoke house, and the chimney
causes draft through into the smoke
house. Good corn cObS or hickory
wood are the best materials for making
smoke for hams. The cost of such a
smoke house as L have described is
about thirty dollars, but will vary In
different localities
HOW To MAKE GOOD BUTTER.
Leo, of Raymond, N. H.. writes TO
the Rural New Yorker:
''It is a well known fact that a good
location and cleanliness are among the
most essential points in making good
butter. Every dairy should be SO
located that it may be cool and shady,
with n good draft of air circulating
through it. A large dairy and well filled
ought to be the motto of every farm
house. AS soon as the milk is brought
in it should he scalded, as we get more
cream and better by so doing. Butter
comes better and Is not 50 liable to be
soft and sticky. As soon as taken from
the churn it should be thoroughly
worked, left until next morning and
worked again. Next salt in the follow
ing way: Take two quarts of good salt,
one ounce of sugar. one ounce of salt
peire. Use one ounce of this compo-
sitiOn for one pound of butter. III
should be STAMPED and left to cool
before putting III jus. Butter prepared
in this way should not he used for two
or three weeks. You will find that your
butter will be very fine, as it will have
no brittle or sally look or taste. BY
following this course your butter will
keep the year through, in warm as well
rs cool weather"
AGES OF SHEEP HOW DETERMINED.
"The age of sheep may be known
by the front teeth. They are eight in
number and appear all of size. In
the second year the two middle ones
fall out, and their place is supplied
by two larger ones. In the third year
a small tooth on each side. In the
fourth year the large teeth are six in
number. In the fifth year the whole
front teeth are large. In the sixth year
the whole begin to get worn. In the
seventh year the whole fall out or are
broken. 1t is said that the teeth of
ewes begin to decay at five or six; those
of wethers at seven"
DESTROYING CANADA THIsTLEs.
A correspondent of Abe Western Ru-
| raj gives the following method which
he adopted: ''SOme years before l
came to Michigan, L purchased twenty
seven acres adjoining my old farm. /
made the purchase when the owner was
harvesting his wheat; there was twenty
acres of 1t IN with wheat, and some nine
loads Of it was so full of thistles that it
was pitched to the wagon and from the
wagon to the machine without binding.
The same fall L piled over the straw
and mixed in twelve bushels of Stacked
lime TO rot and kill the thistle seed.
The next season summer-fallowed and
cultivated and sowed To wheat. The
following season harvested fine crop,
and every thistle on the twenty acres
could have been bound in single
bundle"
SOAP MAKING.
In Virginia, says an exchange, there
is n mode of making soap, prac-
ticed by the country people, which they
call the ''cold process" that deserves
to be generally known; it is thus de-
scribed by farmers wife: 81 put my
barrel-a common fish barrel-in the
cellar where it is intended to stand, and
fill it nearl y full of strong ley. Then
add as much grease without melting it
as L think sufficient, stirring it once
every day or two. In few days / can
tell whether L have put in too much or
too little grease, and add grease or ley
as the case may require. In two or
three weeks it becomes excellent soap.
In this way we make better soap, get