Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-01-19

A WRITER in the agricultural Ca
sette makes two points as follows: First
DR. Sturtevant's conclusions that the
casein retains tolerably constant per-
centage In milk, that this percentage
does not appear 80 increase with any IN
crease of food, nor to be influenced by
the season of the year," does not agree
with my experience. When COWS are
scantily fed, not only does the yield Of
milk fall off, but it takes more milk to
produce q given weight of cur,l. Sec
ond, the accurate returns of cheese fac
tories show that while it takes about
eleven pounds of milk to make one
pound of cheese in may, In November it
takes nine pounds or less to produce the
same result. This latter result is owing
chiefly to the fact that the COWS are then
nearly all old milched, dairy farmers who
contribute to factories having most of
their COWS calving in the spring months.
THERE are three principal methods of
rapidly increasing the supply of plant
food in any soil: By feeding concen-
trated food upon the land, as oilcake,
cottonseed cake, etc.; by the application
of BARNARD manure, and the use of arti-
fetal fertilizers. Which of these three
methods is to be adopted in any given
case must be determined by the many
conditions and circumstances that sur
round it. It may be that the feeding of
sheep with decorticated cOttOnseed cake
upon poor pasture may be the quick
est and best method of enriching the
land. In other cases the purchase and
applications of barnyard manure may be
the most profitable. When it comes to
the artificial fertilizers, it should be
borne in mind that their true Office is to
supply quickly one or two ingredients
that may be deficient in the soil-when
these are known their use is recommend
ed.
In giving some directions as to the
the treatment of milk and cream for
churning, Mr.. T. D. Curtis, of Utica,
n. Y, says: Half the butter in the
country I don't know but larger
portion-is spoiled by letting the milk
stand too long before Swimming, and the
product is still further injured by letting
the cream stand still longer before
churning. Milk should be skinned
when it begins to thicken on the bottom
of the pan. If it stands longer there is
a loss of quality without any compensat-
ing gain in quantity. The cream should
be churned at once. The longer it
stands the greater will be the loss of
aroma from the decomposition and evap-
Grafton of the volatile fayoring oils.
Only the slightest acidity, if any, should
be permitted in the cream before it is
churned. Yet it is common thing for
people to let the milk Topper before it
is skinned, and to allow the cream to
stand until quite sour before churning.
Nothing but bad-favored and rapidly
decaying butter can be made of such
cream Yet L have seen cream standing
with mould on it, and serum filing the
cracks of the creamery. Is it any Won
der that there is so much poor butter in
the market.
A Missouri. correspondent of the
Ra1ral NeaV Yorker thus discusses the
method of raising corn in Miller county:
SIN raising corn here we follow two
plants. Ii we have sod or pasture land
or land that has been in wheat or oats
the past season, we pillow in the fall and
let it lie until spring, when the ground
is covered either with the hoe, a shovel
pillow, or a large rake, if horse is used.
In case the land has been in corn the
previous year, then it is plowed in the
spring and planted in the same way. In
cultivating, double shovels are used
almost altogether, unless riding or walk
ing cultivators are employed. In this
state very few, if any, diamond plows
are used, and, as a rule, the ground is
left level, very few believing in killing
up. The main idea is to keep the sur
face stirred up and the corn clean of
weeds. AS a rule, bottom lands are
the best for corn, as most of our soil is
rather light and gravelly on the ridges,
and, in case of a protracted drouth, the
ridge land seems to suffer first and most.
This fact was very plain this year, for,
while we had an unusually dry summer,
we had a reasonably fair crop of corn on
bottom land, while the ridge land was
burned up, and in many cases it did not
yield ten bushels to the acre. Corn is
one of the main crops here, and the gen.
eral opinion seems to DO that level Gull
ture is the best, both for the yield of
corn and also for the land"