The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1886-12-16
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
WINTER DATRYING.

cream. One reason is the effect of dry feed, it
being found that due proportion of succulent
food is necessary to make ehurning easy. Salt
ing the cows is sometimes neglected in Winter,
and this probably has an unflvorable influence
on the churning quality of the cream. There
is more hard fat or searine in Winter butter
than in Summer, which makes the fat globules
harder and less adhesive. Then the cold
weather, especially sudden chilling of the cow,
is said to cause a larger secretion Of albumen in
the milk, which makes it more viscous and
ropy This makes the separation of the fat
from the milk more difficult, aud consequently
makes harder chuTning. The temperature,
therefore, requires special attention, and should
be higher for churniug in Winter than in Sum-
mer. To make sure that the fat as well rs the
gaseous matter is of the right temperature, the
cream should be kept longer ut that tempera-
turc before trying 10 churn it. lie Is good
plan TO slowly raise the temperature of the
cream above that point and let il gradually
lower to it; this will insure the sOftening of
the fat globuleS.
SMALL CHEESE.
That Americans consume comparatively little
cheese is fact; also, that cheese is one of the
most wholesome aud cheapest kinds of food, in
deed often preferable 10 meat. Making small
cheese weighing four, five or ten pounds each,
which could be readily sold ut from 80 to 100
per cent above the market price for large sizes,
would doubtless be OF great benefit TO this in
dustry and materially increase the local de-
mand fve-pound cheese properly made of
whole milk would readily sell at from - cents
! 20 81. The buyer of a certain chee.e factory in
Madison County, y. V, offered the maker
/ three fOurths of a cent per pound above the
market price If he would reduce his cheese TO
uniform size of 30 pounds each As this Offe
I Al. 80. O.
| in itself, il was accepted. One of the most
4 prominent grocers in Geneva, n. V, Samuel
4 Warth, says he cannot get small cheese enough
/ TO fill the demand. In Holland probably the
most popular cheese made is the Edaul which
4 is round aud weighs two Kilograms or four and
/ fOur-tenths pounds. Small families do not care
+ 10 buy 40 or 50-pOund cheese ut a time, on
/ account of the difficulty in keeping it fresh
until used. Nor is it pleasant to buy a slice OF
/ the grocer, which is not very appetizing after
/ having been rolled up in paper and handled.
/ Making small cheese weighing four or five
! pounds each, we believe will not only increase
the local demand, but also return a larger profit
4 10 the maker.
To KEEP GRAPES IN QUANTITY.
Dry, cold air is an essential condition for the
preservation of grapes. What is termed cold
storage is practced by large fruit growers. In
| the Hudson Valley growers construct large
storage rooms with sawdust walls III or 10 inches
thick, inclosed by matched board outside and
| inside. Floors and ceilings have the same in
sulation at the sides. In these rooms uni
form temperature is maintained, with some as
! low as SO, with Others 40 degrees Husmau adj
! viscs, for long keeping, that varieties with
tough skin only be selected, and that the fruit
| be fully ripe when stored. Gather in dry
weather, cut the lunches carefully, being sure
! not to rub oil the bloom. Place in a cold room
l for several hours, that the heat may be drawn
4 off. The stems will then be less brittle and
more easily handled. Lay the punches evenly,
with stems downward, GIL the boxes and keep
in an even temperature, not higher than 40
degrees. New York growers prefer, many
OF them, for storing grapes boxes about two
feet long, one foot wide and six or seven inches
deep, placed one on top of the other.
KEEPING CARROTS
Carrots must be kept crisp and fresh to be at
their best. Put layer of loan or sand in the
bottom of a box or barrel and upon this a
| layer Of carrots; then more sand and more car
rots until all are packed. Treated in this way
they Will retain their freshness and crispRess
until Spring. We recommend this method
especially TO all who wish to have some nice
carrots handy for soups and stews during the
Winter; and for this purpose the short stnmpy
varieties are preferable. For feeding purposes
all sorts are good and may be stored in bulk in
large bins in dark cellar in root cellar or in
pits out of doors. Ifkept in a cellar, the tor
layer is taken of and fresh layer left on tor
and exposed. before any of them can wilt and
shrivel. Carrots arc excellent for horses. We
also like to chop up n few quarts for the poultry
once week during the Winter, when greer
food is scarce.
PARIS GREEN FOR CURCULIo.
The various reports which have been made
from the experiments of the present year, lead
TO the conclusion that arsenic in any form is OF
little value against the curculo. The insec
works inside the fruit, and the egg is laid be
I yOnd the reach of the poison or at best the
spraying affects only part of them. a report
made by q. w. TrOwbridge to the Ohio Horti
cultural Society on this subject, is fair sampl,
of many Others He stated that he had ex
perimented for two years. The first year la
tried Paris green the next London purple
in one instance with two applications, and il
the other with three, as soon as the blossoms
were of. No effect was produced on the eur
culio, but the poison was perfectly efTectual OF
the cOdling moth. President Dinner did no
think arsenic would affect the curculio. o. w
Aldrich had tried London purple, q heape,
teaspoonful to three gallons of water, ut a COS
of quarter of a cent tree.
= NOTES.
The best place for small-fruit garden i
near the house, where it is most convenient TO
: the good housewife and safest from thieves.
| Keeping all sizes together is a fruitful
source OF disease III swine. Still the custom i
followed year by year, and careless men never
cease to wonder why their hogs are sick.
Professor Budd says that no Seeding apple
from the stock of western Europe, such rs ar,
found in the older States, will live in the north
west. Only apples from eastern Europe, nota
, bly, from Russia, will do that.
Cows need more heat-produciug food il
, Winter than in Summer, even 10 live. The fat
{ forming and heat-producng elements SHOULD
be made TO bear a certain relationship to eacl
other, according TO the season of the year.
, An Illinois farmer gives his hogs red peppc
4 tea on their showing symptoms of cholera, ant
2 claims that this has always proved an ehectua
/ cure, and that he has never lost porker s.
i treated, while his neighbors have suffered
/; seriously.
;, Drain the swamps Col. Thomas Coggs
: well, GilmantOn, n. H. reports ~ tons of goo'
, market hay cut from three and q half acres o
y reclaimed waste land at the two cuttings las
5 year and the present these being the first valu
. able crops the land has ever produced since
was in swampy, rocky forest
> "A fruit grower tells how he has apples roun
k and smooth and that he shook of the trees (no
Il pcked) over year ago. He puts fine dr.
!: sawdust an inch and half deep in the bottom
OF the barrel, and then layer of apples, the
/, covers them with sawdust, and SO on until tn
G barrel is full. He leaves them so until wanted
= "A New York farmer raised 100 bushels G
shelled corn TO the acre. IL was from land tina
b. had been two years in clover. Under eac
v hill was placed a handful of hen manure duste
e with lime. This is q fertilizer that wi
d bring good returns every time, but
mat ant IN. 81