Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1900 — FARMS AND FARMERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARMS AND FARMERS

Making: Cheese. I have made an occasional cheese throughout the year and enough In the spring and summer to go a great way toward paying the grocery bill, says Louise A. Nash in the American Agriculturist Three milkings may be used In winter and two In summer. Care must be taken to cool the fresh milk before adding it to the other. Place your double boiler on the back of the stove, the inner one resting on something, and put in the milk. Pour warm •water into the outer boiler and bring the milk to 82 degrees. For from five to seven gallons of milk add about half a teaspoonful of the coloring fluid and half that Quantity of rennet previously mixed with a little water. Stir thoroughly and leave it to coagulate at the same temperature. When the curd will brea k off clean from the bottom of your finger, it is time to cut. A long carving knife or anything that will reach down to the bottom of the pan will do. Cut each way, leaving about afi inch between the cuts. The heat may now be raised gradually about two degrees every five minutes to 98. Begin in a few minutes by shaking the boiler to help the flying off of the whey, but gently, so that the fat does not escape. Presently stir and repeat the stirring every two or three the desired temperature ought to be reached. The curd will soon be half its size, and when pressed’ between the finger and thumb the clots don’t stick together. It is now time to take off half of the whey. Leave it covered an inch

or two that it may develop more lactic acid and the curd mat together, after which remove it from the remaining whey. 1 At this point I take up the inner boiler and place the curd in the two colanders, leaving It there to drip into the large boilers. This, the cheddaring process, goes on at 90 degrees. Occasionally change the bottom of the curd to the top. When cheddared, lit, Aad of a tough, spongy mass, the curd is the texture of cooked lean meat, elastic and fibrous. About the same quantity of salt is required for cheese as for butter. When the heat is lowered to 78 degrees, It is ready for the press. At a higher point the fat is liable to escape, and if too cold the curd particles do not adhere. Bandages are, easy to male of cheesecloth. Sew a strip the circumference and height of your tin to a round piece the required size. Another round piece will be needed to lay on the top of the cheese before folding the wall piece down on it. Institute Lectures. The holding of farmers’ institutes has been of great advantage in many localities. Even when the chief speaker or essayist has not been of the best, and sometimes just because he was not the best, he has helped to bring out opinions from local farmers whose ideas, no matter how poorly clothed in language, were adapted to the locality and more valuable there than the opinions of one w’ho had obtained experience upon different soil, in different climates and under different conunions. There is also in many places a disposition on the part of the hearers to ask questions. They are not content to be told the best way to do their work, but they want to knoiv why it is better than some other way, that they may judge if it will be a better way under their conditions, or is only better when conditions are better. Every step taken in this way is a step In advance. Farming is not a railroad where one must follow a certain line of track, but often a route through an unknown territory where one must explore to find the best path for himself. Commlmion Dealers. Fanners would often receive more satisfactory returns from goods shipped to the commission merchants if they would take a little more pains to put them up in a neat and attractive manner and send them so that they would arrive in good order and condition; but the men who do this are apt soon to find regular customers to take their goods and do not need to consign them. The inexperienced man. who does not know how to assort, grade and pack his produce, and the careless one, who will not try to have them look their best, or the dishonest one, whose goods are not of the same quality when they are out ©f sight as they are on the surface, does not keep a steady customer long and is obliged to accept what prices the commission dealer may obtain or be willing to remit. And if he doubts the quality of the goods he does not offer them Id bi* best customers, or try to get a /

high price for them. He Is ready to dispose of them at the first offer. Delays in transportation are also responsible for low prices many times, because produce of a perishable nature loses quality rapidly and must be sold quickly after decay begins, even if sold at a loss. Selecting; Seed Wheat. The experiment stations and farmers who have trained themselves to close observation of cause and effect have given evident? many times that the amount and quality of the wheat crop, and of other grain crops, depends largely upon the quality of the seed used. The larger and plumper seed gives the most vigorous growing plant It stools out more, usually has a stiffer straw, if it is not forced by the use of too rank a fertilizer, by which we mean one too rich in nitrogen, and therefore the better the crop. But there are other things desirable in a good grain crop. One is to secure large heads well filled, and it may also be desirable to have the grain grow rapidly and mature early, either to obtain the best result in a short season, or to escape insect attacks. The best way to secure this w’ould be to select the earliest maturing large heads to be found, and reserve them for seed. The farmer who sows large think this too much trouble to get all the seed he needs, but he should remember that If there is a profit In doing so for one acre, there would be a greater profit in doing so on a hundred. A modification of this plan is to select in this way enough to sow a small plot very thin, so that each plant will have a chance to do its best, and then reserve a piece of the best land to sow that on it to produce seed wheat. A continuation of this process for a few years would result in the production of an extra early, hardy and prolific wheat. Even easier but less effectual would be the selection of heaviest grain for seed when winnowing it. We think the firstnamed plan the best, because the type of the entire crop might be fixed in that way, so that a permanent improvement would be made.—American Cultivator. Ready Money. One of the advantages of the dairy and the poultry business is the ease and frequency with which they can be converted into cash every week or every month. There is no long period of being entirely out of money, and having to run along on credit for months at a time as often farmers do who depend upon the sale once a year of some leading staple crop, perhaps to find that the value of it must go to pay the accumulated accounts, and the system of credit begin again. Not only Is the cash buyer favored by low r er prices, but he is a more careful buyer. It seems easier to many to purchase what they may want, when it can be had on credit, than when the money must be counted out, and thus many things are Bought that could well be dispensed with. The farmer who plans by poultry and dairy, garden and small fruits to have some income every week is usually the most prosperous. House Plants. Many people have poor success with house plants because their houses are too good. They are kept at a uniform heat by hot air furnaces, which furnish a dry heat, and the rooms are so carefully closed against cold in the winter that not a breath of fresh air gets in. Plants need pure air, and they need moisture for their leaves as well as for their roots. The woman who has a few plants in the kitchen where they get the steam from the laundry work, and where the outer door is swinging open often, or windows are opened to let out the heat or odors, will have thrifty plants though she devotes but little time to them, while they may fail to grow well in the bay window of a modern comfortable sitting-room. Harrowing Wheat. Often a rain may come after wheat has been sown, and on clay land so beat down the soil that it will crust over or bake when the sun comes out so that many of the plants cannot get through. The use of a light harrow with fine sharp teeth will remedy this very quickly without Injury to the plants that are up, or those that are germinating. Nor does it Injure wheat to use such a harrow on It in the spring when the clover seed is sown, unless the roots have been thrown out by the frost, in which case a roller is needed to press the plant roots back into the earth. ‘*4* I'ardv Oraxiren. The Department of Agriculture is trying to produce an orange which will endure frost, by crossing our native orange with the hardy, trifoliate orange of Japan. They do not expect success at the first trial, and may get a bitter or heavily seeded fruit, but from even such fruit it may be possible to produce better and still retain the hardiness. It is well worth the trial. Too Much Salt. Too much salt la used by many butter makers. The whole tendency among consumers is toward fresher bptter. In England and on the continent butter made in those countries is served particularly fresh and white. In the best restaurants and hotels in the larger cities of this country the butter contains very little salt. owx'g Ttm-thy. There is no better way of getting a good stand of timothy than to put the ground In good onlei tnd sow the seed about the ln-t > ptember or Ur st of <>u» < i u» six acre*

HOME-MADE CHEESE PRESS.