JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 6

JOTTINGS.

The making of good butter, says "" Thistledown " is to such a large extent dependent on the treatment of the •cream .that its management from start *io finish cannot be too much discussed. -From the time the cream is separated from the milk it undergoes constant change. The solids in the milk or cream other than the fat are subject to rapid decomposition. In butter, owing to the smaller quantity of the foreign solid matter preheat, to its drier condition and to the salt, the decomposition is comparatively slow. These factf> go to phow that the sooner cream is made into butter the better will be the quality of the butter, for the lapid decomposition going on in (he cream is partially, if not wholly, arrested in the Gutter. On the other hand, the chemical changes in,the cream appear to have the effect of aiding in the separation of the caseous matter from the fats of the milk, and so facilitating the churning. It has been pretty well proven that cream which has been subjected to the changes indicated—in other words, has fceen ripened—will churn more easily and produce more butter. According "to Professor Longj experiments made on a large scale demonstrate that to make lib of butter is required 351 b of milk when sweet milk was used, and only 221 b of milk when ripened cream was churned. These two main conditions seem to have opposite effects ; ihe one favours immediate churning for quality's sake; the other requires age for quantity's-sake' It must be remembered, however, that the larger weight of butter from sour cream is not all due to more effective churning, but may be partially due to the larger admixture of the butter with water, caseine, and sugar* or acid. Again, while these chemical changes are going on, there is a development of flavour in the butter. Up to a certain point this change may be agreeable to the taste. It is usually a more positive flavour as compared with the delicate flavour of sweet milk bntter. Beyond this point, however, the development continues till the flavour becomes sharp or even raDcid, and 'it is generally claimedjthat the sweet-milk butter will "go off" the soonest.

In presiding recently at the North of Scotland Boot and Vegetable Show (the Scottish Farmer relates), Mr Leslie, of Wart Hill, Aberdeen, referred to the introduction of turnip culture, and stated that long ago his father—and they would remember that his (the speaker's) father was a very old man at that tinie : —anxious to give his people a treat at cliack, or harvest home, despatched a man on horseback to the gardener at Tillyilt, near Haddo House, a distance of about 10 miles from Wart Hill. He went away with two pecks of malt, and returned with two pecks of turnips—(laughter)— which, said the old laird, resembled in size and colour oranges—(laughter) and, said he, " I have tasted nothing so good since." (Renewed laughter.) He (the speaker) wondered what the old laird would have said if he had been there and seen those splendid turnips that were exhibited that day. Instead of comparing, them wit'* oranges, he thought he would have been inclined to have compared them with footballs. (Laughter.)

Apathetic' wail'from an American paper, the Kansas City Sentinel':—- « got a long ways the waist of it in that brilliant deal wherein we offered tins paper for one year for two bushels of wheal, and you may understand the hov/'i «g entirety of that worst when we say that, out of 74 subscribers who accepted the offer, not one has brought us a grain cf wheat."

A new plan has been adopted by the farmers in Maine. U.S.A., for scaring the birds away from their orchards. There is a common toy in that country made of printed cloth which exactly represents a tabby cat. These stuffed cloth cats the farmers have put up among the.branches of their fruit trees, and it is said that they effectually scare away predatory birds.

When a fruit tree is starved disease makes rapid headway, and the proof that. an. exhausted soil occasions decrepitude in the tree is instanced by the following successful experiment to supply elements ' ■ fertility:—Mr Hen wood reported recently to the Tasmanian Council of Agriculture that he had experimented on some old fruit trees with and with great success. He experimented on trees

blights, and the result was that the appearance of the trees had quite altered, the scaly blight having wholly left them, and the bark seemed to have a young, fresh appearance, the trees bearing very nicely. The kainit really appeared to have given new life to the trees, and he wns utterly astonished with such a result in so short a time. There were 50 or 60 of these old trees, and some ot them were so badly affected that there was bcarcely a space on the central limbs that he could put his finger upon without coming into contact with blight.

The trade in live cattle between the River Flute and England has been rapidly developed during the past seven years. The Live Stock Journal furnishes the following particulars of this trade :—" It commenced in 1889 with 19 animals; in 1890 there were 653 received from this source ; in 1891 we received 4190 ; 3500 in 1892, 6884 in 1893, 9546 in 1894, and 31,323 down to the middle of November, 1895 " The cattle and sheep shipped to England from South America are always slaughtered at the ports of landing.