mittee, is conclusive evidence that great improvements are being made in the manufacture of this valuable article of consumption.

To Noah Hitchcock, Jr., of Homer, Cortland county, the second premium of $10.00 is awarded on three tubs of very good butter, which shows great skill and judgment in the maker.

To L. L. French, of Warren, Herkimer county, the Committee recommend a premium of $5.00 on three firkins, taken from an entire dairy, which is very good butter, with the single exception of being too highly salted. Several other samples were offered of good butter, but in the judgment of the Committee not quite up to the standard to entitle them to premiums.

In cheese there was no competition, there being but one sample offered, and that in the opinion of the Committee not of sufficient merit to authorize the award of a premium; and your Committee regret that there should not be more interest taken in this important part of our exhibition.

The Committee have examined the several statements accompanying the different samples of butter, and are of opinion that some valuable suggestions and improvements are given in the statement of Mr. Denio, and the Committee would recommend that it be published.

Statement of I. Denio's Manner of Making Butter.

The milk, as soon as drawn from the cows, is strained through a fine linen cloth into pans containing about six quarts each. The pans are set on a rack made of slats one inch thick and about eight inches apart. The temperature is kept as near as may be at from 50 to 60 degrees, and the milk allowed to stand from 24 to 30 hours before skimming; great care should be taken, however, to take the cream from the milk before it becomes sour and thick. I regard this as a very important feature in making fine butter, as I consider it impossible to obtain a fine article from milk that is sour and loppered through. My milk room is above ground and

separate from my dwelling; the churning is done with a dash churn and usually occupies about thirty minutes. The butter is taken from the churn with a ladle, immediately after it is gathered, and washed thoroughly in cold well water until it is entirely free from milk, then salted with Ashton's Liverpool salt, at the rate of twelve to fourteen ounces to sixteen pounds of butter; no other substance is used in preserving the butter. It is then set in the cellar until the next morning, when it is again worked and packed in white-ash tubs for market. As soon as a churning is packed, a linen cloth well saturated in strong pickle is placed on it to exclude the air from it, and when the package is filled the same cloth is placed on the top of the butter and covered with salt from one to two inches in depth; the salt is kept damp by sprinkling cold water on it as often as it becomes dry. The tubs as soon as filled are placed in the coolest part of the cellar and set upon flat stones. I wish, in connection with this statement, to observe that great complaint is made by dealers in New-York, as well as those in the country, that the great mass of butter from Oneida and Oswego counties is poor in quality, badly put up, and the packages very inferior in make and material. I think in regard to the make of butter that the great error lies in two things: First, the cream is generally left upon the milk too long before skimming, sometimes for fear that all the cream will not be obtained, and oftener because the usual time for skimming has not arrived; both of these habits should be abandoned and the cream taken off at the right time, which is just as the milk is about to change. The second error is want of care in freeing the butter from the milk as soon as taken from the churn. If you have gone through the process correctly up to this point you may still get a poor article by leaving the milk in the butter a little too long after taking from the churn, or not getting every particle of it out at once.

Rome, April 21, 1852.

Yours, &c.

I. DENIO.

Statement of Noah Hitchcock, Jr.

The butter presented for your inspection was made the latter part of October and the fore part of November. My dairy would

average about thirty-eight cows through the season. I have made and put down for market, over and above what we have used in the family, which consisted of twelve in number, 6,285 lbs., which is an average of a little over 165 lbs. to a cow. The milk when taken from the cows is placed in pans on racks in a cool well ventilated cellar and permitted to stand usually till it thickens, the cream is then taken from the milk, put into large cream pails made for the purpose, and stands till the following day when it is churned; a dash churn is used, propelled by dog power. The butter is then taken from the churn and the buttermilk as nearly worked out as it well can be with a butter worker, when nearly one ounce of Ashton's imported Liverpool salt is added to one pound of butter, and well worked in. It is then left to stand some twelve hours and worked again, and in about the same length of time it is again worked and packed for market. A cloth is placed over the top of the tub or firkin when filled, which is covered with nearly an inch of salt, kept moistened with strong brine, covered with a flat stone. NOAH HITCHCOCK, JR.

WINTER WHEAT.

Samuel L. Thompson, Setauket, Long Island.

Statement in relation to a crop of wheat, raised by Samuel L. Thompson, of Setauket, Suffolk co., Long Island, 541 bushels per acre.

1. The land on which the wheat was grown, had had two crops of Indian corn taken from it, without any manure being applied, except in the hills of corn, and then a crop of oats without any manure, and those crops had been taken in constant succession, preceding the sowing of the wheat.

2. The land was in a good state of cultivation, and the soil of a loamy rich nature. The farm is located at Setauket, in the town of Brookhaven, north side of Long Island.

3. After oats harvest, there was about twenty loads of barnyard manure put to the acre, on the oats stubble, and plowed unher deep, and the ground well harrowed. Then at sowing time, there was sowed on about four hundred pounds of Peruvian Guano to the acre. There was about a bushel and three pecks of golden Australian wheat sown to the acre.

4. The wheat was sown the 20th September, 1850; sowed broadcast, and plowed in lightly, with the guano, about three inches deep. The wheat was harvested the 15th July, 1851, thrashed with a thrashing machine, and cleaned with a fanning mill. The yield was, one hundred and nine bushels from two acres, and the wheat was measured with a sealed half bushel. The wheat was sold at $4 per bushel, for seed, and taken to various parts of the country, and the amount realised for the product of the two acres, was $436.

5. The expense, or worth of barn-yard manure in the coarse state in which it was, when applied, was 50 cents per load, $10 per acre; of the guano, $10 per acre. Total for the two acres, $40. The expense of plowing, culture, manure, and preparing the ground for the seed, $5 per acre, making $10 for the two acres. The expense of harvesting and thrashing the grain, &c., $6 per acre; making $12 for the two acres. The expense or value of the seed used, was $8.75 per acre; for two acres, $17.50.

SUFFOLK COUNTY, ss.-Edward Oakes, being duly sworn, says, he is a surveyor, that he surveyed with chain and compass, the land upon which Samuel L. Thompson raised a crop of wheat the past season, and the quantity of land is two acres, and no more. EDWARD OAKES, Surveyor.

Sworn to before me, this 17th day of December, 1851,

JONAS B. BLYDENBURG, Justice.

SUFFOLK COUNTY, ss.-Samuel L. Thompson, being duly sworn, says, that he raised a crop of Golden Australian wheat, the past season upon the land surveyed by Mr. Edward Oakes, and the quantity of grain raised thereon, was one hundred and nine bushels, measured in a sealed half bushel; and that he was assisted in harvesting said crop by Henry Krankink, and that the statement annexed, subscribed by this deponent, as to the manner of cultivation, expenses, &c., is in all respects true to the best of his knowledge and belief; and that the sample of grain exhibited, is a fair average of the whole crop."

Sworn to before me, this 15th

day of December, 1851,

}

SAMUEL L. THOMPSON.

JONAS B. BLYDENBURGH, Justice.

SUFFOLK COUNTY, ss.-Henry Krankink, being duly sworn, says, that he assisted Samuel L. Thompson in harvesting, getting out and measuring his crop of wheat, referred to in the above affida[Ag. Trans. 1852.]

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