Wr ald AR wR hat Am idm Farmer. VOL. 1. BELLEFONTE, CENTRE COUNTY, PA., OCTOBER 27, 1875. THE fENTRE FARMER PUBLISHED BY THE CENTRE COUNTY AGRI- CULTURAL SOCIETY, JOHN A. WOODWARD, Howard, LEONARD RHONE, Centre Hall, JAMES F. WEAVER, Milesburg, Publishing Committee. CENTRE FARMER. BELLEFONTE, PA. Wednesday, October 27, 1875. RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPEC- TIVE. i Now that the fair is numbered among the things that are past, the necessity for the publication of our little monthly ceases, and with this number it will, for the present, at least, disappear from the public eye. Its mission has been fulfill- ed, its end attained, and we consign it to forgetfulness, except as it will live in the memory of those whose hard work it represented. In taking leave of its readers, we may "be permitted a word or two in regard to the fair it heralded: While it was not up to the high standard which its friends could have wished it to attain, it was, all things considered, a success, and “7 the "thunK#0r the Society are due the public for the very generous attendance which was granted it. The display in all the departments was better than usual, and in some of them larger as well as better. Better stock, and better farm products or implements have never been seen at any of our previous fairs, though the number of entries in these depart- ments has, on one or two occasions, been larger, while the Home and Amusement departments were full and varied be- yond anything we have heretofore had. While, therefore, it is with a certain de- gree of complaisance that we glance backward, we are aware that the experi- ence of fair week was not without its valuable lessons to the society. Some things were left undone which might have been done with advantage to the association and gain to the comfort of the public, and other things which were done might have been omitted without detracting from the real pleasure or in- terest of any. Notes have been made of these matters, and is hoped that by their aid the Society will be able to do much better in the year to come than it has in the year that is past. —— ANNUAL MEETING. The next annual meeting of the socie- ty, for the election of officers, will take place in the court house, on the evening of the first Monday of January court. At this meeting several matters of im- portance to the society will be brought forward, and it is important that every member who feels an interest in the welfare of the organization should be present. IMPORTANT NOTICE. A few of the articles lately on exhibi- tion did not reach their rightful owners, notwithstanding all the care exercised to, prevent mistakes and misappropria- tions. Any person in possession of any articles thus lost or mislaid is invited to | without toil, take possession of them at return the same to the Secretary’s Of- fice, N. W. corner of Brockerhoff House, Bellefonte. ernest DQ ~ CI——e ee NOTICE TO PA RTI ES ENTITLED TO PREMIUMS. The premiums awarded at the late Fair, a list of which will be found in this num- ber of the FarMER, will be paid upon ap- plication to the Treasurer at any time prior to the 1st day of January, 1876. All premiums not applied for prior to said date will be considered as donated to the Society and treated accordingly. D. 8. KELLER, Treasurer. Office N. W. cor. of Brockerhoff House. in rear of Centre County Bank. rm eet I — OXEN AS DISCIPLINARIANS. The influence of driving an ox-team as a means of grace is not often descanted on in verse or prose, but no one can deny that the writer of “Satyrs und Sylvan Boys,’’ in the August number of Lippin- cott, has touched the matter with a needle in this racy paragraph: “The farmer's son is predestined to success in the world, for he is able to do two days’ work in one on occasion, his vigorous early efforts having given him an elasticity of constitution that enables him to revive immediately after exhaust- ion or overwork, and he has the power of continuous, dogged application. No one will flinch from business troubles who knows what itis to pick stones on a- "twelve-acre lot ‘when white-oak woods are gosling gray’’ and robust east winds are blowing. Patient and strong as if infused with oxen’s strength is the youth who has learned to drive oxen: he is like well-grown corn—nothing can wilt him. Driving oxen will make a Stoic philoso- pher of a boy, they are so unspeakably difficult to manage; it is impossible to back them, insanity to turn them, utter exasperation to hasten them; the orly thing they do with any facility is to stop; yet they must be swayed by a touch 'twixt the ears from a long, slender blue- birch gad with a leather lash. To add to their value as sources of discipline, they have a species of ox-diablerie about them. They like breaking a neap; and these oxen which have been trained to the convenient habit of following ihe boy about the field while harrowing will insist on following him around behind the harrow when he goes there to adjust anything, which causes a general upset- ting. Furthermore, as he marches be- fore them, thinking of other topics, or! perhaps following with his eyes some neighbor's carriage bowling down the road, he frequently discovers that the oxen are left far behind him in the field, where they stand stock still composedly chewing their cuds. And they have a a disagreeable way of starting off on a trot unexpectedly, particularly on warm April days, when wild natural impulses, mad longings for forest freedom and life the delicious smell of the Spring green- wood, causing them suddenly to lash the neap with their tails and rush frantically for the woods. When an old mare is leading the steers, this is almost tragedy. The mare is dragged backward, the har- row rattles at the heels of the oxen, the farmer and the hired man hasten acioss the fields to the boy’s assistance with “Whoa! haw there! Stop them! whale em! Belt 'em over the head!” and the boy shrieks, belts, and follows the gal- loping oxen until they dash their yoke agaihst a young tree betweén them in the woods. Such an Iliad of toils is in. volved in the driving of oxen!” eet ~~ ——— GILT-EDGED BUTTER. Doubtless Philadelphia dairymen lead the world in the manufacture of butter. Many of them command the year round a dollar a pound for their butter. It is hard as cheese, yellow as the yellowest gold, sweet as new-mown hay. To.ac- ——— complish these results the utmost skill and care is used in every part of the process. The stock is of the best. Al- derney is preferred for butter, the cows are’ wisely fed, the stable where they are milked is odorless, and the milk is taken thence to a dairy that, Winter and Summer, is kept at a temperature of 58°. A cup of lobbered milk is put into each shallow pan before the new milk is strained into it, then it is plac- ed on a cemented floor with water flow- ing all about it, and left until the third milking thereafter, when the cream is removed. Three milkings always stand in the dairy. The cream is stirred morn- ing and night, and churning done at least once a week. The butter is taken from the churn, and while with one hand the lever is worked up and down through about ten pounds at a time, with the other hand the butter is patted with a clean towel, in which a sponge is wrapped. This is frequently wrung out in clean water, and the process contin- ued until all the buttermilk is worked out, when it is salted, half an ounce to the pound being the allowance. It is then made into pound balls, beautifully stamped, laid in large square tin pans, and set in the spring-house to cool. At night, when the next milking is brought in, each ball is wrapped in its own snowy square of muslin, and laid into‘the but- ter-tub to be carried to market. Every.morning a fire is kindled in the caldron stove in a room adjoining the dairy, and the milk vessels thoroughly scrubbed with a brush and then scalded. Nothing is allowed in the spring-house but milk, cream and butter. No nails sapport a knuckle of veal.or a joint of i 2 a nib, no jar“of soap gréase po air, no chunk of dried beef, no pot of pickle, no plate’ of broken victuals. The room is well ventilated and wire netting excludes flies and permits free entrance of air. The mystery of butter-making may be summed in three particulars. First: A temperature unvarying and not above 60° This may be secured by depth of cellar where there is not a spring. Second : Perfect cleanliness and purity of air from the moment the milk leaves the cow’s udder till it reaches the market-place in golden solid, fragrant balls, Third : Uniformity of system and un- changing routine. Kverthing by rule, noth- ing left to guess-work, BELLEFONTE PRESS CO. PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, BOOK-BINDERS. PLAIN AND ORNAMENTAL PRINTING EXECUTED WITH NEATNESS AND DISPATCH. Particular attention paid to Printing Books & Pamphlets. BINDERS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION OF MAGAZINES, MUSIC, LAW BOOKS, PAPERS, &c., BeS™ In every style and in the best manner.