sity. The simplest that I have seen I should prefer as the best, merely because it admits of being better cleaned, and of having the butter more easily separated from the milk than many of the others; I mean the old fashioned upright churn, having a long handle with a foot to it perforated with holes, for the purpose of beating the cream by being moved upward and downward by hand. But though, for the reasons afsigned, I myself should prefer that form of a churn, other persons may choose that which they like best; as all the sorts, under skilful management, will perform the businefs perfectly well. Indeed, if the cream be prepared as above directed, the process of churning will be so easy, as to render those utensils in general the most commodious which can be the most easily emptied.

In the process of churning, much greater nicety is required than most persons seem to be aware of. A few hasty irregular strokes may render the whole of the butter of scarcely any value, which, but for this circumstance, would have been of the finest quality. The owner of an extensive dairy, therefore, should be extremely attentive to this circumstance, and should be at great pains to procure a proper person for managing this branch of businefs. This person ought to be of a cool phlegmatic temper, sedate disposition and character, and ought never to allow another person, especially those who are young, to touch the churn, without the greatest caution and circumspection. Those who have been used to see cream churned that has not been properly prepared, will think, perhaps, that this would be severe labour for one person in a large dairy;

but nothing is more easy, as to the bodily labour it requires, than the procefs of butter-making, where the cream has been duly prepared.

The butter when made must be immediately separated from the milk, and being put into a clean dish (the most convenient shape is that of a shallow bowl), the inside of which, if of wood, should be well rubbed with common salt, to prevent the butter from adhering to it. The butter should be then prefsed and worked with a flat wooden ladle, or skimming-dish, having a short handle, so as to force out all the milk that was lodged in the cavities of the mafs. A considerable degree of strength, as well as of dexterity, is required in this manipulation. The thing wanted is to force out the milk entirely, with as little tawing of the butter as pofsibly; for if the milk be not entirely taken away, the butter will infallibly spoil in a short time, and if it be much worked, the butter will become tough and gluey, which greatly debases its quality. This butter is in some places beaten up by two flat pieces of board, which by those who can do it answers very well.

Some persons employ cold water in this operation, which they pour upon the butter, and thus, as they say, wash it; but this practice is not only useless, as the butter can be perfectly cleared of the milk without it, but also pernicious, because the quality of the butter is thus debased in an astonishing degree. Nothing is so hurtful in a dairy as water improperly used, which, if mixed in any way, with either milk or butter, tends greatly to debase the quality of the last.

When the butter is entirely freed from the milk,

form that is most generally liked at the market where it is to be sold. If the heat should be so great as to render it too soft to receive the imprefsion of the mould, it may be put into small vefsels, which may be allowed to swim in the trough of cold water under the table, but without allowing any of that water to touch the butter; there it will in a short time acquire the necefsary degree of firmnefs (especially if a little bit of ice shall have been put into the bason), after which it may be taken out and moulded into proper form. It should then be put down, in proper dishes, upon the stone border that surrounds the trough, where may be kept cool and firm till it be packed up to go

it

to market.

[To be concluded in our next.]

For Dr. Anderson's Recreations,

OBSERVATIONS ON SPARROWS, AND OTHER

SIR,

DESTROYERS OF CORN.

Preston, Aug. 8, 1800. HAVING found some advantage, no little information, together with a great deal of amusement, in the perusal of your Numbers, and as you seem inclined to adopt the opinions and sentiments of others, when they fall in with your plan of conveying knowledge to others, I have been induced to give you my ideas on a subject which appears to me to deserve much public attention, and which (I beg pardon for the liberty) you seem to have pafsed over slightly: I mean the destruction of those animals which counteract the labours, and frustrate the hopes of the

farmer, by consuming the corn which would otherwise come into the market.

In the first place I shall take notice of the sparrow, which you represent only as an enemy to gooseberries, and, as a recipe to prevent it, advise your readers in your eighth Number to supply them with a little nourishing food well adapted to their palate. I suppose you mean a few oats, pease, beans, and now and then a little wheat, by way of a rarity; but it so happens, that these plunderers are not contented with a little, nor are they satisfied with a great deal. In fact, I look upon the sparrow to be the greatest enemy to man: and it would be found worthy of an enlightened legislature to hold out premiums for their destruction.

It is recorded in history, much to the honour of the then reigning prince Edgar, that he took great pains in hunting and destroying the wolf, and when he found that all which had escaped him had sought their safety in the woods of Wales, he changed the annual tribute, which the Welch were accustomed to pay, into a tribute of three hundred heads of wolves, and in a short time utterly extirpated the whole race. Would it not, sir, add equal lustre to the glorious reign of our beloved sovereign, if an act was passed in parliament holding out a reward sufficient to engage farmers'-boys and others to take pains to destroy them? It might be easily done: and I am confident that the saving to the nation in corn, &c. in one year, would fully answer all the expence. The present reward (for I believe there is a halfpenny a head allowed by law, but which is rarely put in execution) is not suffi

In your travels over the kingdom you must often have been witness to the immense flocks of these birds which infest the corn fields, and every farm-yard resounding with their notes, whilst every head-land near the house is totally laid waste, hardly a grain of corn to be found within some yards of the fences.

It is an old saying, that nine sparrows destroy as much corn as a man! How far the remark may be just, I am not competent to determine; nor do I know any data by which it may be determined: but of this I am confident, that the number of these delinquents are far more than nine times the number of inhabitants; and which, if the above remark be just, it will evidently appear that this destructive bird consumes more food than the inhabitants of the island. This, perhaps, may appear to be rather outrè: but if we consider the destruction made in a field, whilst the land is new sown, the havoc when near ripe, when cut but yet standing in the field, and the depredations in the barns during the rest of the year, into which they have always free ingrefs and egrefs at all times and seasons, the lofs will be found to be immense, and beyond all calculation.

There is still another circumstance which will point out the advantage of having this bird destroyed, and which I have never seen any one take notice of; which is, that one bushel of corn grown in the country is worth double, if not treble, the quantity imported. This may seem at first sight a paradox likewise. But, sir, let us view it through its different stages, that we may come to the truth. You will, therefore, come along with me into the public grana