Massachusetts Spy And Worcester Advertiser

Agricultural.

CANADA THISTLE.

To the Editor of the Massachusetts Spy:-
Sir: - I observed a petition was presented to the Legislature requesting their aid to prevent the spread of the "Canada Thistle;" and I have heard many enquiring the most successful mode to exterminate them. - Four years since I had a few of those fast spreading thistles in two places in my pasture: they were then confined to a few feet in circumference. Having witnessed the rapid manner in which they spread over the land in Vermont, and in some parts of this State, I felt desirous to destroy them immediately; I therefore caused them to be dug up with a hoe in the month of June with full expectation, that they would trouble me no more. The next year, there were more than twice the number, and occupied a much larger piece of ground. I then cut them with a scythe, as often as they grew sufficiently high to be cut - all this, apparently, served to increase their growth. The next year, they extended several rods, and I had every reason to believe, that in a few years, they would willingly occupy my whole pasture. Knowing that salt, or brine would destroy many kinds of vegetables, I cut them with a scythe at the commencement of a rain, and threw salt liberally over them, and my cattle and sheep kept the grass and thistles closely fed in consequence of the salt. I salted the ground a second time the same year, and they are entirely destroyed. - If those people, who find Canada Thistles in their lots, or by the way side will take the trouble to make this simple application, they may perhaps prevent the growth of the thistle, and supersede the necessity of a legislative act.
A FARMER.

Receipt by Dr. Ainserson for preserving Butter. - "Take two parts of common salt, one of brown sugar, and one of salt petre: beat them together so as to blend the whole completely, and apply one ounce of this to every pound of butter; work it well in the mass, and close it up for use."

"This," says the Farmer's Assistant, "will cost about a cent a pound more than by curing butter in the usual way: but its peculiar excellence is that butter thus cured will keep sweet for two or three years; and its taste is much superior to that which is cured in the common way. It must not, however, be used sooner than a month after it has been laid down, as it does not acquire that rich marrowy taste, until about that length of time. Butter, cured in this way, and laid down for winter use, will then be found worth at least twenty-five per cent, more than that cured by salt alone."

The natural colour of butter depends chiefly, if not altogether on the quality of the food with which the cows are supplied. Give them rich and nourishing food, and the butter you make from their milk will have a yellow colour and a delicate flavour. It is likewise said that the juice of carrots added to cream will give it a yellow appearance. Feeding cows with carrots will have a similar effect, and answer a still better purpose. A poor half starved cow will yield but little butter, and what you do obtain will be inferior in quality, as well as deficient in quantity. - N. E. Farmer.