until the strength is exhausted. The liquor thus prepared will be of uniform strength, and, after using from it once or twice, the amount required to bring the cheese in proper time will be ascertained.

ANSWER TO QUESTIONS.

1. The native breed of cows, or a cross between the native and Devon, are generally better adapted for dairying than either the Shorthorn or Devon.

2. Our pastures are principally stocked with June grass, white clover and red top, which probably furnishes as good pasturage for making cheese, as any kind we have.

3. Think it will improve if rightly managed.

4. The price depends much upon the situation and quality of soil, whether supplied with suitable buildings or not, &c. In this vicinity it would probably range from $25 to $35 per

acre.

5. From 70 to 75 degrees is the proper temperature for a room for curing cheese. If the heat is less than this, more time will be required for curing; if greater the cheese is apt to get "huffy," and require considerable attention.

6. Good aparatus for making cheese is an important item in dairying. A person may get along with an old fashioned cheese tub, press and a kettle, yet the saving of time, fuel and labor in using convenient fixtures would soon pay for the extra expense. We use "H. A. Roe's Premium Cheese Vat and Heater," which undoubtedly combines more advantages than any other арраratus introduced. As fast as the night's milk is taken into the dairy room it is strained into the vat, and well cooled by turning cold water into the water chamber. When the water becomes warm, it is drawn off, and more cold water turned in; with this process the milk is kept sweet and rich, and but little cream rises over night. In the morning the milk is strained into the same vat with the milk of the night before, and a fire kindled in the heater about 20 minutes before time for setting, the temperature being then from 84 to 85 degrees; enough rennet is added to curdle the milk in about 45 minutes. As soon as the curd is well formed it is thoroughly broken with an instrument made for that purpose; this being done, the curd is allowed to settle a few minutes, when the fire is again started, raising, gradually, the temperature to 100 and 102 deg. ; the heat is then checked by the damper, so as not to rise above that point; the curd is well stirred and broken during the first part of the heating process. When the curd is sufficiently scalded the water is drawn off, and afterwards the whey. After the whey is drained off and broken up, the salt is put in, at the rate of a teacup full to 14 pounds of pressed cheese. After putting in the press it is thoroughly pressed two days, being turned in from two to three hours, also the next morning. It is impossible to have a rule which will always produce uniform results-as much depends upon the milk, weather &c. How and when to do this can only be learned by experience and careful observation.

H. F. GIDDINGS.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CHEESE.

In making our report for this class, your committee would state that the display of cheese on exhibition was very fine, and the composition so close that it was with difficulty we came to conclusions satisfactory to ourselves, and that we have done entire justice we can hardly hope. In fact, except in one or two instances of different manufacture, the competition was so close, that had the specimens been all from one dairy, they would have done credit to that dairy from their uniformity. We award as follows:

Best cheese, one year old and over, entry No. 11, H. F. Giddings, Lindenville, O.

2d best, entry 7, S. E. & H. W. Carter, Ohio State Dairy, Leroy, O.

1st best and largest lot of cheese, entry 2, Anson Bartlett, Hudson, O.

2d best

do

do 9, E. C. Cox, Mesopotamia, O.

1st best cheese, one year old, entry 3, Harmon Stevens, Sheffield, Lorain county, O.
2d best
6, S. E. & H. W. Carter, Leroy, O.

do

do

In coming to the conclusion and making the awards we have, we have been governed by the general appearance, the quality for cutting, and also fitness for transportation; in other words for handling and merchantable purposes. As the very large proportion of the amount manu factured, must necessarily be transported to a greater or less distance, this is a consideration of importance. If but one of these qualities were taken into account, a different conclusion might have been reached. For instance, the Ohio State Dairy cheese must be very rich for cutting, but apparently might fail in handling; while entry No. 2, to which the committee award 1st best in lot of cheese, appear well as both cutters and handlers. As has been intimated, every lot was good and every specimen creditable-one thing which caused some little difficulty in aiming at correct conclusions, arose from the classifications adopted by the Board. The manufacture of cheese is annually gaining in attention and importance in the northest counties of the State, and in the system of manufacture there has, within a year or two past, been a great change. Formerly each farmer made his own cheese, upon the farm, in dairies of from ten to a hundred cows; now a number unite together, building a factory, or individuals build such factories, purchasing the milk, or taking it to make up at so much by the pound. In this mode of manufacture, a somewhat different description of cheese is made, having some advantages farmer dairies cannot have. The suggestion we wish to make is, that in view of the magnitude of this interest and increasing its importance, such a classification be hereafter made as will enable "factory "cheese to compete only with "factory" cheese, and "farm dairy" with "farm dairy.” P. HITCHCOCK,

E. BEMISS,

THOS. F. KIBBORN,

F. H. CANNON,

L. T. WILMOT.

BUTTER, BREAD, ETC.

In the class of Butter, Bread, &c., there were 64 entries, the following are the awards, and the statements of the exhibiters:

Best lot 10 lbs. butter in rolls, Mrs. G. S. King, Madison........

$10

2d best do. Mrs. W. Brown, Rockport.....

5

Best lot not less than 25 lbs., made in May or June, Mrs. R. Hawkins, Rockport. 2d best do. Mrs. M. A. Robb, Olmstead

10

5

Best tub or firkin not less than 50 lbs., made any time, Frank Oakes, Brecksville 2d best do. H. Lane, Geneva, Ohio...

10

5

BREAD AND CEREAL FOOD.

Best 3 loaves baker's bread not less than 48 hours old, John Truber, Cleveland......
Best biscuit, Mrs. S. W. Whipple, Cleveland......

Best soda biscuit, Mrs. Sarah W. Whipple, Cleveland

Best 3 loaves domestic white bread, not less than 48 hours old, Mrs. W. Brown, East Rockport.........

Best domestic corn bread, Mrs. W. G. Smith, Cleveland....

Best domestic rye bread, Mrs. G. Perrine, Milan, O..........

Best domestic brown bread, Mrs. G. Perrine, Milan, O..

Best 6 hams, Mitchel & Ladd, Cincinnati....

Best half bbl. mess pork, B. Stedman, Cleveland....

3

3

3

3

3

3

Best half bbl. beef, B. Stedman...

AWARDING COMMITTEE.-C. C. Wick, Miss Louisa Sumner, Mrs. Smith Grimes, Mrs. O. Waters.

STATEMENT OF R. BAKER.-Two jars butter made from two cows from 10th to 20th of June The cows were fed on grass only. Milk strained into tin pans, and remained 36 hours; then skimmed, and the cream churned in Dewitt's Ther. Churn; used three-fourths of an ounce of Liv erpool salt to one pound of butter. No other ingredients used.

F STATEMENT OF WM. HURST.-Ten pounds butter in rolls, made September 12th, from seven cows; no other feed but grass. Milk strained in ten quart tin pans; kept thirty-six hours in cellar, with plenty of air circulating through. Churned in a box churn; buttermilk freed from it with a ladle; no water used. Used fine Liverpool salt, three-fourths of an ounce to the pound; no other substance used.

STATEMENT OF HAMMON STEVENS.-My butter was made the last of June; my new butter last week of June, from 18 cows. A small mess of wheat bran and whey was given to each cow twice a day; the milk set over night in a cheese vat. Churned in a stone churn, butter washed with cool water. Salt to suit the taste with Ashton salt. No other substances used.

My mode of managing bees at present is very simple. I have had three different patent hives; I put my bees into a box hive with a hole two inches in the top, and set them in a house made for that purpose, with one side open. This box was put on top of the hive the early part of May, and taken off the first of September.

H. STEVENS.

STATEMENT OF MRS. S. W. DILLE.-Ten pounds of butter in rolls. Made on the 12th day of September, 1863, from six cows, grass fed. Milk set in tin pans; skimmed and churned as soon as the milk soured, in a crank churn of "Foss patent." The milk worked free from the butter by hand with ladle. Salt, one and one-half ounce to the pound, common barrel salt. No other substance used.

HONEY, PRESERVES, PICKLES, ETC.

In the class of Honey, Preserves, Pickles, &c., there were 175 entries, on which the following awards were made:

Best preserved peaches in cans and jars, Mrs. J. H. Sargent, Cleveland..

1

AWARDING COMMITTEE—D. W. C. Sawyer, Mrs. J. T. Newton, Mrs. D. W. C. Sawyer, Mrs. E. E. Pennywell.

SUGAR EVAPORATORS AND MILLS.

In the class of Sugar, Evaporators and Mills, there were 37 entries; the following is the lis of premiums offered in this class:

In the Agricultural Report for 1857 is a statement copied from a publication of Joseph Lovering of his experiments in the manufacture of sugar from the Sorgho, in which he says "it is about as easy to make good sugar from the Chinese sugar-cane as to make a pot of good mush, and much easier than to make a kettle of good apple-butter." This paragraph has been extensively copied by manufacturers of Sorgho Evaporators and Sorgho Mills in their catalogues, and led many persons to think that Sorgho sugar was as readily produced as a "pot of mush," or a "kettle of apple-butter-" After repeated experiments many intelligent persons failed to produce any sugar, until many persons, and even some manufacturers, doubted whether sugar could be produced at all, notwithstanding the fact that the Board had paid premiums on Sorgho sugar for three or four successive years. Statements were at various times made to several members of the Board that no Sorgho sugar had been produced in Ohio, and that in all the cases where premiums had been awarded on Sorgho sugar, that it had never been awarded to any person who could prove, or even claimed to have made it. In order to fulfil their mission the Board proposed that of disseminating correct knowledge upon subjects connected with Agriculture, the Sorgho Sugar should be produced upon the Fair Grounds during the Fair. This proposition did not meet the views of parties manufacturing Evaporators, and produced quite a number of protests, from among which we select the following one, because it is the shortest, clearest, fullest, and embraces all the points of the more lengthy ones. It is the desire and object of the Board to give proper encouragement to every branch of productive industry connected with agriculture, and the Board is free from prejudice in favor of or against any special processes or machinery by which the end is attained. The following is a list of awards:

The undersigned, awarding committee on Sugar (Class 7, Fourth Department,) at the last State Fair, having been informed that the awards made are regarded as informal from the absence of our signatures thereto, we respectfully submit the following as our report:

Best Sorgho Mill, Clark Sorgho Machine Company, Cincinnati.

2d best do C. & J. Cooper, Mt. Vernon.

Best Sorgho Evaporator, Blymyer, Bates, & Day, Mansfield.

*The culture of the plant, and process of manufacture, and quantity of syrup produced, to be stated in writing, sworn to by the manufacturer, and filed with the Secretary.

†The sugar to be manufactured during the Fair, on the grounds, from the Sorgho or Imphee

cane.

Best half acre Sorgho made into syrup, no exhibiter.

Best 10 lbs. Sorgho Sugar made on the ground, no exhibiter.

Best gallon Sorgho Syrup, John L. Gill & Son, Columbus, made in Jacob's Evaporator. 2d best do do Miss M. O. Sprague, made in Cook's Evaporator.

Best gallon Maple Syrup, Z. K. Eggleston, Geauga county.

Best sample Maple Sugar,

Maple Sugar by Geo. Brockett, and Maple Syrup by G. S. King and G. Brockett, commended.

PROTEST.

E. S. RICKER,

F. N. BARGER,

FRED. E. FREY.

To the Ohio State Board of Agriculture:

GENTLEMEN :-In your list of premiums, No. 48, Class VII, exhibiters of Sorgho Sugar are required to make it upon the ground during the Fair. The effect of this is to rule out hundreds of farmers who have been successful in the manufacture of Sorgho Sugar since your last Fair and who would gladly have competed for the premium had it been open to them. As they cannot be expected to bring the necessary appliances, they, the real sugar manufacturers of the coun try, are practically ignored. But to say nothing further on this point, as the manufacturers of the only Evaporator that has obtained any notority for, or been at all successful in the production of Sorgho Sugar from the Sorgho or Imphee canes, we beg leave to call your attention to a few facts concerning the production of Sorgho Sugar in connection with the above condition, a condition which we presume was inadvertantly adopted.

1st. At the various National and State Fairs and Sorgho Conventions, to this date, about 200 samples of merchantable Sorgho Sugar have been offered, and all but one or two small ones were made on the Cook Evaporator, and this result in face of the fact that large premiums were offered for the production of Sorgho Sugar by any mode whatever, and also of our well known claim that this is the only Evaporator that can with any certainty produce sugar.

2d. You will allow us, then, modestly to assume that the conditon attached to the premium may not inappropriately be considered as pointed at the Cook Evaporator.

Now a few facts in regard to sugar making: In all our publications, and in all remarks at Fairs, Conventions, &c., no other claim has been made by us than substantially this: That by Cook's method the syrup is so prepared as to render crystalization more certain than by any other, and with good cane and the use of the Evaporator, without any chemicals, and a high even temperature, the crystalization may be rendered absolutely certain. It having sometimes occurred within 12 to 24 hours, we have so stated it, and from this has arisen the mistaken supposition that we claimed, always, to be able to effect crystalization immediately upon the ground. But as crystalization is a work of nature, it cannot be told with certainty, and we have never claimed that it could, whether it will be completed in 12 hours or 12 days.

Experience, both North and South, has demonstrated that owing to various causes, the length of time required for crystalization of the syrup is prepared, varies. Hence it is no test of the sugar making quality of any evaporator should the syrup fail to crystalize within a specified short time.

We can cite several cases where parties have gone to work deliberately upon a wager, and un der the watchful eyes of three disinterested witnesses, and produced sugar in 48 hours, and drained it so completely that it was dry, merchantable sugar within five days from the grinding of the cane.

But with the imperfect appliances on a Fair Ground, with immature cane nipped by the frost