304 



Milk-Houses. — Pi^' Oil v. JVhale Oil. 



Vol. Vr. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 3Iilk-IIouses. 



Mr. Editor, — I am inducod to make the 

 following communication in the hope of being 

 able to obtain from some of your numerous 

 readers who are practical men, information 

 on a subject of which 1 am in practice en- 

 tirely ignorant — a subject, however, which is 

 certainly of great importance to every farmer; 

 and I therefore believe the information, if 

 communicated, would be very acceptable to 

 all. 



The information which I desire is, the best 

 plan for a milk-house, which has been reduced 

 to practice. Having myself no convenient 

 spring, I wish to be informed by those who 

 have tried it, whether such a house can be 

 built under ground to advantage ? If so, how 

 it is to be done? Whether it ought to be 

 made so as to have a communication with the 

 well 1 Whether it will require air, and if 

 so, how it is to be aired 1 I have been in- 

 formed that in a milk-house built under 

 giound, no water ought ever to be admitted, 

 except what is scalding hot, and then every- 

 thing should be rubbed till perfectly dry. If 

 this were done, would not a communication 

 with the external air be unnecessary 1 In 

 other words, is it not the evaporation from 

 the water which makes airing necessary 1 

 Any communication with the external air 

 would have a tendency to destroy the other- 

 wise equable temperature of sucii a house 

 entirely under ground, and would be better 

 to be dispensed with, if the milk and butter 

 could be kept sweet without it. Of this 1 

 wish to be informed. 



I have in my mind a plan for such a house, 

 whicii I wish to submit for the purpose of 

 obtaining information as to its practicability. 

 My plan is, to build a milk-house, an out- 

 house for servants, and a smoke-house, all 

 under one roof. Let the building be about 

 22 by 14 feet, all of stone; the basement 

 story to be all under ground, and to be divided 

 into two apartments, by a stone wall in the 

 middle, one of which is to be the milk-house, 

 the entrance to which to be through the other 

 apartment; this apartment to bo for salting 

 meat; in and from it a chimney is to go up 

 to tlie third story, in which the meat is to be 

 liung for smoking; the fire to be kindled in 

 the fire-place in the basement. The room 

 between these two to be for servants, or for 

 members of the family, as occasion may re- 

 quire. There can be no doubt this plan would 

 answer well for a smoke-house, the fire being 

 so far from the meat: and the only doubt is, 

 would the lower story make a good milk- 

 house? There would be no admission of air, 

 except by the door, unless the story were ex- 

 tended a foot or 18 inches above the level of 



the ground, so that a window could be made 

 on each side, which would also admit light, 

 otherwise a candle would have to be taken in. 

 Will some of your readers who have had 

 experience on this subject, inform the writer 

 whether this plan will answer; and if not, 

 what plan will ansv^er? You will see I have 

 asked many questions, but if you will look at 

 my signature, you will perceive I have here- 

 tofore sent you some communications for the 

 Cabinet of which you were pleased to think 

 well. I therefore have some claim upon the 

 readers of the Cabinet. B. 



March 28, 184-2, 



Pig Oil versus Whale Oil. 



Recent applications of the knowledge 

 which chemistry has given in regard to the 

 constituent principles of fats and oils, will 

 prove to be of advantage to the pig breeders 

 of the far west, Mr. Ellsworth, in bis report, 

 says : " The use of lard instead of oil, for 

 lamps of a peculiar construction, has been 

 heretofore attempted with good success, as 

 an article of economy. It has even been 

 adopted in the light-houses in Canada on the 

 lakes, and is said to burn longer and free from 

 smoke, while the cost of the article is stated 

 to he but about one-third the cost of sperm 

 oil. But it has now been discovered that oil 

 equal to sperm can be easily extracted from 

 lard, at great advantage, and that it is supe- 

 rior to lard for burning, without the necessity 

 of a copper-tubed lamp: eight pounds of lard 

 equal in weight to one gallon of sperm oil. 

 The whole of this is converted into oil, and 

 stearine, an article of which candles that are 

 a good substitute for spermaceti can be made ; 

 allowing, then, for the value of the stearine 

 above the oil ; and it may be surely calculated 

 that when lard is six cents per pound, as it 

 now is but four or five cents at the west, a 

 gallon of oil can be afforded there for fifty 

 cents, since the candles from the stearine will 

 sell for from twenty-five to thirty cents per 

 pound." 



We do not as yet know exactly the latest 

 improved modeof separating the oil and stea- 

 rine from lard, but even if we have to give 

 twelve cents per pound for lard, and it will 

 uniformly yield the atnountof oil and stearine, 

 as above, it will bring the oil to .*!5l a gallon. 

 This is much less than the best sperm costs 

 us, and it would be good economy to fat a 

 porker for the special purpose of trimming 

 the lamps with. As soon as we learn more 

 of this thing, we will lay it before our read- 

 ers; for the more liir/it we can give them at 

 the cheapest rate, the better for all concerned. 

 — Maine Farmer. 



Man proposes, but God dispones. 



