1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



47 



be tliorousbly tested and criticised as to the merits 

 and demerits. Knowins the firm wtre strivins to 

 make tlie best preparation possible, and tliat they 

 intended to stop at notbini; short of porrcrtion, we 

 have been free to find all the fault tliat could pos- 

 sibly be detected. 



Tlie first sample received, however, was quite su- 

 perior to any other preparation of aniiatio that we 

 had ever used. It was perfectly clear of sediment, 

 free from odor, and gave a bright, clean color to the 

 butter, while it was sold cheaper according to its 

 strength, than aiiythiiiij we had previously bo«s;ht. 

 But it was not warranted to keep throuirh the whole 

 year, without beins injured by freezing in winter, or 

 moulding in summer. A later sample proved 

 equal to these tests, and showed greatly increased 

 strength of the coloring principle. Having tested it 

 for several weeks, we Informed the proprietors that 

 we could find no fault with it whatever. As now 

 made, it is the strongest, cleanest, purest ami cheap- 

 est butter and cheecse coloring substance we have 

 ever found, and for all we can see, ia is absolutely 

 perfect. It will bear heat or cold, and does not fade 

 when exposed to the light. It should entirely super- 

 sede carrots for coloring butter, and also all the 

 crude preparations of annatto, as formerly put up 

 by drugeists. 



Since Wells, Richardson <fc Co., commenced the 

 manufacture of their "Perfected Butter Color," the 

 prejudice against the use of artificial coloring in but- 

 ter has been swept away at a rapid rate, not only 

 among butter niakerf, but also, among the dealers 

 and iheir consumers. Being perfectly harndets, 

 simple, cheap, and easily used, it has become one ot 

 the staple articles of the dairy room, as much as salt 

 or rennet. For ten cents the proprietors will send 

 any one a sample. Let all the butter makers try it. 



Vienna Bread and Coffee. 



These were general favorites during our Centennial 

 Exhibition, aud the bread is now supplied to all who 

 desire it in our cities by bakers who do an extensive 

 business. Louis Fleischman, of New York, describes 

 bis preparations and process thus : 



On the baseuient tloor are six large Dutch ovens, 

 twelve feet each in diameter, with a baking capacity 

 of ten barrels of Hour each day. These ovens, when 

 once thoroughly heated, retain sufficient warmth for 

 baking purposes for eighteen hours. On the same 

 floor are immense troughs for kneading dough, and 

 wonderlul little machines for cutting it to the proper 

 size. "1 use nothing in making my liread," he said, 

 "but the purest and'whitest flour, milk, mixed with 

 water and salt. In bakinir, the oval shape of the top 

 of the oven brings an equal heal to bear on all parts 

 of the bread, so that a crisp crust is alike on top, 

 bottom, and sides." 



"Now, let me show you how I prepare my coffee," 

 he said. "We toast it according to the general prac- 

 tice, but in grinding we use stones instead of iron. 

 The stones are arranged in the same way as mill- 

 stones. Where iron is used in grinding the coffee it 

 becomes heated, and in this state robs the cotfee of 

 Its aroma while imparting a smack of its own flavor. 

 The ground coffee is placed on top of a tight, fitting, 

 finely perforated piston head at the Lortomof a large 

 cylinder. Boiling water is then poured upon it, and 

 by means of a screw the piston is slowly drawn tothe 

 topofthecylindcr. This aetioucreates a vacuum at the 

 bottom of the cylinoer, which the clear cotlee rushes 

 In to fill throuah the infinitesimal holes in the piston 

 head. In this way we get pure, undulterated coffee. 

 The cream we use is all whipped into a light, frothy 

 Blate. There is no reason for having anything 

 adulterated when it is so easy to have it pure." 



Fruit as a Medicine. 



The irregular eating of unripe fruit is well known 

 to be unwholesome. The regular and moderate use 

 of well-ripened fruit is not so widely appreciated as 

 contributing to health. Residents in regions where 

 more or less malaria prevails, have discovered that 

 nothing is a more sure preventive of its deleterious 

 efiects than a regular supply of fruit. 



But fruit will not only prevent disease, but in some 

 Instances it has proved one of the best medicines to 

 cure it. Many years ago a chronic cough, which had 

 excited a good deal of uneasiness, was cured by daily 

 eating ripe raspberries, recommended by a medical 

 writer of high authority as an excellent expectorant. 

 Severe colds are more apt to occur on the first cool 

 and damp days of autumn than at other seasons. 

 We have often cured these diseases on their first at- 

 tack, by eating copiously of ripe watermelons. The 

 beneficial efTects ot drinking freely of cold water on 

 such occasions, are well known. Watermelons sup- 

 ply a larger quantity than one could easily swallow 

 in any other way. — Country Oentleman. 



count of the small quantity of cream accumulatlnir. 

 The summer practice is reversed in the winter. 

 There being too little milk to require frequent churn- 

 ing then — say one, and sonn'tlmes two churnlh'.'S a 

 week — we account readily for the evils comphiined 

 of. The fore part of the season when milk is in 

 greater quantity, necessitating more frequent churn- 

 ing, I bear of but little complaint. It matters not 

 how good the feed is— if the tenderest hay and roots 

 are added, makinir an approach to summer feed ; nor 

 how clean the milk is kept, the most perfect milk if 

 set beyond three days will be hurt. The writer of 

 this has filled the vessel, leaving barely space enough 

 for a cloth to be stretched over without touching the 

 milk, and a snug lid put on, keeping the air out, but 

 all to no purpose. So, in the purest air, in all the 

 temperatures, it is the same." 



THE POULTRY YARD. 



Bitter C.eam. 

 Cream becomes bitter by keeping it too long before 

 It is churned. A butter maker says : "In summer 

 there is little bitter milk or cream, because the 

 cream is churned sooner than in winter, seldom reach- 

 ing the third day. Sometimes, where tliere is a single 

 cow kept, I have known the bitter to show on ac- 



Food for Fowls. 



As to food, and several queries for the "best," we 

 repeat once more, there is no best. The great ex- 

 hibitors do not owe success to any particular food. 

 All good meal and all good grain is good in its place. 

 The only ceneral rules we would lay down are, that 

 on the whole it is better to mix with raw meal some 

 portion of one or other of the excellent cooked meals 

 now so largelv advertised, which is both liked and 

 prevents the food hecomina: clogged; and secondly, 

 that much grain should not be used for the young 

 ones, but pretty much reserved for the last feed at 

 nisht, when it will tempt a hearty meal which will 

 remaiti in the crop and give support through the 

 niiiht. Kspeciully should care be taken not to give 

 wheat or other tempting grain just after soft food, 

 which olten causes a eorging that is most injurious, 

 and will even kill delicate breeds without any ap- 

 parent cause. 



For the staple we would take half of any good 

 cooked meal, and mix in turn with barley-meal, oat- 

 meal, ground oats, or even now and then maize- 

 meal, though this is too fattening to be freely used. 

 The meal can be mixed with minced grass with ad. 

 vantaL'e, as this enables a quantitv to be kept fresh 

 and cool longer through the day. Barley-meal mix- 

 ed with sharps makes a good food also, and so does 

 porride-e; and a variety of plain, wholesome food 

 like this pushes the birds on faster and better than 

 all the nostrums in the world. Bone-dust, which is 

 very valuable for lar>re breeds that have not excel- 

 lent range, should be added to the soft food in the 

 proportion of, say about one-tenth to one-twentieth 

 of the dry meal, or it may be first boiled and the 

 meal mixed with the soup. A little meat or greaves 

 minced and soaked may be added with advantage, 

 and the great breeders, many of them, use meat 

 largely to get the immense size of their largest birds. 

 But tliis both coarsens the comb and head, and— 

 well, these immense birds are very seldom chosen to 

 breed from. 



In grain we have barley, wheat, buckwheat, dari, 

 and 40-pound white oats. A little hemp seed and 

 canary seed help the very young ones; but hemp is 

 too heating and canary too dear to keep on with. 

 Grits are srrand food, but expensive, and we use little 

 since we tried dari. We repeat that this is, as we 

 find it, one of the most useful articles one can have, 

 both for fowls and pigeons. Barley is good, but tlie 

 chicks will not eat it, at least not enough to do them 

 good ; but we find them eat up dari and buck- 

 wheat as eagerly and very nearly as early as they 

 will grits, while it is about the cheapest grain there 

 is. As a rule, we generally feed for about a week 

 with bread-crumbs, oatmeal, a hard-boiled chopped 

 egg and some cut grass, mixed together and moisten- 

 ed with milk ; add with grits lor a change — after 

 that they come down to plain mixed meal, as above, 

 and dari or buckwheat. We use cut grass — cut in 

 small chaff with large scissors— even when there is a 

 grass run ; the chicks eat more and rarely get di- 

 arrhoea. But we repeat again, it really matters much 

 less what they eat, than that they get some change 

 to tempt the r appetites, and aie fed regularly aud 

 with judgment. 



This last is perhaps the great point. It istoo com- 

 mon to feed all alike, and this is wrong. As they 

 get older the times of feeding should be carefully 

 graduated, coming down from six or seven times a 

 day to four, and by-and-by to three. This is very 

 important, lor without it the chickens gradually lose 

 appetite, and are very apt to get liver complaint, 

 which anuually carries off many. Another cause of 

 this is giving loo much. All ought to be cleared 

 clean away in ten minutes ; and till experience is 

 gained to guess the quantity, it is best logo round at 

 that time, after feeding, and clear all remains of the 

 feed away. Then by the next visit they will be ready ; 

 whereas, if it be left to them to "mess with," they 

 never get any real appetite at all. Cool, clean water 

 is the only thing that should be left by them. This 

 is very simple, but this is the only "secret" in rear- 

 ing ; it is the one particular patent process which, 

 joined with wholesome food and reasonable change of 

 diet now and then, makes line birds. — London Live 

 Stock Journal. 



Feeding Fowls. 

 A correspondent of the Poultry .Va/ion, says OD 

 this point ; ".My experience In feeding fowls. Is that 

 medium sized hens will consume about one and 

 three-fifth gills of grain and vegetable matter each, 

 daily, in winter, when In active laying condition; and 

 also that it makes no dilfercncc as to the amount con- 

 sumed, whether food is kept constantly before them, 

 or whether they are fed twice or thrice daily pro- 

 viiU'd they are allowed all they will eat up clean. 

 For the past two years circumstances have com|«'lled 

 me to feed but twice a day — morninirand afternoon — 

 but I find that the fowls get very hungry before the 

 afternoon meal, and will bolt their food like hogs, 

 and, if allowed all they will eat np clean, are liable 

 to overeat, and become diseased in consequence. 

 Then it sometimes happens that hens are on the nests 

 to lay at the time of feeding, and cannot be coaxed 

 off to eat, and they must either be fed on the nest or 

 go hungry until the next meal, which in cold weath- 

 er seems a little unmerciful. Heretofore I have be- 

 lieved in and advocated regular feeding— twice or 

 three times a day— far all breeds, but my experience 

 during the past two years Inclines mc to the opinion 

 that unless the smaller varieties can be fed thrcq 

 times a day, it Is better to keep food constantly by 

 thcin. 



The Pekin Ducks as Layers. 



The sensation made last fall among the fanciers at 

 the jioultry exhibitions, by the extraordinary size of 

 these new ducks, is likely io be equaled this season by 

 their remarkable record as layers. Two of the im- 

 ported birds last year laid respectively l.H and V>1 

 eggs. They have done much better the present season. 

 One of the old birds commenced laying on the .7th of 

 Februrary and laid 17.S eggs In 18J day.i, missing but 

 tour days. The other did nearly as well. This is 

 three or'four times as many eggs as we ordinarily 

 get from Kouens or Aylesburys. What is more re- 

 markable, one of the young ducks, hatched in April, 

 began to lay in August, and laid seven eggs by 

 the first of September. Such early laying Is all that 

 we expect of the best varieties of gallinaeeoMs fowls. 

 The Pekins as much excel in fecundity all other va- 

 rieties of ducks with which weare acquainted, as they 

 do in size. They have had the advantageoftborough 

 breeding for centuries for their Hesb and eggs, and 

 we predict for them in this country the front rank 

 among our useful aquatic fowls. — Agrieulttirisl. 



Fakmehs frequently have occasion to sell turkeys 

 by live weight, and wish to know what is the fair 

 relative price between live and dead weight. In tur- 

 keys dressed for the New York market, where the 

 blond and feathers only are removed, the loss s very 

 small. For the eastern markets the heads are taken 

 off and the entrails are taken out. This makes a 

 loss of nearly one-tenth in the weight. A large gob- 

 bler was recently killed weighing ol'S pounds. Af- 

 ter bleeiling and picking he weighed -.yVi pounds, a 

 loss of two pounds, or about one-fifteenth. When 

 ready for the spit he wei^jhed -iS'X pounds, a loss of 

 ;?><^ pounds which is nearly one-tenth of the weight. 

 When the market requires the New York style of 

 dressing, and the price is fifteen cents a pound, live 

 weight, or less, if he counted the labor of dressing 

 anything. In the other style of dressing, if the price 

 we're -0 Cf nts, he could sell for !.■< cents, or less, live 

 weight, without loss. Farmers who nevertestcd the 

 loss of weight in dressing sometimes submit to de- 

 duction of three or four cents a pound for the middle- 

 men, who are interested in making this large differ- 

 ence. 



^ 



Fattening Poultry. 



The London Field says poultry properly fed will 

 acquire all the fatness needed for marketing pur- 

 poses in a fortnight or three weeks at most. Their 

 diet should be Indian, oat, or barley meal, scalded in 

 milk or water; the former is the best, as it will ex- 

 pedite the fattening process. They should be fed 

 early in the morning, at noon, and also in the even- 

 ing, just before going to roost, and given a plentiful 

 supply of pure, fresh water, and plenty of gravel, 

 sliced cabbage or turnip lops. If the fowls arc re- 

 quired to be very fat, some trimmings of fresh mut- 

 ton suet mav bechopped up and scalded with their 

 other feed, or they may be boiled in milk alone and 

 poured to the meal. This renders the flesh firmer 

 than it otherwise would be. When fit to kill, feed- 

 ing must be slopped for twelve hours or more, so 

 that the intestines may becomecomparatively empty. 

 ♦ 



The Poultry World says the Influence of the food 

 of poultry upon the quality and flavor of their flesh 

 and eggs has not been taken into consideration ; but 

 it is now well ascertained that great care should be 

 exercised in regard to this matter. In some instances 

 it has been attempted to feed poultry on a large scale 

 in France on horse-flesh, and although they devour 

 this substance very greedily, it has been found to 

 give them a very unpleasant flavor. The best fatten- 

 ing for chickens is said to be Indian cornmeal and 

 mUk ; and certain large poultry establishments in 

 France use this entirely, to the advantage both of the 

 fiesh and the eggs. 



