290 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Middlesex (Mass.) Agricultural Society, at Con- 

 cord, October 3. Address by Lilly Eaton, Esq. 



Essex (Mass.) Agricultural Society, at Salem, 

 September 27. Address by Hon. Asa Newhall. 



Bristol (Mass.) Agricultural Society, at Taunton,^ 

 October 11. 



Housatonic (Mass.) Agricultural Society, at Great 

 Barrington, September 26 and 27. 



Litchfield (Ct.) Agricultural Society, at Litch- 

 field, September 26. 



East Somerset (Me.) Agricultural Society, at St. 

 Albans Village, October .3 and 4. 



Aroostook (Me.) Agricultural Society, at Holton, 

 October 3 and 4. 



MILK-HOUSES. 



Opinions have changed as to milk-houses. Some 

 years since, those made by a spring or cold brook, so 

 that cold water would constantly run around the 

 pans, were considered the best ; and those who had 

 not the advantages of a stream of cold water, chose a 

 cold part of the cellar, as the next most eligible 

 situation. 



But experience shows that spring houses are too 

 damp, if not too cold, and the bottom of a cellar, if 

 neither too cold or damp, is generally without suffi- 

 cient ventilation ; and in a cellar there are generally 

 many substances injurious to milk, and if a room is 

 made in the cellar purposely for milk, it often com- 

 municates with other parts that are used for various 

 purposes. 



We think that milk-rooms may be made above the 

 ground, or partially above it, so as to have a good 

 ventilation, and, of course, a pure air, and at the 

 same time be sufficiently cool. If no ice is to 

 be used to mitigate the extreme heat, it may be 

 necessary to have the bottom of the house a few feet 

 below the surface of the ground, or to have it con- 

 structed on a plan similar to that of an ice-house, in 

 part, excepting arranging it for thorough ventilation, 

 which is not necessary in ice-houses. 



If a part of the cellar is used for a milk-room, it 

 should be in the driest part, and where the house is 

 most elevated, that there may be an opportunity for 

 windows well arranged for ventilation. In a close, 

 deep cellar, foul air settles to the bottom, which has 

 an unfavorable effect on milk and butter. 



One important objection to cold, damp, and un- 

 vcntilated m-ilk-rooms, is their unhealthy condition 

 for those who attend to the milk, and to churning, 

 and working and packing butter in such rooms in 

 very hot weather. 



We copy the following interesting article on this 

 subject from the Wool-Grower, an excellent paper, 

 recently started by Mr. Peters, of the Buffalo Wool 

 Depot. 



" Experience had taught mo that the great diffi- 

 culty to be encountered in the manufacture of butter, 

 in warm weather particularly, is the preservation of 

 the milk after it is taken from the cow, until all the 

 cream can rise to the surface, be taken off and trans- 

 ferred to the churn in a perfect state. To obviate 

 this difficulty, after a consultation with my wife, 

 who, by the way, I must be allowed to puff a little , 



is aufait in all matters of this kind. We devised, 

 and caused to be constructed, a milk-house, on the 

 plan and of the dimensions following. Intending to 

 make butter for my own family use only, the ar- 

 rangements were to be, of course, upon a correspond- 

 ing scale. 



" Now then, to a description of the building : — 

 " Frame, of joist and scantling, seven by ten feet ; 

 six and a half feet from floor to plate, covered with 

 inch pine stuff, planed and matched, painted on the 

 outside ; roof of the same. At each end, and near 

 to one side, a window, exactly opposite each other, 

 twenty inches wide, extending from the floor to the 

 bottom of the plate, covered with wire cloth suffi- 

 ciently fine to exclude flies, and painted to prevent 

 rust. In the front end a door, and in the rear end a 

 window exactly opposite, about twenty by thirty 

 inches, covered same as the other windows, and 

 placed sufficientl)' high from the floor to be on a level 

 with a stationary table, (one and a half inch plank,) 

 for the convenience of straining, skimming, working 

 out butter, &c. Six shelves on one side of the room, 

 ranged one above the other. These shelves are each 

 composed of two strips of pine stuff, one and a half 

 inches in diameter, and of the length of the room, 

 joined together at the ends and middle by cross 

 pieces framed in, leaving the longitudinal strips 

 about four inches apart. These shelves are supported 

 at the ends by strips nailed to the window-frames 

 inside, at suitable and equal distances, and at two 

 places between these points, by corresponding strips, 

 fastened at one end to a stud, and at the other to a 

 stanchion placed about twenty inches in front of the 

 stud, and secured at the top and bottom. This dis- 

 tance is necessary, that the shelves may slide back 

 and forth, as convenience in handling pans of milk 

 requires. In this way, but a small part of the bottom 

 of the pan is covered by the shelf, leaving a free 

 circulation of air, which comes in at the windows at 

 each extremity. The building is placed under a clus- 

 ter of fruit trees, which effectually shield it from the 

 rays of the sun during the heat of the day. A second 

 roof of rough boards, elevated, say two feet above 

 the top of the milk-house, and of sufficient dimen- 

 sions to cast a shade all around it, would doubtless 

 answer every purpose. 



"I do not pretend to say that this is the very best 

 kind of milk-house that can be constructed, but it 

 is the best that we could devise, and with its results 

 we are perfectly satisfied. It answers admirably all 

 the purposes for which it was intended. The milk 

 keeps much longer before changing, giving an oppor- 

 tunity for all the cream to rise ; and during the 

 warmest weather in July and August, we are enabled 

 to make the choicest kind of butter, and, for aught I 

 can discover, as much in proportion to the quantity 

 of milk, as at any other time of the season. We 

 have the benefit of an ice-house in close proximity, 

 the contents of which I consider an indispensable 

 auxiliary in the manufacture of butter in warm 

 weather. 



"Before the erection of this building, we had 

 tried in vain to make butter in warm weather. The 

 cellar was too damp, or too cold, or too something, 

 and the pantry too hot." 



-♦ 



FENCE POSTS. 



A practical farmer informs the Hartford Times, 

 that in taking up a fence that had been set fourteen 

 years, he noticed that some of the posts remained 

 nearly sound, while others were rotted ofl" at the 

 bottom. On looking for the cause, he found that 

 those posts that were set limb part down, or inverted 

 from the way they grew, were sound. Those that 

 were set as they grew, were rotted off. This fact is 

 worthy the attention of the farmers. 



