38 



NEW ENGLAM) FARMER. 



Jan. 



served up to customers. The bakers bought 

 largely of this sort of butter, as did the keep- 

 ers of cheap boarding houses. He mentioned 

 several of the most popular eating houses and 

 hotels of the great metropolis as being num- 

 bered among his patrons. 



Fat of all kinds was bought by this enter- 

 prising proprietor of what was probably the 

 largest and perhaps the first operated butter 

 factory of the west. The cleanest of the hard 

 fats was sold to candle makers, the more dirty 

 and rancid lots of the same class were dis- 

 posed of to the manufactures of hard soap. 

 The best material for butter making was 

 found in the grease extracted from marrow 

 bones. If it was sweet, and not discolored in 

 the boiling process, itneeded little preparation. 

 If the contrary was the case, it was bleached 

 to destroy the color and treated with chloride 

 of lime to remove the disagreeable odor. If 

 it was too soft it was tempered with firmer 

 sorts of fat, as that obtained from suet. After 

 this the desired color was given by the use of 

 annatto and other substances. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 CEMENT CI8TEKWS. 



I was glad to see the article by "N. S. T." 

 on underground cisterns and filters. Among 

 his many good ideas, I find one which experi- 

 ence teaches me is not correct, viz : the idea 

 that a cistern cannot well be made in ground 

 of loose gravel and sand, without brick. I 

 have made many cisterns in such ground ; one, 

 since I read his article, in ground which we 

 could dig but about a foot without its cav- 

 ing, and yet we made it about a foot larger at 

 the bottom than at the top. 



Some five or six years ago, I made two cis- 

 terns in just such ground, seven feet in di- 

 ameter, and twelve deep, from the top of the 

 ground. They are , in a barn yard. I fre- 

 quently make two or more cisterns and join 

 them together by running a pipe through from 

 the bottom of one to the bottom of the other, 

 instead of having a large one, with a large 

 span of arch. It is cheaper to make a num- 

 ber of such small cisterns than one large one. 

 The arches being small, require less material 

 to make them, besides we get the water nearer 

 the top of the ground, because a large arch 

 has to commence far down towards the bottom 

 of the cistei'n. What 1 was going to say 

 about those two cisterns made in the barn 

 yard, was that the man repaired his barns in 

 the fall and did not finish in time for the fall 

 rains to fill his cisterns. I went there in mid 

 winter, and found no water in them, and only 

 a stick of timber over the curbs to keep the 

 creatures from falling in. 1 went into both 

 cisterns and found tha inch or so of water 

 which the pump would not draw out, frozen 

 to solid ice. Of course the walls of the 

 cisterns were all frozen solid. When they 

 thawed out they were aa sound as ever. 



Now, if the earth had been clay or loam, or 

 if the cisterns had been made of brick, the 

 cement would have been thrown oflf by the frost. 



There is another great advantage in plaster- 

 ing directly upon such sandy and gravely 

 ground. It saves moving a great quantity of 

 earth. To plaster directly upon the earth we 

 have only to move just the quantity of earth 

 which is required for the capacity of the cis- 

 tern ; whereas to make a brick cistern, in such 

 loose earth, we have to dig the whole depth of 

 the cistern and begin at the bottom to lay the 

 brick. To prevent caving, the top has to be 

 dug three feet or so larger than the diameter 

 of the cistern is to be. Then there is the cost 

 of the brick, all extra, for it requires no more, 

 if as much, cement to make a cistern plastered 

 on the earth as one plastered on to brick. 



I would not advise an inexperienced hand 

 to undertake to make a cistern in earth which 

 has been lately moved, or in wet ground. 



The pipe of the outlet to the cistern should 

 not connect with the sink drain, as the stench 

 will pass into the cistern and injure the water; 

 and should the sink drain happen to fill up 

 below the junction of the pipe, the water from 

 the sink would run back into the cistern. 



A word in regard to cement. There is 

 much poor cement in market. One of the 

 worst kinds is that which contains an excess of 

 lime. Such cement usually sets quick and 

 appears hard and good at first, but in a shorter 

 or longer time, — generally within thirty-six 

 hours, the lime begins to slake and crack the 

 cement, and in some cases, crumbles it as fine 

 as ashes. To distinguish this cement, take 

 enough to make a ball about as large as a 

 butternut ; wet it up into good mortar and 

 make it into the shape of a pyramid, making 

 the surface as smooth as you can. After it 

 has become set, place it under water and let it 

 remain thirty- six hours. If it cracks and falls 

 to pieces, it is not good, but if it does not 

 crack and the surface remains smooth and 

 polished, it is good. A rough surface indi- 

 cates inferior cement. Another peculiarity of 

 some cement is that it shrinks slightly in set- 

 ting, but otherwise it generally makes good 

 hard work. This cement, when plastered on 

 the walls of a cistern, will crack perpendicu- 

 larly in about five places. When made into 

 water pipe, the pipe will break square off 

 every few feet. I know of no way to test this 

 cement, till it is made into work. Cisterns 

 plastered with such cement are easily repaired, 

 by chiselling out a groove wherever the cracks 

 appear, and filling and plastering over with 

 cement. I never knew one to leak after being 

 repaired in this manner. 



There are various other qualities and pecu- 

 liarities of cement, which require practice to 

 distinguish. Properly managed, they gener- 

 ally will make a good cistern ; if not, an addi- 

 tional coat of good cement will make all right. 

 Water pipe requires the best and strongest 

 cement, and no one can successfully follow 



