556 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



so the machine reaper makes him entirely 

 independent of assistance to his reojular 

 force in harvesting. A Manny and Wood 

 reaper, with a hand to drive and another 

 to rake, will certainly do the work of four 

 best cradlers without the danger to health, 

 if not life itself, consequent upon hand 

 harvesting in July. Fifteen acres per diem 

 is a fair average for the work of such a 

 reaper. 



Every farmer knows the importance — in 

 its effect on the value and quantity of his 

 grain harvested — of being able to select 

 his own time for cutting it. A lack of 

 force, causing a delay of from one day to 

 a week, owing to the great variableness of 

 the weather just at that season, not unfre- 

 quently makes a difference of from ten to 

 twenty-five per centum in the money re- 

 alized from the sales of the crop. The 

 farmer who sows three hundred acres to 

 wheat, if harvesting by hand labor alto- 

 gether, should be able to run at least fif- 

 teen cradles to be entirely certain that he 

 wall not be damaged by moist or cloudy 

 weather Not one farmer in a hundred, 

 planting no more than three hundred acres 

 to wheat, is able to set such "a squadron in 

 the field," in addition to the necessary 

 force of binders and rakers. So, if he 

 would use due precaution, he must resort 

 to the machine reapers, keeping as many 

 of them as his crop may require. He 

 would make money hand-over-fist by hav- 

 ing always on hand sufficient to cut his 

 whole crop in four fair working days. We 

 know, from experience, that the wear and 

 tear of the Manny and Wood reaper, when 

 kept properly preserved (when not in use) 

 is so inconsiderable as to amount to almost 

 nothing. Take it, all in all, it is the far- 

 mers' money-saver as well as his money- 

 maker. Our only wonder is that any far- 

 mer, who has as little as thirty acr.'^s of 

 grain and as many of grass to cut annually, 

 ventures to attempt to get on without one, 

 and without a machine drill. But there 

 "is no accounting for tastes" in agricultu- 

 ral matters, as in all things else. 



We repeat, our plan for securing the 

 wheat crop above and beyond most of the| 

 dangers that produce failures, is to seek; 

 to plant only the earliest ripened seed, asj 

 explained above, and to have at command' 

 the means of choosing our own time forj 

 both planting and harvesting, without going' 

 outside of our own premises for any assis-j 



tance whatever. We may add, that the 

 use of a drill certainly saves a peck of seed 

 to the acre sown, and deposits the fertili- 

 zer in the soil just where the farmer wants 

 it ; while the use of the machine reaper 

 secures the crop far better than that can 

 be done by cradling — the per centage of 

 difference being sufficient to make at least 

 a fifth of what may be considered a fail- 

 profit on wheat-growing. 



Facts about Milk. 



The best Temperature to facilitate the raising 

 of Cream, — " Will cream rise on milk in a few- 

 hours in a room where the thermometer is as 

 low as 35° to 45°, as is claimed by persons in- 

 terested in the sale of Schooley's Preservatory. 

 Their philosophy is that the water of the milk 

 is most dense at 39° or 40°, and the cream be- 

 ing lighter, will rise best at that temperature." 

 This is one of the three questions asked by a 

 correspondent in Erie county, on which we will 

 endeavor to throw a little light, and perhaps 

 others may be disposed to continue the subject 

 and draw interesting facts from their stores of 

 experience. Milk is composed of 4.} parts of 

 caseine or curd, 3 butter, 4} sugar, and 87 of 

 water. The lower the temperature, of caurse 

 the more dense the water composing so great a 

 portion of the n»ilk, until it reaches SOg", at 

 which point water begins to expand with the 

 decrease of temperature. The cream would, 

 perhaps, rise more readily at about 39° than at 

 any other temperature, were it not for the fact 

 that the cream as well as the curd is made 

 dense by the low temperature at which it is 

 kept, in about the same ratio as the w^ater, and 

 perhaps greater. 



Every one of experience knows that very lit- 

 tle cream will rise on milk kept at near the 

 freezing point. This arises from the fact above 

 mentioned, that water expands below 39J, while 

 the cream and cui-d become more dense, so that 

 at near 33° there is little difference in gravity 

 between the cream and water. At 40° the 

 cream will rise, but still more rapidly at 50°; 

 and still more so, we judge from our own ex- 

 perience and observation at 60° or 70°, or even 

 75°. From this fact we argue that the oily 

 matter expands by heat more rapidly than wa- 

 ter, and of course condenses by cold in the 

 same ratio. It does not follow, by any means, 

 that it is best to keep milk at such a high tem- 

 perature, for the whole mass might become sour 

 before all the cream would be separated and 

 rise to the surface. By placing a pan of milk 

 over a slow fire and gradually increasing the 

 heat until it reaches the boiling point, all the 

 cream will rise^to the surface in a few minutes. 

 This would seem to prove that the temperature 

 is favorable to the separation. For practical 

 purposes we think a temperature of about 50° 

 or 55° will be found the best. 



