1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
217 
A Hay -rack for a Farm- wagon. 
In a recent visit to Beacon Stock-Farm, at 
Northport, L. L, to inspect Mr. Crozier's pigs 
and piggeries, we saw several farm appliances 
which may be new to many of our readers. We 
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Fig. 1.— HAT-RACK SEEN FROM ABOVE. 
present illustrations of a hay-rack, a tin bottle 
fur administering medicine to animals, and a 
simple contrivance for regulating the tempera- 
ture of cream. The hay-rack is intended to be 
used with a common farm-wagon. Figure 1 
Fig. 2. — HAT-RACK IN PERSPECTIVE. 
is a perspective view, and figure 2 shows the 
same thing looked upon from above. Four 
joists, to correspond with the length and 
width of the wagon-box, are taken as the 
foundation. The shorter or end-pieces are 
laid upon the longer or side-pieces, and firmly 
pinned to them. The end-pieces project far 
enough beyond the side-pieces to receive 
two boards, which run parallel with the" 
side-pieces; these boards are long enough to 
allow two end-boards to be secured to them, 
and these end boards iu turn support two more 
long boards, and the whole is finished by the 
addition of two boards for end-pieces. It will 
be seen by the figures that there are three tiers, 
one of joist and two of boards, laid up cob- 
house fashion, each tier being larger than the 
one beneath it by the width of a board. A 
piece across the joists in the middle, and two 
short pieces at the center of the planks, give 
the requisite stiffness. The rack is held iu 
its place upon the wagon-box by meaus of 
wooden pins, driven into the joists at such dis- 
tances as the size of the box requires. 
The Art of Making Good Butter. 
BT JIBS. 6E0. WOOD, OF W TT.T T > MB PORT, o. 
Milk. — First, you must have good, healthy 
young cows. They require good food and uni- 
form feeding. They should be salted twice a 
week, and have fresh running water daily. 
Second, the cow must be milked as thoroughly 
and as rapidly as strength will permit ; then, 
after standing 5 to 10 minutes, she must be 
stripped, so that she will be left dry; for a 
pint of strippiugs will make far more butter 
than a gallon of the first drawn milk. The 
milk should be strained immediately. My ex- 
perience is, that a large two-gallou stone crock 
is best for setting, and should remain standing 
for 48 hours iu moderate temperature (about 
60°) before skimming. 
Cream. — Chum every other morning iu cool 
weather, but, when warm, churning should be 
done every morning, and the cream kept in as 
cool a place as possible; also, put a large lump 
of ice in the cream over night, which will have 
no effect on the butter ; but if the ice were put 
iu the butter, it would spoil it. The milk should 
be skimmed every 2-1 or 36 hours. 
I place the crock of milk in wa- 
ter from 8 to 10 inches deep, 
when the cream rises in the 
above-stated time (24 to 36 hours), 
and the milk seldom gets sour. 
Washing and Cleansing the 
Utensils. — The only method I 
know of, that will thoroughly 
cleanse milking-vessels, is, to add 
to 10 gallons of water a half 
gallon of clean, strong wood- 
ashes, and let it come to a boil ; 
wash the stone crocks in warm 
water, theu run them around iu the boiling 
lye, and wash in warm water. This process 
will do for the buckets, ladles, the churn, etc. 
No other mode will purify the rancidness that 
will accumulate in a dairy. After washing 
and rinsing the crocks, 
expose them to the air and 
sun ; they will be as sweet 
as when first brought from 
the store. Once a month 
will be sufficient for this 
cleansing. All good dairy- 
women know that the uten- 
sils should be washed in 
boiling water after using. 
Churning. — My plan is to never let the cream 
stand over 48 hours after it is skimmed, and I 
find no difficulty iu churning. In midwinter, 
proceed as follows : Stand the cream near the 
fire, where it will become quite warm; theu let 
it cool rapidly ; add 
more cream the 
next skimming, and 
so on until the 
fourth skimming. 
Let it stand all 
night, and in the 
morning scald out 
the churn before 
usiug. In case the 
cream is too cold, 
add a little boiling 
water. When the 
churning is fiuish- 
cd,the butter should 
be drained and well 
worked ; and ou 
no account should 
the butter be wash- 
ed, for this reason 
will get stron 
Keeping. — The best mode I ever discovered 
is to make each roll separate, wrapping a clean 
thick cloth around it tightly, theu place in a 
tub as tight and close together as you can ; 
cover with a brine, which is made as follows i 
To 5 gallons of spring-water, add 5 lbs. of 
coarse salt, 2 oz. of saltpetre, 8 to 10 oz. of the 
best loaf-sugar, all well dissolved. This should 
cover 100 lbs. of butter, and preserve the same 
for six months or more. 
Coloring. — I have never found it necessary to 
use anything to color butter, but by observing 
the preceding rules, in summer and winter, 
have always had good golden butter. This is 
the experience of the past 18 years of farm life. 
Butter for market should be made into rolls 
of convenient size — say 2'| i lbs. iu a roll, and 
confined in a thin muslin cloth, rinsed iu salt- 
water, then placed in a tub, around which 
should be a woolen matting. 
When the above process is used, you can send 
butter one hundred miles in midsummer, and it 
will keep better than if packed iu ice. I would 
say, for the benefit of the farmers, that they- 
caunot take 12 or 15 head of cattle (aud give 
them all the feed they can possibly eat), and 
make half the money off the feed that they 
could with that number of cows. Then, butter- 
making is the most healthy exercise a person 
can take while the warm air that arises 
from a bucket of fresh milk is worth more than 
all the beverages ever produced. It would be 
well for young ladies to profit by this. 
A Scraper, or Ground Leveler. 
ET SAMUEL T. VARIAN, PLAIKTIELD, X. J. 
A beautiful lawn or meadow is one of the 
most attractive features of the countrv. 
Fig. 1. — SIDE VIEW OF SCRAPER. 
A, A. Runners, two-inch plank, twelve feet long, twelve inches wide ; B, B. Braces 
between runners ; C, Pole for horses ; E, Scraper, two-inch plank, fifteen inches -wide, 
with tenon on each cud to enter augur-holes, in runners forming axis, upon which the 
scraper works ; F. Iron or steel plate let in flush with scraper ; G, Iron plates or battens 
to prevent splitting ; H, Handles to operate scraper ; /, Iron shoes ; A* Platforms on which 
driver and operator stand. 
D 
if you wash butter, it 
in half the time it would by ex- 
tracting the milk without washing ; it must be 
worked out,or the butter will soon become rancid. 
Salting. — To 12 
pounds of butter use ., 
a pound aud a half of 
salt, well worked in, 
and put in a cool 
place until the next 
morning ; then work 
again, working out 
the brine which will 
accumulate, which is 
almost equivalent to 
the amount of salt 
put iu. If the butter 
is made for packiug 
purposes, work it the third 
make into rolls of convenient 
The expensiveness of a nicely graded surface, 
produced by ordinary means, prevents many 
persons from doiug what would afford to them- 
selves and others a vast amount of pleasure. 
r ~r-> n rm .4. 
B 
Fig. 2. — PLAN OF SCRAPER. — THE LETTERING THE SAME AS ON FIG. 1. 
moruing, 
size. 
and 
Farmers would be amply repaid for a little ex- 
tra work iu smoothing off their land, when ia 
