GRASS AND HAY.-SCOTCH LACTOMETER OR CREAM-GAUGE. 
171 
close to the head. It certainly prevents the vice, 
but it endangers the horse, and when long used is 
sure always to bring on derangement of the wind¬ 
pipe; by its use roaring and inflammation of the 
throat and such diseases are frequently produced. 
The muzzle is a better preventive, and is free of 
danger in every respect. There are horses, how¬ 
ever, that will wind-suck without placing their 
teeth against the manger. Such horses can be 
controlled only by the strap, and on them it must 
be used. With it they are in danger, but may be 
useful; without it they are useless, and of course 
worse than worthless, for they consume and pay 
not. 
We have now brought our stable articles to a 
close for the present, and are happy to say, that 
they have had some influence with the public, 
especially in their arrangements for proper ventila¬ 
tion. Several gentlemen in this city and else¬ 
where, have availed themselves of hints thrown out 
in these numbers, and have constructed new stables 
on a plan highly to be commended. We shall 
probably give illustrations and descriptions of one 
or two of these hereafter. To conclude, we say, 
give your horses plenty of fresh air, but keep them 
out of the cold, damp currents; and, furthermore, 
sweeten the atmosphere in the stables, and around 
the premises, by sprinkling plaster of Paris, or 
charcoal dust, or both, over the straw and floor, and 
in the manure. These substances fix the ammonia 
arisingtherefrom, and are in themselves highly fer¬ 
tilizing, so that they not only render the atmo¬ 
sphere pitre around, but add to the value of the ma¬ 
nure heap. By following our directions, disease 
will scarcely be known in stables, and they will 
no longer be considered as nuisances in the vicinity 
of a gentleman’s residence. 
GRASS AND HAY. 
As the season for securing the hay crop is at 
hand, we solicit from our friends who are curious, 
yet economical, in matters of this kind, to give us 
condensed statements of well-tested experiments of 
their mode of culture, and of curing this valuable 
crop. The following extract of a letter from Mr. 
Isaac Bowles, of Winthrop, Me., to the Awarding 
Committee of the Kennebec Co. Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, will show what may be done, even among 
our eastern neighbors, when proper means are 
employed:— 
“ The soil on which my crop of hay grew, is a 
very deep yellow loam, with a clayey rocky sub¬ 
soil. In the spring of 1841 it was plowed, and 
about forty loads of compost manure were evenly 
spread over the piece, and planted to corn. In the 
spring of 1842 it was plowed and sowed to wheat. 
I sowed 30 lbs. of red and white clover and one 
peck of herds grass seed. On the 26th of June, 
1843, my hired help cut the grass of the first crop, 
which had not at this time arrived to heading out, 
and the fifth day after, it was dry enough to haul to 
the barn. The quantity of hay was ascertained by 
putting up the cocks as near of an equal size as we 
could judge. One or more, not larger than an 
average lot, of the same, was weighed, and com¬ 
puting the whole number of cocks by that, found 
these contained 5 tons, 9 cwt, 90 lbs., on one acre- 
and one quarter of land. The second crop was cut 
the fifth day of September. From this crop there 
was 1 ton, 8 cwt., 17 lbs., from the same land, 
making in the whole 6 tons, 18 cwt., 7 lbs.” 
Mr. Bowles, we understand, first prepared his 
land some years ago for a crop of Indian corn, and 
raised one hundred and sixteen bushels to the acre. 
SCOTCH LACTOMETER OR CREAM- 
GAUGE. 
The object of this instrument is to ascertain the 
proportion which the cream bears to the milk, of 
any particular cow, or the produce of a whole 
dairy. If new milk is poured into graduated glass 
tubes, and allowed to remain, the division between 
the cream which floats upon the surface of the 
milk will be so clearly defined, that its depth may 
be easily measured; and should the milk from any 
cow produce more cream than that of another, the 
difference will be seen by the divisions or marks on 
these tubes. The lactometer consists, then, of two 
or more glass tubes, half an inch or more in 
diameter, and eleven inches long, fitted into an up¬ 
right wooden frame; each tube having a fine line 
drawn round it, ten inches from the bottom; three 
inches from the line downward it is graduated into 
inches and tenths of inches. At the time of milk¬ 
ing each tube is to be filled up to the top line with 
new milk. After standing twelve hours, the quan¬ 
tity of cream which floats upon the surface will be 
shown by the scale of inches and tenths; each 
division representing one per cent, of the whole. 
Fig. 47. 
If the amount given at one milking be a gallon, 
or eight pints, and the thickness or depth of cream 
which floats upon the surface of the milk in the 
tube, occupies 14 divisions, or one inch and four- 
tenths of the scale, multiply the number of pints in 
a gallon, 8, by the depth of the cream, .14, and the 
result will be the produce of cream of that gallon, 
namely, 1.12, or one pint and twelve hundredths of 
a pint. 
Care must be observed to fill the tubes as soon as 
the milk is taken from the cow; for, should any 
delay take place, a portion of the cream will have 
risen towards the surface. The milk to be tested 
should be taken from the middle of the pail, which 
may be done by dipping a small pot below the 
froth. 
Muck is the mother of the meal chest.— Old 
Scotch Saying. 
