1881.] 
AMERICAS' AGRICULTURIST. 
279 
their profitable growth and increase. Sick¬ 
ness will sometimes come with the very best 
management, and when it does, it is better to 
employ skilled hands to cure than to ‘ ‘ doctor ” 
and “physic,” and perhaps kill the valuable 
animal, yourself, that under proper treatment 
might have been saved at a trifling expense. 
Farmers’ Consciences. 
BY COL. M. C. WELD. 
Is there any more uncomfortable feeling 
than that one has been cheated, over-reached, 
defrauded, or humbugged ? One ought indeed 
to feel a good deal more uncomfortable when 
he is conscious that he has himself been the 
cheat, over-reacher, or fraud. 
Very few of us farmers will plan to de¬ 
fraud any particular person. We know it is 
dishonest to give short measure, so we lay 
ourselves out to be exact. The man of a 
liberal spirit will make sure to give good 
weight, if he is selling to a near neighbor, but 
how will it be if the article is to be sold in 
the open market ? The measure will not be 
quite so liberal, for the obvious fact that a 
barely perceptible shortcoming on each half 
bushel will yield quite a handsome profit in 
the aggregate. If that be so—who is cheated ? 
Cheating the great public does not lie with 
any special weight upon anybody’s con¬ 
science. We have a sort of feeling that the 
account is balanced. We do not get, as a 
rule, so much for any crop as we think it 
ought to bring, so we shorten our measure a 
little bit, or we degrade the quality, barely 
perceptibly, and no doubt do it all with 
“ A Good Conscience !” 
This does not allow a man to cheat his 
neighbor, though he may be sure of never 
being found out, but permits one to top off 
barrels of apples with the fairest and best; 
another to ship baled hay loaded with fire¬ 
wood,“all weighed in ; yet another to take a 
few dippers of cream off the morning’s milk, 
“just for family use,” when it is shipped at 
evening. “A good conscience ” argues that 
there is no harm in it because the goods are 
sold in the open market and “ caveat emptor” 
(look out, buyer !) is good law, in fact, the law; 
for if the “ buyer ” does not “ look out ,” it is 
his own fault if he is cheated. So we argue. 
Public Inspectors. 
The farce of public inspection is another 
way of quieting unruly consciences, and of 
inducing “ honest ” men to cheat a little. I 
know that in New York, for instance, the 
people try to protect themselves by having a 
Board of Health, with an incorruptible scien¬ 
tific man at its head, who, not being a pol¬ 
itician, not being a lawyer, and skilled in 
guile, but being trained to exactness, to 
chemistry and truth, will stand between the 
farmers and dealers who water their milk 
and steal cream, and the babies who are in¬ 
jured by the thin and innutritious stuff. 
Our farmer “ with a conscience void of 
offence,” argues thus : If the milk is not up 
to the standard, the inspectors of the Board 
of Health will throw it out, or pour it out, or 
pretend to find frogs in it, or something ; if 
they pass it, it must be all right. ‘ ‘ My milk 
is really better than it needs to be—a little 
cream will not be missed, and if I add a little 
pure skimmed milk it is much better than 
adding water, if the adulteration is not de¬ 
tected ; thus the pious farmers ease their 
minds, and when they read of the children 
that come to their death annually in our 
great cities, because their food, which is 
chiefly milk, lacks nutriment, or lacks rich¬ 
ness, they say : “Ah ! those rascally inspec¬ 
tors, they pass a great deal of poor milk. It 
is too bad.” So it is. 
Back in the country somewhere I think I 
hear a farmer say : “Our milk goes to the 
creamery, and the agent makes beautiful but¬ 
ter. The skim milk is condensed and it is just 
as good as Borden’s. In fact most people can’t 
tell the difference.” Perhaps good Mr. Bor¬ 
den was too conscientious, if condensed 
skimmed milk and condensed whole milk 
can not be distinguished. Why should we 
be so particular? At any rate if there is 
fraud it is on the agent’s soul, not on the 
farmer’s. And yet the agent would have 
notice to quit, if he did not make his 
creamery pay as well as the one over the hill, 
which, being nearer the railroad, can ship 
skimmed milk to be sold “ on the platform.” 
The agent of the far-away creamery cannot 
sell skimmed milk nor can he condense it 
very well—so he makes it into skim cheese, 
and enriches it with beautiful, pure, “but- 
terine,” which we all know is made of the 
very nicest lard! 
That was a most happy discovery that 
lard, either alone or rendered with some other 
fats, could be made to combine with poor 
curds so as to replace the butter-fat and make 
a firm, rich cheese, and yet, though so bene¬ 
ficial in all its bearings, good Deacon Taylor, 
who sends his milk to this creamery, says he 
hopes that no lard is put into the cheese that 
is made from his milk, and he is glad that he 
and his neighbors, though they do not realize 
quite so much for their milk as if they lived 
nearer the city, are removed from the temp¬ 
tation of skimming, and adding water. 
» 
The Laws of Trade 
presuppose a degree of willingness to cheat 
on the part of the seller, and a necessity for 
shrew r dness on the part of the buyer. So it 
has been since Solomon’s time or before. “ ‘It 
is naught—it is naught,’ said the buyer, and 
when he had gone then he boasteth.” 
Ensilage—Its “Outs.” 
“ I want to know the outs of ensilage,” 
writes a friend in a recent letter. Knowing 
his way of putting things, we may amplify 
his pointed request to read thus : 
“ As in most new things of the kind, those 
who succeed with their silos are very enthu¬ 
siastic over the matter ; they at first see only 
the favorable features ; whatever drawbacks 
there may be are overlooked, and without 
intending it, their accounts are partial. If 
any have failed altogether, they feel too 
keenly the ridicule of their ‘ I told you so ’ 
neighbors to publish their failure to a larger 
circle ; hence we hear from only the success¬ 
ful ones. Now what I wish to know is : 
What are the disadvantages of Ensilage? 
That fodder will keep in a silo so long as it is 
kept closed, I have no doubt. The keeping is 
but half the battle—how about the spending ? 
Is there no loss of fodder after the silo is 
opened ? If a loss, how much ? The fodder 
when exposed is said to become intensely 
sour ; what is the effect of continued feeding 
of corn-fodder with vinegar?” These ques¬ 
tions and many more must be answered in 
time, if present experience does not allow it 
to be done now. The time is at hand when 
silos, if built at all this year, must be made 
ready for the crop. If any have found seri- | 
ous defects in the method, it is as much their 
duty to give them, as to publish successes. 
Our own notion is, that in some form Ensi¬ 
lage will be largely followed, at least upon 
dairy farms. What we now need is some 
modification of the process that will place its 
advantages within the reach of the farmer 
who keeps but few cows, and whose dairy 
operations are but a part of his general farm¬ 
ing. Whoever will give us this modifica¬ 
tion will be a benefactor to our agriculture. 
Reins for Three Horses Abreast. 
We have given, in past years, a number of 
different methods of arranging the reins for 
REINS FOR THREE HORSES ABREAST. 
driving three horses abreast. Mr. Wm. Toole, 
Sauk Co., Wis., sends a description of his 
method, and from his sketch the engraving 
here given is made. He writes: “Use the 
common two-horse lines for the outside 
horses, and snap the branch lines into the bit 
of the middle horse. A pair of additional 
branch lines are needed, which should be 
about six inches longer than the others, with 
buckles for adjusting their length, and a snap 
at each end. Run these branch lines through 
the rings of the middle harness, and snap 
them into the bits of the outside horses. 
Cross the other ends over the back of the 
middle horse and snap them into the buckle 
of the reins.”—The method of arrangement 
of the reins is clear from the above engraving. 
Mot Weatlaei* Mints. —To-day, May 
12, the temperature has been 100 degrees in 
the shade with us, and the severe heat has 
been too great for human comfort. There 
are some precautions which the present high 
temperature prompts us to offer to those who 
are obliged to labor out of doors in the hot 
sun. Avoid drinking large quantities of cold 
water; it is better, if possible, to take small 
draughts at frequent intervals. If some of 
the cold water is poured upon the wrists, or 
held upon the temples, or both, the tempera¬ 
ture of the body will be rapidly reduced, and 
with better effect upon the system than if 
taken internally. A light, white hat is far 
more comfortable than a black, heavy one, 
and if it has a wet cloth, or even a fresh cab¬ 
bage-leaf, placed in the crown, it will be all 
the more cool and comfortable. A light hand¬ 
kerchief tied loosely about the neck, will pro¬ 
tect it from the burning sun. A bath at night is 
very refreshing, but should not be prolonged. 
