54 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
was sown, and 200 lbs. in the spring. The crop at 
thrashing measured 231 bushels per acre. One acre 
without manure yielded 7 bushels. One acre of 
Clawson wheat, dressed the same as the rye, pro¬ 
duced 18 bushels per acre ; and one acre of Silver 
Chaff wheat without fertilizers was too poor to pay 
for thrashing, and was scattered for the fowls to 
gather. A piece of 3 acres of common white field 
corn was dressed with 600 lbs. per acre of “ corn 
fertilizer,” one half scattered on the plowed 
ground and harrowed in, and the rest sown on the 
surface after planting. The yield was 489 bushels 
of ears, which were not shelled, being ground 
w r hole for cows. A plot of 3 acres of “ White Pro¬ 
lific ” com adjoining, and treated in the same way, 
turned out 379 bushels of ears ; a large portion of 
this plot was sheltered on the west and 
south by close tall woods, so that the yield 
of graiu on nearly half of it was very light. 
One acre of “Evergreen” sweet corn, fertilized 
like the previous plots, produced over 9,000 ears 
which were sold green for $81.16, and a large quan¬ 
tity of small unmarketable ears was left in the fod¬ 
der. This corn was planted in rows 3 feet apart, 
and when growing there were 2 to 3 stalks 18 
inches apart in the row. Half an acre of the same 
kind of sweet com, planted in the same way, and 
manured with $13.50 worth of New York city ma¬ 
nure, produced $34.26 worth of green ears. The 
fodder on the acre plot was far heavier than on 
the half acre. Three acres of potatoes dressed with 
1,800 lbs. of potato fertilizer produced 340 bush¬ 
els ; the potatoes were very small in size on ac¬ 
count of the dry weather and the potato beetles. 
Two rows, without fertilizer, produced only small 
potatoes unfit for table use. A few rows of the field 
com, without fertilizer, did not bear an ear worth 
husking. The soil upon which these crops were 
grown, was a light sandy loam, and had been 
cropped without any manure for the previous year; 
and for several years before that, only portions 
of it with a few hundred pounds of guano and 
bone-dust. All that was grown was due to the 
manure and fertilizers applied. The potato and com 
plots are now sown to rye without any manures, to 
test the effect of the fertilizer in the soil. So far, 
although 6own very late, the rye promises a fair 
crop. There is now a large quantity of manure 
making on the farm, rendered possible by the re¬ 
sults of these fertilizers ; nevertheless, there will 
still be a necessity for the use of them next season. 
Among the Farmers—No. 37. 
BY ONH or THEM 
I have not travelled very much among the farmers 
during the past month, but a goodly number of 
farmers have been among us—farmers that are 
farmers indeed. The great West fairly took New 
York by surprise. Our State dairymen have been 
in the habit of holding their cheese and butter fairs 
at Utica and Rochester, and other interior cities, 
and letting us find a market for their goods if we 
could. The dairy-produce dealers and shipping 
merchants have succeeded in disposing of the con¬ 
stantly increasing products, and have done very 
well in all respects except in keeping up the prices. 
Ex-Governor Seymour has finally induced the 
General Government to include cheese in the army 
rations. We make good cheese in New York, and 
no butter is better than ours—at least for keeping 
and shipping—except, perhaps, the Danish and the 
Irish. And if anybody in this country really makes 
just as good cheese and butter, and can sell them 
at a cent a pound less, we certainly were not anxi¬ 
ous to know it. Nevertheless, the Western dairy 
folks, and the commission merchants, and the salt 
dealers, put their heads together, and the result was 
The Great Dairy Fair. 
I don’t know what the American Agriculturist 
editors have said or will have to say about it, but 
to many of us it was a most enjoyable and instruc¬ 
tive exhibition. The premiums seemed to be 
thrown around “ promiscuous like,” especially 
among the cattle—but then, what do city commit¬ 
tee-men know about milch cows ? One of the most 
interesting features of American dairying of the 
present time is the successful effort to make 
Imitations of Foreign Cheeses. 
Among the readers of the American Agriculturist 
there are hundreds of persons, no doubt, who were 
cheese-makers in the old country. Now if they did 
but know it, and if they know how to do it, they 
can hardly serve the land of their adoption better 
than by making here the delicious cheeses of their 
former homes. Our markets are tolerably well 
stocked now with certain kinds, but there are 
scores of others which will find a ready sale if well 
made. At the Fair, the variety of strange forms 
was almost bewildering. Of course we could not 
test them—that is, the real foreign ones, in blad¬ 
ders and other skins, and in various wrappings; 
but there were American cheeses, bits of which 
were distributed to all comers. For instance, 
“Fromage d’Orange,”—an Orange County cream 
cheese, something like fromage de Brie. It seems 
a pity to damage so nice a cheese with so absurd a 
name, but the maker of it shows enterprise, and 
though doubtless it will become better as more ex¬ 
perience in its manipulation is gained, yet even now 
it is so delicate and agreeable that people will be¬ 
come very fond of it. This reminds me of 
A Way to Make Cream Cheese, 
described to me by one of my neighbors lately. He 
takes good well-ripened pan cream, that is just 
“ turned,” and of uniform consistency throughout. 
This he wraps in a closely woven towel, and hangs 
it up in a cold place, letting it drip ; the little milk 
which is contained in it curdles, and it becomes 
quite firm. After three or four days it is taken out 
of the cloth, salted, put in any convenient form, 
and pressed for a week or so, after which it is fit to 
eat, but improves if kept for a month or more. 
Most of the favorite kinds of English cheese are, it 
is well known, successfully imitated here ; Ameri¬ 
can “ Schweitzer ” (Swiss cheese), and the famous 
and redolent “Limburger,” are so well imitated that 
few suspect when eating them that they are not 
imported. There are many readers of the American 
Agriculturist who might give accounts of their 
methods of cheese-making, which are different 
from the common methods of this country, and 
I hope they will do so. .The Dairy Fair proved 
An Unexpected Success 
in many ways, and it was very amusing to see how 
anxious the New York people were to get the 
“ permanent organization ” out of the hands of the 
Western “ National ” Association, and secure the 
control themselves. A great dairy fair will there¬ 
fore become for a time a regular annual event, in 
New York, Philadelphia, or some other prominent 
seaboard city, and it remains to be seen whether 
the West, with its accustomed generosity, not to 
say with a shrewd eye to the main chance, will 
co-operate as heartily in the others as in this. The 
credit for a good part of what was creditable was 
certainly due to its dairymen. 
Cold Spring: "Water at the Dairy. 
The difficulty of conducting water from cold 
springs any considerable distance underground 
without raising its temperature, is so great that 
milk-houses and dairy-pools are usually built over 
the springs. This often entails great inconvenience, 
yet may be entirely avoided. A plan which has 
been carried out with this result is as follows:— 
The temperature of the spring was never above 52° 
until August, and then only one or two degrees 
higher until it began to fall again in the winter. 
The distance was some 350 feet, and the water ar¬ 
rived at the house at a temperature of 60° to 65°. 
The pipe was a small leaden one. To get cold wa¬ 
ter a f-inch iron-pipe was laid in place of the old 
one. The whole course of the pipe was under¬ 
drained with tile in the same ditch, so that no wa¬ 
ter could ever stand near the pipe. Then the pipe 
was laid in a continuous trough of two 3-inch and 
two 5-inch hemlock strips, packed in charcoal 
dust from an old coal pit or “ hearth.” The sup¬ 
position is, that as the box or trough will never be 
water-soaked, there is no danger that the pipe 
which conducts the water will ever come in con¬ 
tact with any moisture. Now it works admirably— 
delivering the water most of the year at the same 
temperature it has at the spring, and during 
August and September within a single degree of it. 
“Stanchions” for Milch Cows. 
Some weeks ago I visited Lenape Farm, the 
country home of Mr. S. J. Sharpless, and of his 
beautiful Jerseys and South-downs. The cow-stable 
has been lately refitted in a very thorough and com¬ 
plete manner, with cement floors, channels at the 
rear of the 6talls for solid and liquid manure, and 
everything in the most finished and practical man¬ 
ner. I was a little surprised to find a very simple 
and convenient form of stanchion used in the new 
stable. Not that I have either objection to or 
prejudice against them, but there is a general feel¬ 
ing in opposition to them as cruel, and in most 
modem stables, where the health and comfort of 
the cows is especially considered, tie-chains are 
used. If I were to decide whether to use stanchions 
or tie-chains, with particular reference to cleanli¬ 
ness, 1 would favor stanchions; if in regard to 
small liability to accidents, to security, to dura¬ 
bility, and to convenience in handling the cattle, 
and in cleaning out the stable, in each case the de¬ 
cision must be in favor of stanchions. So it really 
appears as if the only objection to them were on 
the humanitarian plea that the cattle suffer. Of 
this there is absolutely no evidence. Cows stand¬ 
ing in them, lying in them, eating in them, give no 
sign of discomfort, but quite the contrary. They 
may be kept in better order on the same feed, be¬ 
cause they are cleaner, more securely confined, are 
not made restless by the ability to look about, and 
to reach after the feed of the adjacent cows. 
It was here in the stanchions that old Nioie, the 
Centennial prize cow, which died last year at the 
age of 18 years, if I remember rightly, dragged out 
her existence, in good health and with a keen appe¬ 
tite, yielding a full mess of milk and bearing a calf 
every year; and into these new “stanchions” will 
come a herd of beautiful and excellent Jerseys, all 
of whose surroundings are studied with care that 
they may produce the best possible income both in 
butter and calves. Mr. Sharpless’ experience is his 
guide, and I have no doubt, were he catechised, he 
would assert his belief that by the use of stanchions 
there is a great saving of labor about the stable ; 
that the milk is sweeter and cleaner, and the butter 
better flavored ; that the cows are in less danger of 
hurting themselves or one another. And for one I 
feel almost glad that my own cow-stable needs re¬ 
newing before long, for then I plan to give my cows 
and my men the comfort of these stanchions. 
Iiight on the Road. 
I have been so annoyed with the glare of the light 
carried at the side of the vehicle, fastened upon the 
dash-board, or attached overhead, all of which 
ways are common with us, that 1 gave up using a 
light altogether until it struck me that the best 
place for a lantern was underneath the wagon. So 
a stout strap and snap-hook were placed just back 
of the forward axletree, and to this a lantern hung. 
It swings about somewhat, and casts the most re¬ 
markable wheel shadows, which make the visible 
world look like a Brierian monster many armed 
and thousand clawey-fingered, in 6pider-like activi¬ 
ty,- enveloping the vehicle, while the shadows of 
the horse’s legs dance a funny jig in front. Never¬ 
theless, the road is well lighted for rods in front, 
and every rut and pebble is plainly seen several feet 
before the wheels. Thi3 contrivance makes driving 
at a moderately fast gait possible on the darkest 
nights, and at a slow trot even pleasant. I must 
add that the “Brierian spider,” just alluded to, 
though only a shadow to us, is no myth to the 
horses, and that they need careful handling or 
leading a few rods, or until they are assured that 
no harm will come to them, and get over their 
natural nervousness, which will soon result. 
Mechanical Condition of the Soli. —Plants 
in their growth collect food from the soil and the 
air. Thin roots penetrate the soil in every direc¬ 
tion, extracting food from the rock particles, and 
storing it up in their stem, leaves, and fruit, for the 
benefit of the cultivator; but they cannot do this if 
