500 
[December, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Weighing Sheep and Calves. 
In addition to the method of weighing; live ani¬ 
mals described in the November number, page 463, 
we give another, sent by Mr. J. M. Brotherton, 
Dover, N. J., who has practised it for a number of 
years, and finds it the best method for small ani¬ 
mals. Instead of the usual tying together of the 
feet of the sheep or calf, hooking the steelyards to 
the fastening cord, or strap, and stringing up the 
creature by its legs, the strap is passed below the 
neck, and in front of the hind legs, and the parts of 
the strap brought together over the back, when 
they are hooked to the steelyard. The animal is 
raised clear from the ground, and is weighed in a 
standing position, much to its comfort. The meth¬ 
od is shown in the illustration (fig. 1). “ One tiling 
suggests another,” and Mr. Brotherton’s method 
brings to mind one which we practised on the farm 
years ago. Instead of putting the rope or strap in 
front of the animal’s hind legs, we passed it behind 
Fig. 2.— METHOD FOR SMALL SHEEP. 
them, as shown in figure 2, and brought the two 
parts together at the top, as in the first case. The 
strap was tied of the right length to make a loop, 
and slipped first over the head, and then around 
the back of the hind legs, all of which was the 
work of an instant, and the animal, raised into the 
air, was weighed before it thought of kicking. 
Among the Farmers—No. 47. 
BY ONE OF THEM. 
I know of no subject exciting so much thought 
among fanners just now, as the general one of 
milk, and among most farmers, though at first they 
may have little to say, after a while, thought means 
a good deal of talk, which will have its results. 
We are just beginning to talk it over, and I have 
questions asked me, which I cannot answer, and 
which, so far as I can find, Mr. Willard and “Prof.” 
Arnold, and Dr. Sturtevant are either silent about, 
or what they say is not entirely satisfactory. 
What Starts the Milk Souring: P 
Does the milk begin to sour as soon as drawn ? 
Not perceptibly. As I understand it, the action is 
explained thus: Milk consists of water, about 87 per 
cent; cheese, 31 per cent; butter, 4 per cent; milk- 
sugar, 41, and a little soda and ash. Of these the 
oily portion is by far the most stable. Milk-sugar 
in solution with soluble nitrogenous substances 
the least so, especially if the solution is alkaline, 
and milk is decidedly alkaline. When the air 
comes in contact with such a solution, it acts at 
once upon the milk-sugar, converting it into lactic 
acid. This action is most rapid when the milk is 
warm, and at a temperature of 80° or 90° the alka¬ 
line character disappears very quickly, because of 
the change of the sugar into lactic acid, thus neu¬ 
tralizing the soda. We all know how soon milk 
loses that peculiar sweet flavor of new milk. This 
indicates the necessity of speedily cooling it, as 
low at least as to 60°, at which temperature this 
souring effect is much less active. The acid formed 
by the oxidizing of the milk-sugar is taken care 
of by the free soda, a small quantity of which will 
neutralize a much larger quantity of the acid. So 
we do not observe that the milk is growing sour 
for some time, but only that it is no longer so sweet. 
When milk is shut away from the action of the 
air, does this effect cease ?—No, it does not. That 
we can answer positively. But if the air is exclud¬ 
ed, and a low temperature be given at the same 
time, the action is reduced probably to a minimum. 
Milk in a sealed bottle, kept at the natural temper¬ 
ature of the weather, though milked into the bottle 
and sealed at once, sours and becomes acid—al¬ 
most as quickly as milk in open pans, and when 
opened and poured out, often has a close disagree¬ 
able odor. If cooled before bottling, and kept 
cool, it not only remains sweet much longer, but 
this odor is not developed, or only sparingly per¬ 
ceptible. Milk put up in bottles, as is fast com¬ 
ing to be the fashion, will have a disagreeable odor 
after standing, unless it be drawn in a most cleanly 
way, exposed as little as possible to the air of the 
stable or yard, and cooled before closing the bottle. 
A few months ago we heard a good deal about 
Living 1 Organisms 
floating in the air, and being the prime cause of all 
fermentation and decay. How far dairymen ought 
to take these mythical things into account I can 
not tell, but though it may be all quite true—cer¬ 
tain it is, we can not afford to keep our milk from 
exposure to the air. Air seems to do it more good 
than any thing else, except cooling; but the air 
must be pure. 
Effect of Impure Air on Milk. 
Most odors are gaseous in their nature, and fol¬ 
low the laws of gaseous diffusion. One of these 
is that each particle of gas is constantly exerting 
its repulsive force towards every other particle of 
the same kind of gas; or, in other words, it is try¬ 
ing to get as far from every one of its kindred as 
possible. Thus odors in following this law actual¬ 
ly travel against the wind, if not too strong, as well 
as, of course, in every other direction. When, there¬ 
fore, any gas is set free, it at once diffuses itself all 
about, going as far and as fast as it can; and con¬ 
versely, when by means of any absorbing substance 
or surface, a gas or an odor is withdrawn from 
any open space, other particles rush in at once and 
fill the space, and are in turn absorbed, their places 
being taken by other particles, which yield in turn 
to others, and so on. 
Milk as an Absorbent. 
Milk is well known as a wonderfully active ab¬ 
sorbent of odors. Butter has long been famous for 
the same quality. Every school-boy knows that 
attar of rose is prepared in Turkey by exposing thin 
films of butter near fresh rose leaves, just plucked, 
and giving off their delicious fragrance. Milk is 
filled with particles of butter, and it is probably 
due to this that it absorbs odors so actively. 
There are several of the experiences of common 
life which indicate natural laws worth our heeding. 
Every farmer’s wife knows that, if her milk is ex¬ 
posed so that it absorbs evil odors, the butter will 
not only be tainted, but it will not keep. Butter 
which absorbs the odors of filth of any kind—those 
of a close musty cellar, stale fish, decaying vegeta¬ 
bles, etc.—will not keep, even though when first 
made it was perfect in fragrance and substance. 
The milk itself, which absorbs odors of the cow or 
stable, will sour just as quickly, and perhaps 
quicker, than if it had been defiled with specks of 
dung. While experiments show that milk careful¬ 
ly drawn in such cleanly stables as those of Echo 
Farm, or in any way free from both material and 
gaseous defilement, will keep sweet many hours 
after that drawn with only ordiuary care has be¬ 
come unfit for use. We should not forget that 
Butter-Making: Begins at the Stable. 
The best butter-maker in the world will fail to 
get first quality butter if the cows are milked in a 
dirty stable. It is not long ago that a New Jersey 
farmer asked me how he could best market his but¬ 
ter, which he said was exceedingly good. He en¬ 
larged upon his high grade Alderneys and the 
quality of his pastures and water. Afterwards I 
went out to see a cow I wanted to buy, and he sat 
down at milking-time to let me judge of her flow.— 
I certainly never saw a dirtier pail of milk. Specks 
of dirt, dust, dandruff, hairs, etc., etc., peppered 
the top, and swashed about on the bottom as the 
pail was emptied. He got only 18 or 20 cts. for 
his butter, and I think it was worth no more. Does 
not this filth flavor the milk, the cream, and the 
butter?—Most assuredly it does. This is only ob¬ 
vious filth ; the invisible and more potent volatile 
exhalations from the manure and the urine-satura¬ 
ted floors, and all the mal-odorous surroundings of 
most cow-stables, usually have a still greater influ¬ 
ence. When milk is once contaminated, nothing 
can be done which will entirely do away with the 
effect. Part of the evil may be removed by thorough 
airing of the milk as it is cooled before setting. 
Shallow setting no doubt favors th; remaval of 
these odors, and aeration during churning has an 
important effect. But, here as in many other things, 
the fountain-head is the spot at which reform should 
be commenced. I was thinking of this impor¬ 
tant matter the other day when reading about 
The Efforts to Keep Bad Milk Out of the City. 
Dr. White, with his police squad, boarded a North 
River steamboat which brings down milk from up 
the river. They used their floating specific gravity 
indicator, called a “Lactometer”—and all the milk 
in which it did not float pretty well up (95° was 
their standard, pure milk being 100°) was remorse¬ 
lessly poured into the river. This was a hard and 
wholesome lesson—but a great waste. It would 
have made a great many pigs happy, and though it 
is just the kind of milk we do not want sold in the 
City of New York. The Doctor probably knows 
very well that the addition of an imperceptible 
amount of salt would have raised his hydrometer 
high enough to have made the worst watered milk 
of the lot pass muster. The farmers and milkmen 
know it if he does not—one of them told me how to 
do it the other day. The true policy for the Health 
Board is, to allow no milk to be brought into the 
city except in sealed cans or boxes bearing the 
dairyman’s mark, or name in full, and to allow 
none to come, or to be sold, except from establish¬ 
ments duly examined and licensed by the Board of 
Health, as fit places for the production of this most 
important aliment for the children of the city. The 
Inspector for the Board of Health would of course 
board trains, boats, or wagons, or take the milk 
wherever found, sample the cans, and re-seal with 
his own seal if need be. The samples would be 
analyzed carefully. Water detected, salt detected, 
the presence of diseased milk ascertained, etc.— 
and thus an oversight maintained at the consumer’s 
end of the line, as at present. Besides, the Board 
would have a list of the names of every milk pro¬ 
ducer who sent as much as 40 quarts to the city, 
and an Inspector with power simply to advise in the 
country, and to report facts to the Board, who 
might at any time forbid the reception and sale of 
the milk of certain stables or farms, and revoke the 
licenses of the farmers. There is no end of pains 
and watchfulness to keep the Croton pure and fit 
to drink, and yet the drink of the babies is permit¬ 
ted to be sold from stables reeking with filth, drawn 
from cows in all stages of disease, fed upon the 
slops of the distillery or the refuse of the brewery, 
which is better fit for manure than as a milk-pro¬ 
ducing diet for cows ; and this same milk is diluted 
with one-tenth to one-fourth part water taken from 
any old pump in the city, or any road-side brook or 
pool in the country. [Perhaps the frog found by 
the inspectors in one can, came there in this 
way.— Ed.] If the good farmers who ship their 
