1882 .] 
AMERICAN A GRICTJLTTTRIST. 
531- 
amount of lime to be added.) The clear juice 
is drawn from the defecator into the evapor¬ 
ating- pan, when sulphuric acid is cautiously 
added, and stirred in until blue litmus paper, 
dipped into it, is reddened. The evaporation 
is continued until the desired density is reach¬ 
ed, when the syrup is placed in a warm room 
to crystalize. Processor Henry, of Wiscon¬ 
sin University, who has made valuable ex¬ 
periments with Amber cane, gives the fol¬ 
lowing preliminary rules: “Do not cut the 
cane until the seed begins to harden. Do not 
allow the cane to stand stripped in the field, 
but work it up as soon as possible after being 
cut. Defecate the juice as soon as possible 
after leaving the mill.” 
A “Two-Story” Milking Stool. 
A convenient milking stool is shown in 
the accompanying engraving. The long 
board, forming the “first floor,” rests upon 
four stout legs. The two rear legs pass up 
A GOOD MILKING STOOL. 
to the short board above, that forms the seat. 
A cleat is placed on the front edge of the 
long board, to keep the pail from sliding off 
of the stool when the person is milking. 
Posts Lifted by Frost. 
The curious expansion of water in freezing, 
and of soils filled with water, has a telling ef¬ 
fect upon fence posts standing in damp 
ground. The top soil around a fence post, if 
dry, or only slightly moist, does not affect 
the post during winter. But if the particles 
of soil are saturated with water, on freezing 
the whole expands an eighth, so that, when 
frozen eight inches deep, the post is lifted an 
inch out of the lower unfrozen soil. If the 
frost penetrates sixteen inches, the post rises 
two inches. When the frost leaves, and the 
surface soil sinks back, the post remains two 
inches out of the ground. A few freezings 
Fig. 1.— POST LIFTED BY FROST. 
of the surface will thus inevitably throw the 
post out so far as to render it useless, unless 
it is driven down every spring before the open 
space left at its bottom is filled by soil washed 
in. For this reason it is advisable to make 
the extreme lower ends of fence and other 
posts a little tapering, or at least to clip off 
the bottom corners so that they can be driven 
down more easily when lifted. We will say 
now in advance, that all fence and other 
2. WALL ON A RIDGE. 3. WALL ON LEVEL GROUND. 
posts should be examined early every spring, 
and those at all lifted be driven back with a 
beetle or sledge hammer. A stitch in time 
will save nine, here. On naturally dry, or 
drained land, the above trouble will not be 
experienced, except at places where water 
flows through them from a higher to a lower 
level, thus keeping them wet, or very damp. 
Destroying Stone Fence Walls. 
When these stand on water-saturated soil, 
the expansion by cold, if uniform on both 
sides, does not affect them. But almost in¬ 
variably, especially if running in any direc¬ 
tion but north and south, and often then, the 
soil under them will be more frozen or sooner 
thawed on one side than on the other, and 
thus they will be thrown out of perpendicu¬ 
lar, and more or less disturbed. Only four 
inches of frozen wet ground under one side 
of a stone wall, and none under the other, 
will lift the frozen side half an inch, or 
enough to tilt five inches to one side the top 
of a wall five feet high and two feet thick at 
the bottom—enough to greatly disturb it, and 
ultimately throw it down. A wall set down 
two or three feet deep in the ground will be 
similarly affected, if water stands around its 
base. There are two remedies. One is to 
rim a drain under or near the wall, deep 
enough to carry off all standing water about 
it, below the freezing point. The other is, to 
raise the earth into a ridge before the wall is 
built, high enough to have it always dry. 
This is readily done by successive plowings, 
turning the furrows to the center of where 
the wall is to stand. The saving of founda¬ 
tion stone will far more than cover the cost 
of raising the ridge ; and the fence will not 
need to be so high if standing on such a 
ridge, as animals will not jump it so well 
when they must spring from ground rising 
in front of them. 
Farmers and their Health. 
By “farmers” we include, of course, their 
wives and children, and we have often 
thought, with the general lack of precautions 
for preserving health, what wonderful consti¬ 
tutions we have inherited. Were it not that 
we have had a great store of vigor from our 
ancestors to draw upon, we should have been 
long ago a nation of invalids. But as one can 
not always draw upon a bank account with¬ 
out adding to his deposits, so, sooner or later, 
if we continue to violate all the laws of health, 
our drafts will be met with—“no funds.” 
The farmer, of all men, needs health, and far¬ 
mers, as a rule, are the most healthy of all 
people, and this in spite of a general neglect 
of the sanitary laws. If we were to say that 
we proposed to make some “Hygienic Sug¬ 
gestions,” they would probably be passed by. 
So we give some suggestions about keeping 
well.—One of the general rules given for every 
one, in all climates, is to take a daily bath, 
or, at least, a bath once in every 48 hours. A 
daily bath, as generally understood, is impos¬ 
sible to most farmers ; but a pail of water and 
a large towel is within reach of every farmer 
and every one else. Wet one end of the towel, 
and go over the whole body, and rub dry with 
the other end. If two towels can be afforded, 
all the better, but a large one, properly used, 
will answer. The comfort of a bath of this 
kind to the farmer after a day’s work in the 
field, when his skin is covered with dust, has 
only to be experienced to make it a custom. 
The caution is : bathe so quickly, and rub 
dry so briskly, as not to get at all chilly. 
On going to bed, change the clothes, and if 
those taken off are to be worn the next day, 
turn them so that they may air and dry 
thoroughly.—In eating, especially in warm 
weather, “go slow.” Do not come in, hot 
from work, and at once sit down at the table, 
but take time to cool off, and at meals, eat 
slowly. Many look upon the time spent at 
meals as wasted, while it is really of the 
greatest importance. Eat slowly, and chew 
well. If you can prolong the time at meals 
by pleasant conversation, do so. Do not be 
in a hurry to resume work after meals in hot 
weather. Take a long nooning. Better spir¬ 
its, and increased vigor and strength, will 
far more than make up the time taken to rest. 
A general fault of our sleeping rooms is 
lack of ventilation. One reason for this is 
the attempt to keep out flies and mosquitoes, 
by closing the rooms during the day. Frames 
upon which wire-cloth, or the cheaper mos¬ 
quito netting is stretched, will keep out insects 
and allow of needed ventilation. 
Farmers who work all day, are not often 
troubled with sleeplessness, insomnia, as it 
is called ; yet it is in some cases a disease, and 
the more fatigued one may be, the less he is 
inclined to sleep. A brisk walk before bed¬ 
time, and a sponging and rubbing of the whole 
body, with a wet towel around the head, will 
often break up the very unpleasant habit. 
Farmers are very apt to neglect their teeth. 
Every one should have a tooth-brush, not too 
hard, and brush the teeth, using water freely, 
on going to bed and again on rising. 
Hoisting Beef. 
The engraving herewith given illustrates 
a method of hoisting beef, sent us by a 
subscriber. It consists of a log-roller fit¬ 
ted in two bed-pieces, and provided with 
levers. The “windlass” is placed over a 
A BEEF HOISTER. 
trap-doorway in the floor, and the beef is 
raised as seen in the above illustration. 
