202 
AMERICAN AGRIOTJLT ORIST. 
[Mat 
A British Columbia Beef Raiser. 
Mr. “M. L.,” of Spallumchean, B. C., 
writes us :—“ I enclose a sketch of a British 
Columbia way of elevating beeves, in dressing. 
Two posts are set about. 15 feet high. A deep 
mortice is cut in the top of each to receive 
the roller, which is grooved at the points of 
turning. One end of the roller extends be¬ 
yond the post, and through this end three 
two-inch holes are bored. Three light poles 
are put through these holes, and their ends 
Fig. 1.— A BEEF KAISER. 
connected by a light rope. In raising the beef 
the middle of a stout rope is thrown over the 
roller ; the ends are drawn through the loop, 
and after the beef is fastened to the loose 
ends the roller is turned against the loop by 
means of the “sweep,” or lever arms. A 
heavy beef can be easily raised, and may be 
fastened at any hight desired, by tying the 
end of one of the levers to the post with a 
short rope.”....—The same writer sends us 
“ A Hint for Pig Killing.— We lay a log 
chain across the scalding trough, and put the 
pig upon it. Cross the chain over the animal, 
Fig. 2.— SCALDING A PIG. 
and a man at each end of the chain can easi¬ 
ly turn the pig in the scald, or work it to and 
fro as desired.” 
'I'lie Use of Lime.—A fertile soil con¬ 
tains considerable organic matter, which in 
decomposing yields food for the growing 
plants. If this decomposition is so slow that 
an insufficient amount of food is rendered 
fit for the crop, lime will often hasten decay 
and add to the available stock of fertility in 
the soil. It is seldom needed directly as food, 
because very few soils are devoid of con¬ 
siderable lime, but its decomposing power 
changes other soil ingredients to a form in 
which they can enter the roots of the plants. 
Lime may thus be considered a stimulant, 
and unless there is organic matter in the soil 
for it to act upon, there is seldom any use of 
applying it. It may even exhaust a soil too 
rapidly of its organic matter. Lime should be 
applied soon after burning, while still caustic, 
and intimately mixed with the soil. Ground, 
unburned lime-stone is of little value, except 
perhaps on some few soils that chance to be 
without any lime, and such soils are rare. 
Judging Milk by Test or Taste. 
Few milk producers know the ordeal to 
which their milk is subjected when a good 
judge examines the can. If milk is scarce, 
buyers are easily satisfied, but when abundant 
in spring and early summer, they become 
critical. As the weather grows warmer, milk 
does not keep so well. Stables are filthier, 
the dung heaps higher, and reeking with foul 
odors ; the cows are shedding their coats, and 
their flanks are gradually' becoming denuded 
of the “scale armor” which has been accu¬ 
mulating all winter. All these are causes, di¬ 
rect or indirect, of “cowey” odor in the milk, 
dirt in the bottom of the can, poor flavor of 
the milk and cream, and the butter or cheese, 
and poor keeping quality. The receiver of 
milk at a factoiy, or creamery, if he knows 
his business, will be just as particular about 
receiving milk in good order, as is the city milk 
dealer about that he accepts from the farmer, 
to be paid for at the end of the fortnight. 
In fact, the fore-handed city milk dealer gen¬ 
erally manages to be quite independent of 
his milk producers. As soon as milk is plenty' 
he will be in receipt of a few cans more than 
he absolutely needs, so he can cull out a few, 
which he condemns to be sold for what they 
will bring, or if there is no sale, he ships them 
back to the farmer upon whom the loss falls. 
It is rare that the farmer, fresh from' the cow 
stable, his boots, clothes, whiskers, and hands 
smelling as “cowey” as stable litter, can per¬ 
ceive anything wrong in the milk, while the 
full knowledge that he has shipped a great 
deal worse milk than that all winter, and at 
the same time been much more liberal in 
dousing in pail-rinsings than he is nowa¬ 
days, makes him feel as if he were unjustly 
dealt with, which is far from true. This leads 
us to the point of telling how milk is judged. 
1st—“ Scientific ” Judgineiit. 
A young doctor has the top taken from a 
can—it is a question if he could do it himself 
without a mallet. He feebly stirs the milk, 
notes the temperature, takes a sample of milk 
and fills a glass in which he puts his lactom¬ 
eter, and notes the point at which the lac¬ 
tometer floats, and corrects the reading by 
the temperature, and arrives approximately 
at the specific gravity, or the density, of the 
milk. The result is absolutely valueless, for 
by the removal of a portion of cream 
and the addition of a portion of water the 
density of any milk will remain unaltered. 
If fraud is suspected by this test, by the color 
of the milk or its adhesion to the sides of the 
glass, a sample of milk is retained and an 
analysis made which may have some value. 
About thus is milk tested by the Inspectors 
of the Board of Health. It follows as a mat¬ 
ter of course that much poor milk has been 
passed, and in all probability some good milk 
has been condemned. 
2d—Practical Judgment. 
The milk dealer, when he examines a can 
of milk, gives it a whirl off to one side, and 
before he loosens the top, gives the milk a 
thorough stirring up by rocking the can a few 
times; then he jerks the top off, and imme¬ 
diately—stooping over to be close to the can, 
snuffs his lungs full of air out of the deep 
flanged cover. Then he takes good note of how 
the milk flows down from the inner sides of 
the top. He may smell also at the mouth of 
the can, but the whiff he gets in the can-top 
is most reliable. A gill of milk collects in the 
cover—this he tastes—and between smell and 
taste and looks, passes judgment on the spot. 
He can taste water, even though the milk, 
watered as it may be, contain over 12 per cent 
of cream. He will detect a “ cowey ” odor, the 
odor of rag weed or garlic; the stale taste 
and odor of badly cooled milk ; the first in¬ 
cipient lack of sweetness or beginning of sour¬ 
ing, and will tell to a nicety how many hours 
that milk will keep “ sweet enough to scald.” 
And besides, he will take a pint dipper and 
thrust it into a can in such a way that the 
specks and dirt present at the bottom will 
come welling up to the top, showing them¬ 
selves like a school of fish, and then sink to 
rest on the bottom again. 
3d—The Cream Test. 
At the factory or creamery, the milk of 
each farmer is strained and weighed. The 
straining shows the dirt. Then, every day, a 
sample test-tube of milk should be set for 
cream to rise, and thus every “patron” be 
served alike. A record ought to be kept of 
the cream percentage, which shows after 
twelve hours. A convenient plan is to have 
one or more pads filled with water and broken * 
ice, and covered with a board, bored full of 
holes just large enough to hold a ten-inch 
test-tube. The tubes as fast as they are filled 
are set into the ice water, and the cream rises 
very rapidly. 
Thus with a little care and good judgment 
a close watch is kept over all the milk re¬ 
ceived, and the article will tell its own truth¬ 
ful story of poor feed, of dirt, of fraud, or of 
honest folks, and good farmers and feeders. 
A Good Farm Gate. 
Mr. N. Y. Abbott, Columbia Co., Wis., has 
some time past used the gate shown in the 
engraving, with much satisfaction. The 
hinge-post is about twice the hight of the 
gate, and has a cap-piece, a, near the top. 
This cap is of 2 by 6 hard-wood, strengthened 
C d 
by two bolts, e, e, and held in place by two 
wooden pins, driven just above it and 
through the tenon end of the post. Wedges 
c and d are driven in the cap on each side of 
the post. Should the gate sag, the wedge, d, 
may be loosened, and c driven further down. 
The lower end of the gate turns in a hole 
hored in a hard-wood block placed in the 
ground near the foot of the post. 
