14: 
AMERICAN. AGRICULTURIST 
[January, 
small bodies of water.” Carp, on the other hand, 
introduced into new waters, fills a vacancy, and not 
only do not decrease the number of other fishes, 
but by supplying them food, enable the existence 
of a large additional number of carnivorous fishes. 
The Carp is adapted to very varied climates, and will 
thrive under conditions unfavorable to any equally 
palatable American fish. They are equally at home 
in lakes or streams, and in the merest puddles and 
ditches, and are found in the latitude of St. Peters¬ 
burg as well as iu Italy and Northern Africa. It is 
believed that they will excel all others for propaga¬ 
tion in ponds and other sluggish waters north and 
south, now either barren of life or inhabited by a 
limited number of pickerel, cat-fishes or sun-fishes. 
■ It is very hardy in all stages of growth .—“ The Carp 
is able,” says Dr. Hessel, “ to live in water where 
other fishes could not possibly exist—for instance, 
in the pools of bog-meadows or sloughs.”— 
Though it is not to be inferred from this that the 
best Carp-ponds should be thus located. In Silesia, 
puddles two or three feet deep, in the villages, are 
used for raising two-year-old Carp for stocking 
distant waters. From this resource a single estate 
realized what would amount to about $55 to the acre 
of pond surface. In Europe, Carp are always taken 
to market alive, in tanks or barrels, and, if they are 
not sold, returned to the water alive at the end of 
the day. They are said to be kept alive in cellars 
in the winter, wrapped in wet moss and fed upon 
bread soaked in milk. Dr. Hessel once kept one 
this way five weeks. Iu cold climates they protect 
themselves from freezing in winter by retiring in 
groups of 50 to 100 or more, into cavities in the 
muddy bottom called “kettles,” where they pass 
the time until spring, huddled together iu concen¬ 
tric circles, with their heads together, the posterior 
part of the body raised and held immovably, scarce¬ 
ly lifting the gills for breathing and without taking 
a particle of food. This abstinence and torpidi¬ 
ty lasts in cold countries six or even seven months, 
and thus they can live out a very rigorous winter. 
Its growth is very rapid. —Dr. Hessel says that in 
Central Europe its growth is entirely suspended in 
the winter, the increase in weight taking place 
from May to August, and especially in-July. The 
rate of growth depends upon many things—the 
temperature of the water, the quality and quantity 
of food, the nature of the bottom. In rivers and 
lakes they attain the greatest size. The rapidity 
with which Professor Baird’s fish have grown sur¬ 
passes anything hitherto known, and indicates that 
the Carp is particularly well adapted to America. 
The normal weight to which the Carp may attain in 
three years in Europe is an average of three to three 
and three-fourths pounds ; that is, a fish which has 
lived two summers, and is eighteen months old, 
will weigh from two and three-fourths to three and 
three-fourths pounds in the year following. Dr. 
Hessel states that the Washington Carp, four'sum- 
mers old, now weigh nine or ten pounds; those of 
the same age in Europe would not weigh more than 
four; those three summers old weigh about three 
and three-fourths or four pounds, while the best in 
Europe of the same age weigh about two pounds. 
Large Farms.— Most people are attracted by 
the show of a great business, and the desire to ex¬ 
tend operations is very general. But a man who 
can successfully manage 100 acres, may not be able 
to run a 500 or 1,000-acre farm, and many men who 
can profitably work a farm by their own labor, fail 
when they try to do so by hired help. To so man¬ 
age a number of working men that every hour’s 
work of each shall be made to' concentrate upon 
one desired object, requires much, ability. For 
want of this, many who have become “well off” 
on a small farm, have failed on a large one where 
they have had to employ help. A man may be 
worthily ambitious of success in business, but be¬ 
fore he leaves a small farm, for one much larger, 
he should be satisfied of his ability to manage it. 
It is not a new thing for a man to be land-poor, 
even though the land itself is of good quality. As 
with extensive and overgrown nations, large farms 
might sometimes be of more value to all concerned 
if they were divided up and each part put under 
a partial or entirely separate management. 
Among the Farmers—No. 48. 
BY ONE OP THEM. 
How Butter Goes to Market. 
Almost all over the country butter which is made 
in farmers’ families in excess of their requirements, 
goes to the country store in exchange for sugar, 
tea, coffee, and spices. It is, of course, of all col¬ 
ors and textures and qualities, usually wrapped, or 
partially wrapped, in old and well-worn muslin, 
upon which, if “seam and gusset and band” are 
not apparent, the suspicion of them is. It is in 
lumps of ovoid form, usually weighing one to 
three pounds. The country store-keeper selects 
the best for his own immediate sales to village 
people; the rest is graded and packed, according to 
color and quality, in “ Welsh tubs,” or whatever 
other package will best suit the market. An enor¬ 
mous quantity of butter finds its way to market in 
this way, and forms the lower grades. Such butter 
can not be depended upon to keep, unless, indeed, 
the grading and repacking be done with extraor¬ 
dinary care ; then it may prove tolerably good. 
Among farmers who are really dairy folks, the 
butter is packed for market as soon as it is made. 
The expense of tubs, or pails, and firkins, (and 
these words are used technically with rather forced 
significations,) is considerable. What are known as 
“Welsh Tubs” 
are ash, oak, or spruce pails, without bails, but 
with close covers. They hold, usually, 20, 30, and 
50 pounds. These are the most convenient pack¬ 
ages for shipping to a distance, because they are 
not to be returned; and though they cost only 
about a cent a pound for the butter they contain, 
yet dairy folks find it cheaper to pack and ship 
their butter in “ return pails ” of some kind. These 
are of a great variety of styles and sizes. The com¬ 
mon, and, as a rule, the best size, is the 50-pouud 
package. It usually holds several pounds more, 
but not the regular 56 pounds, which is a “ firkin ” 
in Great Britain. Shipping tubs, holding just this 
weight, are coming into use somewhat. But the 
notion is growing that it is best to adhere to the 
decimal system, and ship abroad in tubs that will 
hold but 50 pounds, and in what we call firkins, 
that is, in kegs holding 100 pounds. These pack¬ 
ages are of oak, and are very strong and neat, and 
are brine and butter-tight in all weathers and cli¬ 
mates ; I may add air-tight, also, for so they are, 
in the general acceptance of the term. 
These packages are manufactured where lumber 
of the best sorts is accessible, and the trade requires 
an enormous quantity in the aggregate, especially 
since much lard is packed in them, or in packages 
closely resembling those used for butter. 
“Fancy Butter” Packages 
are, of course, of many forms, as each maker wish¬ 
es his butter to be both attractive and unique. All 
“ print-butter,” or butter in small packages marked 
with the name of the maker, is properly regarded 
as “ fancy,” whether it bring a higher price than 
other good butter or not. Still, it ought to be good 
enough to sell higher than good tub or firkin butter. 
Philadelphia has long been famous for its excel¬ 
lent print-butter. This is generally put up upon 
the common hand stamps (fig. 1) in pound “ pats,” 
which may have either of the two forms represent¬ 
ed by the dotted lines. Simple devices, such as a 
-- sheaf of wheat, roses, 
_pineapples, acorns, and 
i—- s oak leaves and non- 
i._ j C - \ f descript leaves are com- 
» '/'—.-. —\ ' i mon. Monograms or 
\ / \ / single letters are not 
rare, with occasionally 
a more elaborate device. 
These “pats,” for they 
are patted into form 
ijf\\ upon the stamps, are 
" marketed in what are 
Fig. 1. — hand stamp. known as Philadelphia 
tubs, which are oval 
tubs of cedar, lined with tin, and having ice cham¬ 
bers in each end, having a nearly rectangular space 
in the center, in which the butter is packed upon 
shelves 2i to 3 inches apart. Butter packed over 
night, the ice chambers being filled with a freezing 
mixture, and refilled in the morning with simple 
ice, will go 48 hours in ordinary summer weather 
without softening. The covers lock down, and 
the tubs are often cased in quilted or felt jackets. 
A good deal of butter is now made in rectangular 
(square or brick-shaped) prints, and shipped in 
Fig. 2.— THE PHILADELPHIA BUTTER TUB. 
these Philadelphia cedar tubs (fig. 2), or in square 
packages, with provision for ice in hot weather. 
One of the neatest of these is known as the Lan¬ 
caster package. Its peculiarity is that tin cups, or 
boxes of tin, are provided for each print of butter, 
the prints being wrapped in pieces of muslin. The 
advantage oilered by this package is, that the 
prints do not become marred in the hands of care¬ 
less shippers and carriers, as is frequently the case. 
One of the most ingenious applications of the 
new kind of veneering, cut in a continuous ribbon 
round and round the log, is 
the making of butter packages 
by the Bradley process. This 
is protected by several pa¬ 
tents, and consists in sewing 
the bands of wood together, 
so as to make the sides of 
round (cylindrical) boxes or 
flaring pails, adapted to hold 
butter and similar articles, by 
having bottoms and covers at¬ 
tached by means of tin bands. 
Figure 3 shows a stack of 
these boxes, holding from I 
lb. to 10 lbs. They are made 
of spruce or of oak, and bear 
scalding in whey, and in brine, 
if desired, although these 
woods are so nearly tasteless 
that anything more than sim¬ 
ple scalding seems unneces¬ 
sary. These boxes are very 
strong, and inclose the butter 
nearly air-tight. They are 
made to be packed full of 
butter, a disc of wax paper or 
piece of muslin being laid over the butter. When 
the butter is to be used, the cover is removed, and 
the seam is ripped with a penknife, when the 
package may be opened and taken oil from the 
butter, which is left in a solid cake. Figure 4 
shows the crate in which these packages are packed, 
the whole being furnished at the low cost to the 
Fig. 4.— CRATE FOR SHIPPING. 
consumer of one cent per pound for the butter 
which the crate will hold. The pails (fig. 5) may 
be used for butter also, but are also well adapted for 
lard, oysters, sausage meat, etc., and both the pails 
and boxes are furnished, when so ordered, both 
water and grease tight by being dipped in hot par¬ 
affine, which is absolutely colorless, odorless, and 
tasteless, and insoluble in water or cold fats, and 
penetrates both the wood and the seams and joints. 
The Burchard “Knock-down” Package. 
This is also a new package, and it seems so well 
Fig. 3.— BRADLEY’S 
BUTTER BOXES. 
