1880.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
101 
if tile is laid, this should be covered at first with 
soil carefully by hand, and trodden down. After¬ 
wards the trench may be filled by the plow. 
To Cold-Smoke Meat.— Meat is injured in 
smoking by excessive heat. The smoke should be 
Fig. 3.— ARRANGEMENT EOR COLD-SMOKING MEAT. 
cold to produce the best effects. To make cold- 
smoke, a fire pit maybe made 10 or 12 feet from 
the smoke-house, and two feet deep. A flue of 
stone, pipe, or tile, may be laid from the bottom of 
the house, to the bottom of the fire-pit, and one 
from the top of the fire-pit, to the floor of the house 
(fig. 3). When the fire is lighted, and the pit is well 
supplied with bright coals, it may be filled up with 
green hickory wood in small pieces, or chips, and 
the cover, a flat-stone, placed over it. The smoke 
will then be strongly charged with Pyroligneous 
Acid, and will be cool; this will give the best 
flavor, and the longest keeping qualities to the meat. 
How to Tar Hemp or a Rope.—A coil of rope 
or hemp yam, may be tarred by the use of the con¬ 
trivance here shown (fig. 4). It is a trough to hold 
hot tar, having a roller fixed on each edge at 
the sides, and one at the bottom. The rope is 
drawn from the coil through the tar, and upon a 
reel, as seen in the engraving. If too much tar is 
carried over, two rollers may be used on the side 
where the rope passes out, and the upper will press 
out the surplus tar, or a bunch of oakum may be 
fastened below the roller to wipe oil the loose tar; 
I’ig. 4.—MACHINE TO TAR A ROPE. 
but unless the tar is wasted, it will be well to let 
some extra go over the roller, as it will be absorbed 
by the rope on the reel. To tar a thick rope, it 
should be drawn over the two rollers, and as it 
passes, the tar may be brushed on with a coarse 
brush. The reel may be turned slowly, and the 
rope drawn from the coil placed at some distance, 
to give sufficient tension to the rope. With a 
machine like this, tarring a rope is rapid and easy. 
A Harness Bench.—A subscriber from Indiana, 
sends a sketch of a harness bench, with the follow¬ 
ing description. The bench is a common four- 
footed one, and serves for a seat. The clamp is 
made of two halves of a barrel stave, screwed firmly 
to the block which is fastened to the bench by a pin, 
that is made firm by putting in a wedge under¬ 
neath the bench. The edges of the jaws are beveled 
so as to come together evenly, and take a firm hold 
of the leather. They are held together and pinched 
by means of a pin and small key, figure 5. The pin 
is slotted, and the key passing through the slot is 
wedge shaped, so that the jaws are tightened by 
Fig. 5.— A HARNESS BENCH. 
pressing the wedge down in the slot. The box in 
.front, is for tools, thread, wire, rivets, etc., etc. 
Washing Dairy Pans. 
There is much labor in washing milk pans, and 
as, in careless hands, this work is certain to be ill 
done, it is well to con¬ 
trive some plan in which 
it can be done easily, 
and then it will be more 
likely to be well done. 
By using some simple 
contrivance, pans may 
be washed without 
handling them. Recent¬ 
ly the writer, having oc¬ 
casion to show a hired 
man how to clean some 
dairy utensils, made use 
of a Whitman Fountain 
Pump, which threw a 
stream of water into 
the cans and pails with 
considerable force, and cleansed them perfectly in 
a very short time. This was done on the grass out¬ 
side of the dairy-house, 
and the convenient 
method may be elabor¬ 
ated so as to make a 
most serviceable plan 
of washing, thus saving- 
much labor. The first 
requisite is a rack to 
hold the pails and cans, 
sloping forward slight¬ 
ly, so that the water can 
be easily forced in and 
will run out readily. 
A rack, made as in fig¬ 
ure 3, consisting of a 
shelf slightly sloping, 
supported by side 
j.. 0 pieces,and a foot-board, 
will answer the pur¬ 
pose. The pails and caus may be laid upon this 
shelf, a light cross-bar preventing them from 
slipping forward, and may be piled one upon an¬ 
other. A stream of water can be directed into 
them through a hose, either by the pump above 
mentioned, supplied from a pail, or by a hand-force 
pump, a Blunt’s Universal pump, for instance, 
with which the water may be forced from a well at 
some distance. But the plan, once explained, can 
be easily modified or changed to suit any circum- 
Fig. 3.—RACK FOR WASHING PANS. 
stances ; the easy washing of the pans being readily 
understood. Another method is shown at figure 1. 
This consists of a stout standard supplied with gal¬ 
vanized iron rods, upon which the pails may be 
hung and washed. A very complete apparatus may 
be made by carrying a lead pipe, with branches and 
jets, to the mouth of each pail or can, and connect¬ 
ing the bottom of the pipe with a hose from the 
force pump. After the pans have been washed, 
they may be left to hang upon the stand to drain 
and air. A frame of a similar kind for the washing 
and airing of shallow pans, is shown at figure 2. 
This consists of a standard with double rods spread¬ 
ing so as to give a firm seat for an inverted pan, 
shown also at figure 4, with the pan reversed. 
These may all be used in the washing-room of a 
dairy house, made as it should be, with a cement 
floor sloping to a drain; or they may be fitted on a 
plank floor outside, so placed that the water will 
flow off on the grass, or into a channel which 
will take it where it may do the most good. The 
idea is given in its crude 
and partly developed con¬ 
dition, to be improved up¬ 
on as may be possible by 
those who perceive its use¬ 
fulness. It is certain that 
much may be done to sim¬ 
plify the laborious hand¬ 
washing, which is especial¬ 
ly disagreeable in the win¬ 
ter time, and is always slow and sloppy work. 
Our Domestic Animals.— To get an idea of 
the vastness of the interest of farm animals, we 
must look at the number this country possesses. 
Thus there are : Horses, 11,000,000 ; mules, 1,700,- 
000 ; cattle, 32,000,000 ; sheep, 38,000,000 ; swine, 35,- 
000,000. When figures are in the millions, as these 
all are, the idea of greatness is about the only one 
that is conveyed ; but with that thoroughly in mind, 
the importance of farm animals is better understood, 
and their relation to our indivinual and national 
prosperity is much more easily comprehended. 
The Manufacture of Amber Cane Sugar 
Attempts have been made for several years past 
to overcome the difficulties in securing the granu- 
Fig. 1.— CRUSHING MILL. 
lation of the sugar contained in the juice of the 
different varieties of sorghum grown for that pur¬ 
pose. The trouble has been that the juice in the 
process of boiling down produced molasses which 
possessed an inferior flavor, and from which a very 
small proportion of crystalized sugar could be ob¬ 
tained. About a year ago a number of western 
men, interested in this matter, formed themselves 
into the Mississippi Valley Cane-Growers Associa 
tion for the purpose of making organized efforts to 
secure a more successful result. The members 
planted cane, and worked it up into sugar under 
some improved processes with unusual success ; 
and sugar of excellent quality has been made in 
many of the Western States, from Texas to Minne¬ 
sota. The variety of cane grown in most of these 
experiments has been a new one, a supposed cross 
or hybrid of the Chinese and African sorghums, 
and known as Early Amber Cane. This has the 
advantage of early maturity, and can be grown 
wherever corn succeeds ; its earliness also enables 
the sugar-making to be carried on during warm 
weather, when the process of granulation is more 
complete. Nearly all the sugar made the past sea¬ 
son has been from this variety, and one lot of 45,000 
pounds has been made by one party at Crystal 
■Lake, Ill., and sold in the Chicago market. Of this 
Fig. 4. 
