338 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
The well-known trouble of “floating curds” in the 
srheese dairy, is believed to be the effect of this gas, 
which is present in more than its usual quantity, 
either from an abnormal condition of the cow, or 
from some improper management of the milk. By 
exposing the milk to a low temperature, this sub¬ 
stance is removed, and it is believed that exposure 
fa a thin stream to a current of air, has the same 
effect; although this may be due to the cooling as 
much as to the aerating of the milk by this process. 
For the convenient cooling of milk in the dairy, we 
have the Hardin process, and the Cooley system; 
the latter having been reported by some extensive 
makers of choice butter, as being very effective. 
Both of these methods are based on reducing the 
milk quickly to a low temperature, which is main¬ 
tained for some time. The objectionable animal 
odor is removed, and the cream is all separated in 
e very short time, sometimes in three hours, but 
frequently or always in eight to twelve hours. The 
cream is then in perfect condition, and the skimmed 
sailk is sweet and pure, and may be made into a 
very superior quality of skim cheese. This is sim¬ 
ply the effect of the rapid cooling, and the con¬ 
tinued low temperature. To cool rapidly, is now 
toown to be so necessary, that the best dairies are 
rfways supplied with a stock of ice for use in sum¬ 
mer, and in winter, when the weather requires it. 
There are several methods of cooling milk em¬ 
ployed in dairies ; the basis of most of them being 
to cause the milk to pass in a small stream or a 
thin sheet, over the surface of a metal receptacle 
SUTed with ice; others being to place the pans or 
®gns containing the milk, in reservoirs of cold wa¬ 
ter. The former methods are the most convenient 
for common use, and the most readily available. A 
very effective milk cooler may be constructed in 
the following manner. A tin pail of conical shape, 
(A, in the-engraving^, is made to fit inside of a cy¬ 
lindrical pail having a conical lining. The space (B) 
between the sides of the round pail and the lining, 
is filled with ice water through a pipe having an en¬ 
larged mouth, ((7). The inner pail is provided with 
a, cover having a knob for a handle, and having a 
flaring edge, which overlaps the narrowed mouth 
©f the pail. This manner of construction is neces¬ 
sary, as will be seen further on. A strainer, having 
the shape shown at D, is made to fit into the top of 
the outer pail. The inside part of the lining of this 
strter pail has a narrow spiral strip soldered to it in 
such a way as to make a channel around it, which 
performs ten or twelve revolutions before it reaches 
the pipe and tap, with which it is connected, at the 
bottom. When the inner pail is in its place, the 
side of this forms a part of this channel. The inner 
pail being filled with finely broken ice, with salt 
mixed with it, to reduce the temperature, if thought 
proper, is placed in the outer can, and the cover is 
put on. Then, the strainer being in its place, milk 
2 S poured into it, and dropping through the fine 
vrire gauze, is freed from loose impurities, and 
Sows on to the cover of the inner pail, from which 
% passes into the channel formed by the spiral 
shelf mentioned. As it passes through this channel 
in a small stream, the milk is exposed to the cold 
surfaces of both the inner and the outer pails, so 
thoroughly, as to cause it to issue from the pipe 
below at a very low temperature, and it may be 
passed through more than once, if necessary, to 
bring it down to 40 or 45 degrees, which is con¬ 
sidered the most effective for the desired purpose 
of purification. The strainer is furnished with a 
handle upon each side, and the mouths of the pipes 
by which the outer pail is supplied with cold water, 
may be so made as to be used as handles for lifting 
the whole. The cooler should rest upon a stool 
about 2 feet high, so that a pail or pans may be 
placed under the tap to receive the cooled milk. 
Feeding for Beef 
Feeding cattle must in the future be made an ac¬ 
cessory of all grain or mixed farming. Dairying, 
grain and cattle raising, and special cultures, will 
undoubtedly form the three chief divisions of agri¬ 
culture in the future. This is made necessary by 
the course of events, some of which are the gradual 
change of the soil from its new condition to one in 
which it must be fed systematically and scientific¬ 
ally ; the increasing popular demand for meat, dairy 
products, and other choice domestic supplies, which 
are needed in a community whose manner of life is 
improving year by year, and also by the necessity 
of conducting our industries in a very economical 
manner, so as to meet the present active competi¬ 
tion. All these events, with others, to which we 
need not refer, are combining to force farmers to 
feed live stock and make beef, mutton, pork, and 
poultry, of a high quality. Grain must be grown. 
There must be wheat, oats, barley, and corn, to sup¬ 
ply the markets. But we can no longer grow these 
in a haphazard, slip-shod manner, but only in a 
regular skillful rotation with grass, green crops and 
roots interchanged, and liberal manuring is the first 
necessity for all these. We cannot afford to waste 
straw, chaff, or fodder, nor can we sell roots in any 
quantity, because of their bulk, and also for the 
reason that, except for feeding beeves, sheep, pigs, 
a.id cows, nobody wants them. It is needless to 
explain further to the farmer who has gone through 
some years’ experience in growing grass and grains, 
how this necessity is rapidly forcing him to change 
his methods. There are some who have adopted 
the new order of things, and are satisfied with the 
results; there are others,however, who not seeing, 
or refusing to perceive, the pinch they are in, are 
going on in the old way, year by year growing 
poorer, more dissatisfied, and more given to com¬ 
plaining that “farming don’t pay any longer.” The 
trouble is not in their business, but in their poor 
management of it. We have frequently spoken of 
the need for better work, for higher culture, for 
enlarged yields, and for the most economical and 
skillful management. How to reach these, is the 
point, that they are necessary is nowhere disputed. 
We see plainly, that it is only by choosing the most 
desirable branch of farming, suited for particular 
soils, locations,and other controlling circumstances, 
and sticking to this ; bringing to the chosen busi¬ 
ness all the study, skill, patience, and capital , that 
may be needed. We emphasize capital, because 
without this, all the rest are unavailing. A farmer 
without capital is a slave ; with it, he has the means 
of utilizing all his other forces, or capabilities, to 
the utmost. No man now can be a farmer without 
sufficient capital, any more than he can be a banker, 
a merchant, or a manufacturer. A man may go on 
to the prairie or into the woods upon a fresh home¬ 
stead with very little capital, and worry out a poor 
living, but he sells himself to the Government for 
five years for this privilege, and for that time, until 
he has the patent for his land in his hand, he is not 
a free man, but is in bonds; but to go into the 
business of farming profitably, capital is needed. 
When the particular branch is chosen, not from 
fancy, because this will not do, for there are dairy 
farms and grain farms, one of which will not suit 
the other business ; and there are milk farms and 
market farms in the vicinity of cities, that can be 
carried on nowhere else, and upon which other 
sorts of farming will fail; but the kind of farming 
to be chosen must be that which can be most 
profitably carried on under the circumstances and 
in the locality. Grain growing and mixed farming, 
including the rearing or purchasing and feeding of 
live stock, must necessarily form the largest branch 
of agricultural industry. As we have said, the one 
cannot be conducted alone, but must be assisted 
by the other. It comes then to be a mos t importan t 
consideration, what kinds of animals are the most 
profitable to keep, and how are they to be fed with 
| most profit. It is evident, from a view of what is 
going on in the live stock markets, that it cannot 
pay to feed an animal that requires four or five 
years to mature, nor one that will not be extra in 
quality and of heavy weight. No beef animal can 
now be reared or fed with profit, that will not reach 
a weight of 1,400 lbs. at least, at 30 months old. A 
grade Shorthorn, or Hereford steer, of 1,400 lbs. at 
2i years old, will sell for 870 to $80, if not more, and 
it is as certain as anything of the kind can be, that 
for many years to come the value of beef will not be 
less than now. The new foreign outlet for meat 
secures this. Such animals as these, fed skillfully 
in yards or pens, with a moderate allowance of pur¬ 
chased foods, that are always cheaply available, 
such as bran, mill stuffs, linseed or cotton-seed 
cake, with the roots and straw grown upon the 
farm, will produce an immense supply of the very 
best manure; and if turned off on the market at 
cost only, these animals will leave as profit suffici¬ 
ent manure to produce a grain and root crop. This 
ought to satisfy a good farmer; but there is more 
profit in this business than that, although many 
farmers may not be able to realize more. The sub¬ 
ject merely touched upon here is broad, and we 
simply present it as one to be thoughtfully studied. 
Drying Fruit—Fruit Dryers. 
While drying is not in all respects the best method 
of preserving fruit, yet the case with which it may 
be done, the little expense attending it, and the 
small bulk and portability of the product, are so 
much in its favor that it is not likely to be super¬ 
seded to any great extent by other methods. There 
has been, of late years, a great improvement in the 
process of drying fruit, and a marked improvement 
in the quality of the product. In the primitive 
way of drying, the heat of the suii is depended 
upon, and not only is much fruit lost by long spells 
of cloudy and damp weather, but at the best the 
fruit is so long exposed that it assumes a dark 
color, and unless special care is taken, dust and in¬ 
sects tend to deteriorate the product. Still there 
is much fruit prepared, not only for family use but 
for market in this rude manner. By a proper ar¬ 
rangement fruit may be dried in the sun in a very 
unobjectionable manner ; we described this some 
years ago, but will briefly repeat it, as in the ab¬ 
sence of an apparatus for drying by fire heat, this 
is the next best. If one has hot-bed sashes, the 
trouble is very little; in the absence of these, ordi¬ 
nary window sashes will answer. A box is to be 
built of a size for the sashes, with a sloping top, 
and in all respects like a hot-bed frame, except it 
has a bottom, and should have legs to lift it several 
inches from the ground. The frame should be well 
made, all its joints, and the contact of the sashes 
with the top edges of the frame so tight that even 
very small insects can not enter. The sash should 
slope towards the sun. In the front or lower side 
of the frame, near the bottom, should be several 
holes for admitting air, and on the back side, near 
the top, others for outlets, and all covered with 
wire cloth. Fruit and vegetables placed in shallow 
wooden trays, or other receptacles, will dry much 
more rapidly than in the open air, and free from 
any contamination ; besides, if the sash is in good 
order, no harm can come to it in case of a sudden 
6 hower. The need of some contrivance which will 
be quite independent of the weather, and which 
can keep at work in the night as well as the day^ 
has led to the invention of a great number of dry¬ 
ers, most of which are patented. Some of these 
are small and portable, while others, for operating 
on a larger scale, require an outlay of several 
