12 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
sufficient in the recent very cold weather. The 
action of this tank is as regular and perfect as 
could be asked. It is automatic, it holds about a 
barrel of liquid, and when once filled, the flow of a 
Fig. 1.— AUTOMATIC TANK MADE THOM A BARREL. 
continuous stream from the sink, (such as would 
come from the emptying of a dish-pan), fills this 
siphon, which continues to flow steadily until the 
contents are lowered to the level of its mouth. 
Except during the action of the siphon, there is no 
flow whatever through the drain. I have found 
that in less than two minutes, about two-thirds of 
a barrel of liquid, (already accumulated in the 
tank), flows through the drain in a cleansing stream, 
which an examination shows to have left no refuse 
matters in its course. This tank is not yet made 
in America, and owing to its size and the cost of 
importing it, it is not likely that it will for the 
present come largely into use. In the meantime, 
the inventor has taken no patent in this country, 
and the invention is open to the use of all who 
choose to adopt it. 
The accompanying illustrations show how a per¬ 
fectly efficient and satisfactory flush-tank may be 
made from a kerosene or other tight barrel without 
much expense. The barrel must be a sound one, 
with its bung well secured, and both of its heads 
in good order. Cut a circular hole in the upper 
head, twelve inches in diameter. Half way between 
the side of this hole and the chime, make another 
hole two inches in diameter. Finish the larger hole 
with an edging made of lead or copper, lapping 
over about an inch, and being securely nailed fast 
in a bed of white lead. This metal should be beaten 
in a groove or gutter just inside of the large open¬ 
ing, having its edge turned up at a distance of one 
inch from the edge of the hole. The head will then 
have an opening ten inches in diameter, surround¬ 
ed by a channel three-fourths of an inch, or 
an inch deep, and one inch wide. A funnel of 
the same metal, (tin or galvanized iron would 
soon rust out), should be made to fit in this 
groove, its upper edge being turned over about an 
inch for the purpose. This funnel at its lower end 
should be furnished with a pipe turning up in such 
a way as to constitute a trap. Near the top of the 
funnel there should be a shoulder capable of sup¬ 
porting an ordinary round stove-grate of cast-iron ; 
this grate is intended to keep back any coarse mat¬ 
ters which might obstruct the siphon, and to serve 
as a weight to keep the funnel in its place. Into 
the two-inch hole in the barrel top insert a ventila¬ 
ting pipe, which may be of tin, and which should 
be carried to the highest convenient point well 
away from any window or chimney top. Through 
one side of the barrel close to the top, make a hole 
large enough to receive a li inch lead pipe, which 
being turned down to within 6 inches of the bot¬ 
tom inside, and 2 or 3 inches lower at the outside is 
to constitute the siphon -for emptying the barrel— 
this pipe should not be larger than li iuehes inte¬ 
rior diameter, as the larger the pipe the greater the 
amount of water needed to start it into action. 
The outer end of this pipe delivering into the drain 
is partially shielded from the access of air by an 
arrangement which will be described further on. 
Fig. 1 shows the arrangement of the whole appa¬ 
ratus. A is the barrel, b is the metal rim, or gutter 
surrounding the opening ; c is the funnel with its 
trapped outlet; d is the iron grate; e is the siphon ; 
/is the outlet drain ; g is the ventilator; and h is 
a simple cylinder of galvanized iron or tin, to be 
used when the top of the barrel is above ground, 
so that it may be well packed around with leaves or 
litter without danger of these getting in to choke 
the grate. Where such packing is necessary, the 
whole affair should be housed in to protect it from 
the wind, and indeed it is always necessary to pre¬ 
vent the blowing in of rubbish which might plaster 
itself over the grate and prevent the water from 
entering. 
Fig. 2 shows more in detail the construction and 
arrangement of the rim, the funnel, and the grate. 
The gutter of the rim 
will always be kept 
full of water from 
the small amount 
splashing over, and 
this serves to seal 
the channel at this 
point just as the bent 
pipe at the bottom of 
the funnel seals its 
outlet. These seals 
are not liable to be forced, because of the ample 
air channel furnished by the ventilator. 
Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section, and fig. 4 a cross 
section of the outlet drain, show the arrangement 
for checking the flow of the siphon. A dam (i) 
which may be of wood, brick, or any other suitable 
material, closes the drain in front of the siphon to 
a liiglit a little above its lower end. This is notched 
down at its top to a point just below that of the 
end of the siphon, in such a way that after the bar¬ 
rel is discharged, the siphon itself will be emptied 
and will fill itself with air. This notch is too small 
to accommodate any considerable flow of the pipe, 
and the dam checks back the first water running, 
and helps to bring the siphon into action, but after 
the flow has all passed over, it lets the water behind 
the dam fall low enough to admit air to the pipe. 
I do not know that anything further is necessary 
in the way of practical directions, except to say that 
the siphon pipe had better be attached to the side 
of the barrel, outside 
£ and in, by bits of tin 
tacked over it so as to 
prevent its being in¬ 
jured. Indeed, the 
whole siphon might be 
inside of the barrel, its 
lower end passing out 
through a hole near the 
bottom; this arrange¬ 
ment entirely obviates 
the danger of its becoming jammed, or the possi¬ 
bility of a trickling flow through it being frozen 
until the accumulated ice would quite close it. 
Fig. 3. outlet. Fig. 4. 
Fig. 2.—FUNNEL. 
The discussion concerning the deep or shallow 
setting of milk, and the temperature at which 
cream rises best, is still going on with considerable 
activity in different parts of the country. Each 
side has its partisans, and those who adhere to 
shallow setting are urging me to produce “ my evi¬ 
dence,” “prove my claims,” etc., etc. In reply to 
all of which I have only to say that I make no 
assertions, and advance no claims. I have stated 
during the past three or four years exactly what 
our experience has been in setting our milk in deep 
cans immersed in spring water, giving the results 
as compared with our former practice of shallow 
setting;—without accuracy, because I have never 
made any accurate comparative trial. I am satis¬ 
fied that 60 far as our own dairy is concerned, we 
are making very nearly, if Dot quite as much butter 
as we did under shallow setting, and that its quali¬ 
ty is always as good as it was with the old method, 
even under the most favorable circumstances. 
This satisfies us that w'e are on the right track, and 
even if we did lose something in quantity, we gain 
enough in quality to much more than make up for 
it, especially as our butter is sold at a high price to 
customers who would at once abandon us and 
throw us on the common market if there were any 
falling off in the quality of our supply. We had 
much better sell 10 pounds of butter at a dollar a 
pound, than 30 pounds at thirty-three cents a pound, 
and we are practically sure that with us there is 
not a difference of five per cent one way or the 
other, between the amounts made by the different 
methods. If Ogden Farm were an experimental 
farm carried on for the good of the public, or a 
model farm, carried on for the benefit of our own 
reputation, I might think it worth while to make 
the experiments, that those who are most active in 
the discussion are urging me to make, but as it is 
simply a business enterprise where the sole aim is 
to get the most profitable result, I cannot run the 
risk of interfering with the quality of my product 
for the sake of entering into a discussion solely for 
the public good—much as I am interested in this. 
Then, too, there would be a danger that I might go 
the way of these contestants,’and patent some in¬ 
vention in connection with the setting of milk, the 
construction of milk rooms, or the manufacture of 
butter, which seems so often the end of enthusi¬ 
astic partisanship on this question. I do not of 
course object, but on the contrary, applaud the in¬ 
ventive genius, and the enterprise of all who devise 
new processes in connection with the dairy; I only 
mean that that sort of thing is out of my line. I 
trust that the dairy experience at Ogden Farm has 
resulted in benefit to the public, and the many let¬ 
ters that I have received asking more minute in¬ 
formation as to our methods, indicate that a wide 
interest is taken, and wide confidence felt in what 
we have done, and I shall be glad if we may long 
continue to exert in this way a quiet influence 
toward general improvement. But while we see in 
this a real compensation for what we are doing, I 
must decline all invitations to prove the truth of 
what I may say as to processes or results. State¬ 
ments made in these papers are made as statements 
of fact, if they are not so accepted I am, of course, 
sorry for it, but I do not propose to take the trouble 
of adducing proof in their support. 
I have a letter from New York State from one 
who does not wish his name given, as he expects 
next year to make a more favorable report, but bis 
present one seems to me too good an illustration of 
the value of grade Jerseys not to be published. 
The animal is just three years old now, she had her 
first calf February 28th, 1875, and is due to calve 
again January 20th, 1876; when fresh she weighed 
740 lbs. Her dam is a common cow ; her sire, a 
thoroughbred Jersey bull; her feed was what she 
could get in a stalk field and clover pasture, with 
three quarts of bran night and morning. She was 
kept in the stable over night with no other feed 
but the bran. She yielded in one week “119 lbs. 
of milk, (about 51 quarts). I made from that milk 
8 lbs. 81 ozs. of as nice butter as you would want 
to see, (solid butter as yellow as gold); Jersey cows 
are the cows for me.” 
Mr. Enoch Pratt, of Baltimore, writes as follows : 
“ From October 1st, 1874, to October 1st, 1875, four 
cows, (Jerseys), furnished the milk used by my 
farmer, who kept the calves, eight or ten weeks 
each, and furnished my large family from the 20th 
of June to October 1st, with all the milk and cream 
required, (and it was used lavishly), and made in 
the year 975 lbs. of butter, showing, I think, as 
good a result as any I see, although for short peri¬ 
ods some cows no doubt have made more, but my 
cows go through the year.” This last point is an 
important one, for it is not the least of the merits 
of the Jerseys that they hold out their milk very 
nearly to the time of calving, which is of special 
advantage for family use, and which even for the 
dairyman secures him a fair supply at seasons when 
butter is higher than in the flush of summer feed. 
