S6 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jsnuary 21, 1892. 
with him ; but he appears to overlook the fact of the majority of 
Midland farmers being cheese makers, the best of whom have been 
prosperous throughout the depression. By best, we mean graziers 
who can undertake to guarantee an output of at least forty or fifty 
dozen prime Stilton cheeses of a high and fairly uniform degree 
of excellence. Such men are unlikely to entertain proposals of 
co-operation unless tangible evidence is forthcoming that they 
can do better than sell, as they now do, to a factor at lOjd. per lb., 
delivering the cheese as required throughout the season. It is 
the small grazier, whose only market is to be found at cheese 
fairs, that would welcome co-operation, if he could possibly be 
convinced that the disposal of his milk to a creamery would 
answer his purpose better than the making of inferior cheese. 
This should not be difficult, for though such men hardly ever 
keep accounts, the number of cheese made, with the average 
weight and price, may readily be ascertained for comparison with 
the value of milk. 
Even in the Midlands, where cheese making answers so well, 
the contrast between the British and foreign butter trade is enough 
to set men thinking and acting ; so too in other localities where 
complaints are loud about the milk trade, the low price of fat 
stock, of corn spoiled by a wet harvest, of all the ills which 
agricultural flesh is heir to, ought to induce co-operation for the 
common good. Earnestly do we hope it may do so, and we are 
doing what we can in these articles to show how possible improve¬ 
ment is. Now in Ireland it is found that a butter factory may be 
started for an outlay of £250 on buildings, and £450 on plant— 
implements and utensils ; let us see what these are. The building 
need not be large, for no space is required for milk pans ; four 
divisions are all that is necessary—an engine-room and washing- 
room in one ; a dairy containing a separator, churn, butter worker, 
milk-tester, and table or dresser ; a store-room paved with non- 
porous glazed tiles, having the walls faced with white glazed tiles, 
with brackets on the walls for the small portable slate shelves 
on which the butter is brought from the dairy, and a central 
slate slab for the packing ; a lobby containing a combined 
milk-weigher, register, and elevator. Two galvanized cisterns 
are required above the dairy, one for the new milk, the other 
for the separated milk, both being connected with the separator 
by pipes. 
In building, the points requiring attention are an engine room 
shut off from the other apartments ; a dairy with an outer door 
opening upon a covered way to the engine room, and an inner 
door opening into the store room, the store room to contain 
nothing which can take up or give off foul odours ; the lobby to be 
used solely for the receipt of milk and the dispatch of separated 
milk and of butter packed in the store room. The milk to be 
received at the lobby door, weighed, registered, elevated, and 
emptied into the receiver above the dairy, whence it runs into 
the separator, the separated milk being forced upwards through 
a pipe into the other cistern. The motor is usually a steam 
engine, but where water power crn be had it should be turned 
to account. At M". R. Barter’s farm, near Cork, an electric 
motor is in use to work the dairy and farming machinery, and is 
said to be most satisfactory. The dairy machinery driven by 
the motor consists of an Alexandra cream separator, and a 
Thomas & Taylor’s eccentric churn, producing 80 lbs. of butter 
at a churning. A butter worker could, of course, be used in the 
same way. In this instance the dynamo is driven by a turbine, 
the current being supplied to the dairy by two pilot wires under 
ground. Mention is made of this to show that a water current at 
at a distance from a factory may readily be turned to account in 
conjunction with electricity. 
The end and aim of the factory is the production and delivery 
of pure butter. That is why the milk is received and dispatched 
from the lobby, from which both the dairy and store room are 
shutoff. That, also, is why the engine and washing room are shut 
off from other parts of the building. No drains are made beneath 
any part of the building, all water used for cleaning floors or 
utensils being made to run off to gratings outside it. It must also 
stand alone if possible on an elevated position quite away from 
farmyards, cattle shels, or other farm buildings. If the separated 
milk is used for rearing calves or pigs, such animals must be kept 
at a distance, and never near the factory. Before all things 
remember that both milk and butter are easily spoiled by contact 
with any impurities in utensils, water, air ; that is why the dairy 
and its surroundings must be clean in the fullest sense of the term. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
With the land locked up by frost and snow, corn threshing is turned 
to in real earnest. Fortunate are the men whose master has the good 
sense and kindly feeling to hold over the barn corn for such a time,, 
in order that the men may have work. Good men are worthy of such 
consideration, their master knows it, and, apart from feelings of common 
humanity, it is his interest to do all he can to retain the services of 
skilled workmen. He has a right to expect from them clean threshing—no 
corn left in the ears, no waste of corn among chaff, no broken grain. See 
that the dressing machine is in thorough working order before screen¬ 
ing begins ; rest satisfied with nothing short of a first-class sample, even 
if the corn has to be pa.ssed two or three times through the machine to 
obtain it. Reserve all tail corn for home use among live stock ; this, 
and this alone, is the right way to use it. It ought never to be used as 
seed corn ; if it is, the result can only be more or less of a failure. Not 
only have corn got ready for market, but al-o measure up all that is 
required for spring sowing, when every hour will be precious. Clean 
and put seed drills in thorough order ; let all carts and implements not 
in daily use have needful repairs done at once, and give them a coat or 
two of paint, both for the sake of neat appearance and to prevent pre¬ 
mature decay. It is quite necessary to mention this matter, as there 
is a very general negligence of farm implements. 
We have seen manure carts going on several farms since the frost set 
in, the manure being carted from large heaps on to the land, spread at 
once, and left for ploughing in when the frost breaks, presumably for 
spring corn. In most instances we notice the manure is spread much 
too thinly to insure anything like a full crop of corn. Such practice is 
altogether deplorable. The rent must be fortheoming for the land, 
labour must also be paid for, but what of the farmer’s profits Nothing 
short of thirty loads per acre can be termed a full dressing ; even that 
would be better held in reserve for root crops, and a dressing of home- 
mixed nitrogenous and mineral manure drilled in with the corn. Try 
it this season, and you will have ample reason to feel pleased with 
results superior to what is possible under half dressings of farmyard 
manure. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Iiucerne {Reader ').—Lucerne accumulates about 300 lbs. of nitrogen 
per acre, therefore use no nitrogenous manures. A mixture of 4 cwt. 
superphosphate and 2 cwt. basic slag per acre will answer admirably. 
Apply as a top dressing in about five weeks from the present time to 
old plants, or drill in with seed. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A..M. 
In the Day. 
Rain. 
1892. 
January. 
1 Barometer 
1 at 32°, and 
1 S?a Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchsv 
Sunday .. 10 
29.549 
21.3 
24.1 
N.W. 
35.3 
34.6 
23.0 
42.0 
15.8 
0.020 1 
Monday .. 11 
23.857 
34.0 
33.7 
N. 
34.9 
37.1 
23.9 
53.4 
26.0 
0.010 
Tuesday .. 12 
29.937 
25.3 
25.0 
S.W. 
35.0 
36.0 
22.8 
47.9 
17 4 
— 
Wednesday 13 
29.774 
32.3 
32.0 
N.E. 
34.9 
35.9 
24.4 
41.2 
21.1 
— 
Thursday.. 14 
29.509 
30.0 
29.8 
N.E. 
34.8 
34.7 
29.1 
43.1 
24.5 
— 
Friday .. 15 
29.519 
27.6 
27.0 
N.W. 
34.6 
34 8 
24.8 
47.2 
19.3 
— 
Saturday .. 16 
29.513 
32.2 
31.7 
S.E. 
34.2 
35.7 
23.6 
51.8 
16.1 
0.020 
29.665 
29 4 
29.0 
34.8 
35.5 
24.5 
46.7 
20.0 
0.050 
REMAKES. 
10th.—Overcast early; a little sleet about 10 A.M. ; occasional sunshine after 11 A.M. 
11th.—Almost continuous but very slight snow and sleet tili 2 P.M., then overcast. 
Snow nearly all gone by night. 
12th.—Bright sunshine all the morning ; cloudy afternoon and evening. 
13th.—Cloudy morning ; overca.st afternoon ; fair night. 
14th.—Fine and generally sunny. Slight fall of snow in evening; bright night. 
15th.—Bright sunshine throughout; fine night. 
16th.—Cloudy and slightly foggy morning ; sunshine from 11.45 A.M. to sunset. The 
rain entered against this day was the product of a silver thaw between 8 and 
9 A.M. on Sunday 17th. 
Another very cold week, temperature very similar to that of the corresponding week 
of 1891.—G. J. STMONS. 
