1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
431 
phosphates, and one whieh will, with proper recognition, 
be placed at the command of the American farmer at 
prices considerably lower than those now ruling for rock 
goods. WILLIAM FREAK. 
Pennsylvania Experiment Station. 
A LISTENER’S NOTES. 
Some Things That Are Talked About. 
Can She Keep the Farm ?—The article by Miss Colby 
that was printed on page 342 has attracted much attention. 
Among the many letters drawn out by it is the following 
written by a woman in Massachusetts: “ I would like 
to obtain the address of the young lady referred to with a 
view to correspond with her, as I am situated almost ex¬ 
actly as she is, and am carrying on a large farm of 100 
acres.” We know of several young women who have been 
left in much the same circumstances. All the property 
that their parents accumulated is invested in farms. In 
these times such property is not negotiable. It pays no 
interest except as it is worked and managed. A strong, 
active man with a love for farm life ought to be satisfied 
with such property as an investment, but a light or 
invalid woman finds it a very different thing. What can 
such women do to make their investments pay a dividend ? 
Influence of a Shirk.— On a certain place in the coun¬ 
try are two dogs. One is a dignified Newfoundland old 
enough to behave himself, and fairly well trained. The 
other is a puppy full of mischief, taking delight in 
doing all sorts of tricks on the sly. When these dogs 
were put together it was expected that the big Newfound¬ 
land would teach the puppy manners and help train him. 
Instead of that the puppy has demoralized the big dog and 
led him into all sorts of tricks and mischief. After all, 
this only follows out a pretty sure rule. A bad boy upsets 
a neighborhood of good children, a lazy horse spoils a 
spirited mate, a shiftless hired man makes a good work¬ 
man stop to tell stories. Good business has no place for 
inferior help. The Influence of a shirk is ex¬ 
tremely potent. 
Effects of the Oleomargarine Law.— The 
following statement is made by one who has 
made a careful study of this class of legislation. 
It is particularly interesting just now in study¬ 
ing proposed measures which have similar objects 
in view. “ In 1886 Congress passed the Oleomar¬ 
garine Law imposing an internal revenue tax of 
two cents per pound on all ‘ oleo ’ manufac¬ 
tured in this country, besides other taxes on 
manufacturers as well as wholesalers and re¬ 
tailers of the product. A considerable number 
of the States have also passed anti-oleo laws, 
some forbidding its sale or manufacture within 
their borders, others condemning It to bear the 
stigma of some particular color, chiefly pink, 
and others putting various other restrictions on 
its sale. All this has been done for the protec¬ 
tion of consumers and makers of genuine butter. 
It was expected that the enactment of all these 
hostile laws would greatly curtail or altogether 
crush the manufacture of the obnoxious con¬ 
coction. Experience has, however, shown that 
all the legislation has not effected the purpose 
intended. Instead of decreasing, the production 
of oleomargarine has greatly increased since 
the passage of the National Oleomargarine Act, as shown 
by the following returns from the International Revenue 
Bureau. 
1886-7. $497,670 I 1889-90. $624,490 
188,-8. 6-12,710 1890-91. From July 1, 1890, 
1888-9. 686,674 | to May 1, 1891. 694,944 
‘‘Thus if the production from May 1 to June 30 1891, cor¬ 
responds with that for the rest of the fiscal year, the pro¬ 
duction for this year will amount to nearly one million 
dollars. Thus the Federal tax has failed to suppress 
oleomargarine, while it has increased its cost. Still there 
is little doubt that in the absence of all legislation on the 
matter, the amount of the stuff manufactured and sold 
would be much greater.” 
A Neglected State.— About the most neglected State 
in the Union so far as agricultural possibilities are con¬ 
cerned is Rhode Island. A glance at the map will show 
tnat it is practically impossible for a Rhode Islander to 
get more than four miles from a railroad or navigable 
water of some sort. The township of Barrington, for ex¬ 
ample, is five miles long by four miles wide and yet has 30 
miles of water frontage I The wastes from factories, that 
might be used as fertilizers are enormous. The sea weed 
thrown up by the ocean as a free gift is worth thousands 
of dollars. During the summer the shores are alive with 
pleasure-seekers anxious to exchange their money for 
“ clam chowder.” When we come to analyze this chowder 
we get an idea of the market it provides. From an old 
poem, printed in 1747, we learn how the original chowder 
was made. 
First lay some Onions to keep the pork from burning, 
Because in Chowder there can be no turning; 
Then lay some Pork in slices very thin, 
Thus you in Chowder always must begin. 
Next lay some Fish, cut crossways very nice, 
Then season well with Pepper, Salt and Spice ; 
Parsley, Sweet Marjoram, Savory and Thyme ; 
Then Biscuit next, which must be soaked some time. 
Thus your foundation laid, you will be able 
To raise a Chowder as high as tower of Babel; 
For by repeating o’er the same again. 
You may make Chowder for a thousand men, 
A “chowder” of the present day means, fish, clams, 
sweet corn, potatoes, celery, melons—in fact, anything that 
is good. Chowder makers have to import a large propor¬ 
tion of their “stock.” Rhode Island agriculture seems to 
be in a bad way. Business farmers who take advantage of 
their opportunities are making money. Many farmers do 
BOt care to exert themselves. There is “ money ip the 
family,” safely invested—frequently In Western farm 
mortgages—and the income affords them the precious privi¬ 
lege of comfortably riding in the “old rut.” Prices of 
farm lands in the “ Interior” of the State are very low. A 
successful business man told us that he could buy 3,000 
acres of land at an average of $5 per acre, plow under a 
crop of clover and one of buckwheat and grow a crop of 
wheat that would pay better returns than any other equal 
investment he could think of. The farmers of Rhode Is¬ 
land are largely American—of a thoroughbred Yankee 
stock. They are disturbed by the fact that French Cana¬ 
dians and other foreigners are monopolizing the work in 
factory towns. A successful Mississippi farmer once told 
us that the only farmers who were making money were 
those who produced food for the negro laborers in the 
“ cotton belt.” It is not impossible that an American can 
prosper growing food for foreigners. 
Bordeaux Mixture for Potato Rot.— Prof. Chester, 
of the Delaware Experiment Station, made several appli¬ 
cations of Bordeaux Mixture for blighted potato vines on 
the farms of several well-known Delaware farmers. Mr. 
Hervey Walker, of Mermaid, was one of these, and in re¬ 
ply to our questions he makes this statement: “ The Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture was used on potatoes badly infected with 
the blight; in fact they were so far gone that I thought it 
was useless to do anything ; but Prof. Chester sprayed a 
plot 70 feet long and four rows wide with the mixture, and 
in two weeks’ time the vines on the sprayed plot were as 
green and vigorous as they could be; while all the potatoes 
around were dead and black. I harvested the plot and 
one of the same size adjoining it that had not been sprayed. 
Then I examined and weighed the tubers, and found 10 per 
cent of those sprayed and 42 per cent of the unsprayed rot¬ 
ten, while the sprayed plot yielded 27 pounds more tubers 
than the unsprayed. I have not the least doubt the mixt¬ 
ure will stop the blight if applied in time. I think it is 
practical and it can best be applied by the best spraying 
outfit on the market in the form of a spray.” 
A NEW CREAM SEPARATOR. 
Something New Under the Sun. 
Solomon once said : “ There is nothing new under the 
sun,” but there i-', and it is the Berrigan cream separator 
—a simple machine which will soon be placed upon the 
markets and, in the words of its inventor, cannot help to 
revolutionize dairying, on account of its simplicity and 
cheapness. 
A few days ago, on the invitation of the inventor, Mr. 
John Berrigan, whom R. N.-Y. readers will remember as 
the manager of the Wadsworth Creamery, described in 
the Genesee Valley article last summer, I witnessed a 
practical demonstration of the usefulness of the machine. 
The separator, the first he ever made, was somewhat 
rudely constructed. It consists of a gas main about six or 
seven inches in diameter and about 2 X feet in height with 
a cap on either end. This gas pipe is set up on end and 
on one side a water gauge is fastened, a steam gauge Is 
screwed into the top cap, a small air pump, such as is used 
on a Shipman oil engine, is connected with the gas main 
by a quarcer-inch pipe, and the only other opening into the 
main is a tube through which the milk is poured. Such, 
In brief, is a description of the Berrigan cream separator. 
In order that a thorough test should be made from be¬ 
ginning to end, I went to the dairy farm of C. C. Hovey, 
on the “Conesus Farm,” which adjoins the creamery, and 
took seven quarts of such milk as is commonly found in a 
dairy of 70 cows, right from the pail of one of the milkers. 
Then I poured the milk, still warm, into the separator. 
Mr. Berrigan took hold of the pump handle with the re¬ 
quest that I would time him. I did so, and after 25 sec¬ 
onds’ pumping the steam guage registered an air pressure 
of 45 pounds to the square inch ; (understand the air was 
not exhausted from the main but pumped in) the pressure 
was allowed to remain on for two and one-half minutes 
when it was taken off and, strange as it may seem, in five 
minutes I began to see small specks of cream rising to the 
top of the glass water gauge. In 20 minutes nearly all the 
cream was at the top and in 25 minutes from the time Mr. 
Berrigan began to pump, all the cream had risen and the 
line between the milk and cream was very sharply defined, 
there being an inch and a half of cream on top of the milk, 
by actual measurement. After the milk had been drawn 
off, I took the cream (two pints) to my home, 10 miles 
away, and churned it the next day, when it had become 
slightly acid, at a temperature of 58 degrees and the bu t* 
ter came in a pice granular state, 
Mr. Berrigan does not pretend to explain how cr why 
the cream rises; he is not a scientist, and wisely leaves 
those questions for our professors to answer. A pressure 
of 80 pounds to the square inch, left on for three minutes, 
caused the cream to rise in eight minutes, and after the 
milk has been once aerated or inflated, it may be placed in 
any vessel, and the cream will rise just as quickly as in 
the separator. 
Mr. Berrigan has been working on this thing a long 
ti me. In his creamery he has two De Laval separators, each 
of 150 quarts per hour capacity, and he concluded it cost too 
much to run them. The water and ice creameries required 
too long a time, and the old open pan method is out of 
date, so he set himself to work to invent something cheap, 
simple and rapid. Has he not succee Jed ? The skim milk 
has been subjected to a careful analysis by an eminent 
chemist, and pronounced freer from cream than that left 
from any other process of cream raising. 
Tne United States and Canada bavo granted patents and 
the inventor is now busy securing paten's in Gre ,t Britain, 
France, Ge.many, Belgium, Denmark and several other 
foreign countries. 
The separators w.ll be made and put upon the market 
by one of the largest firms dealing in dairy utensils in the 
Uni ed States. They will be made in eizes with capacities 
ranging from five to five hundred gallons and the pri e 
for the smaller mac jines for farm use will be so low that 
any farmer owning a couple of cows can afford to own one. 
Livingston County, N. Y. EDWARD F. DIBBLE. 
WHO KNOWS HOW TO LAY TILE ? 
The Evils of Poor Drainage. 
Passing through this agriculturally prosperous section 
of Michigan last fall, I was impressed with the large 
amount of tile draining being done by the farmers along 
my route, and considered the work a proof of their intelli¬ 
gence and prosperity, since draining is a permanent in¬ 
vestment which is to pay an annual percentage 
like money at Interes*:, Instead of making a full 
return in a limited time, like the applies Ion 
of fertilizers. 
Stepping into a field where a well-to-do farmer 
was engaged in laying tiles, I found he was pu ,- 
ting them only 14 to 18 inches below the surface, 
and that he was laying them by gutss as t) 
descent; that his “ditch” had not been sur¬ 
veyed, nor had a pen scratch been made to 
record its location. Provoked by my inquisi¬ 
tiveness, the old gentleman raised hlmsel! 
straight up and eyed me with mingled pi ,y and 
scorn as one just escaped from a lunatic asylum, 
and after composing himself, he calmly re¬ 
marked : “ Sir, you must be a sort of crank 
Old man Clay, here, has laid more tiles tbaa 
you ever saw; and I guess this is all right.” 
The subject of draining has been so thor¬ 
oughly discussed by all the first class agri¬ 
cultural papers and treatises on farming th it 
I was surprised at this inconsiderate invest¬ 
ment of money. 
Since late winter I have been located on one 
of these farms on which were 200 or 300 rods 
of drains laid In this way, and I have been 
interested in watching them carry off the sur¬ 
plus water incident to the season. The inefficiency of 
this ill-advised method was manifest on every hand; 
but the marvel was that the drains were serviceable at all. 
Without a plot of any kind, the only part that could be 
located was the outlet, and this was invisible, but where 
it was reported to be I found what appeared like a boiling 
spring from which flowed a streamof water nearly as large 
as a man’s wrist, which spread itself out into a babbling 
little rill in the meadow below. An examination of the 
bed of this rill to the depth of eight inches or more showed 
that the end of the tile was well located to be trodden on 
by cattle or wallowed out of place by swine. There was no 
screen on it, so that rats and other small animals could 
gain ready entrance, and become lodged there and 
obstruct the drain. 
It was a four inch tile laid by guess about a foot and 
one half below the surface. In several places the tiles 
had frozen and collapsed, clogging the drain. These were 
the only peep-holes. Nothing bat the mere surface 
water was carried off. How could the drain do more, 
being on the surface itself ? The drying of the field wat 
not hastenel in the spring except in one or two spots of 
lower ground where the water would stand; and in fact 
the only advantage afforded by the drain was the baneflt to 
these few places. The annual profit from the investment 
in these drains cannot be over four per cent, whereas if 
they had been put in four feet deap, costing a trifle more 
but acting on the soil as low as clover roots usually 
penetrate, enabling them to bring up the hidden treasures 
of the subsoil, and gaining four or five days In the spring 
and keeping off frosts in the fall for several days; and 
if they had been laid with good joints on an exact slope 
gauged by the surveyor’s level or some equally accurate in¬ 
strument, and properly provided with silt-basins and peep¬ 
holes, and the outlets protected by masonry, the annual 
profit on the investment would not have been less thau 15 
per cent, which is better than government bonds. Drains 
so made are more permanent than farm buildings. They 
neither rot nor rust, nor do they demand repairs of any 
kind. In permanent improvements the best is and must 
be the cheapest; and it doesn’t make any difference how 
many thousand miles of tiles old man Clay has laid, if he 
doesn’t know how to do the work properly he is an un¬ 
profitable man to employ. I would rather boast of never 
having seen a tile than of having laid a thousand miles 
pf them s 3 that they ought all to gome up and be laid again. 
Eaton County, Mick, Clement j. STWiiS. 
- 
WHERE THE COWS EXERCISE. Fig. 159. 
