u 
i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
801 
President on the Democratic ticket. McKinley and Sher¬ 
man have won a clear cut victory in Ohio, and the former 
may be regarded as a promising Presidential possibility. 
SOME FACTS ABOUT PENSIONS. 
A “Loyal League” of old soldiers has just been formed 
to try to correct abuses that have crept Into the pension 
service. The great majority of the people seem to believe 
that every needy soldier should be cared for; at the same 
time there Is a growing belief that many persons draw 
pensi ons who do not deserve them, either because they ar e 
perfectly able to support themselves or because their “ war 
service” was a hum Pug. No loyal man will object to the 
payment of the “moral debt” incurred during the war. 
The common soldier risked his all and if he is now in 
broken hea’th and failing strength as a result of his ser¬ 
vice in the army, he ought to be cared for and the very 
small sum that each tax-payer gives for his support should 
be given willingly. At the same time we may very prop¬ 
erly object to contributing to the support of one who has 
more money than we have or who never went within gun¬ 
shot of actual service. We hope the “Loyal League” will 
be able to sift out the good claims. 
The last report of the Commissioner of Pensions con¬ 
tains some interesting figures. The total number of per¬ 
sons drawing pensions is 673,514. They are distributed 
through every State and in 47 foreign countries. There 
are, for example, three In Japan, 56 in Switzerland, three 
in Brazil, two in the Fiji! Islands, two in Liberia, one in 
Russia, 403 in Germany, five in Chile, three in New Zea¬ 
land, 12 in China, and so on. The most populous pensioners’ 
State is Ohio with 75,498. Pennsylvania is next with 
63 986, and then New York with 60,325 There are 14 in 
Alaska. The total number of persons who have received 
pensions since 1861 is 1,012.244. Of these 61,054 are veterans 
of the war of 1812 and their widows. The total amount of 
money disbursed since 1861 is $1,277,621,263 07. This money 
went directly to the people, and most of it to the persons 
who stood most in need and who put it at once into circu¬ 
lation. There are some who argue that an increase in 
the number and amounts of these pensions is desirable 
because the money is thus sent directly to the people and 
put into immediate circulation. We doubt, however, if 
the pensioners would be willing to take special paper money 
not as good as coin for their share. The Southern people 
have frequently stated the disadvantages under which the 
pension system places them. The States of Alabama, 
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas had in 
June, 1891, but 32,816 pensioners, or not quite five per cent 
of the total. Of these 32,816, 8,596 drew pensions for ser¬ 
vice in the Mexican war or that of 1812. The total amount 
sent to these States for pensions was $4,571,264 39, or not 
quite four per cent of the whole. These States were called 
upon to pay not far from $16,000,000 as their share of 
the pension fund. In the single State of Ohio in the same 
year $13,029,711.28 were paid for pensions. 
There are now on the rolls 20 widows and three daugh¬ 
ters of soldiers who served in the war of the Revolution. 
Two of them are 99 years old. One lives at Carter, Tennes¬ 
see, and the other at Easton, Pa. 
The number of claims for new pensions increases every 
year. About 140,000 names were added to the list in the 
last 12 months against about 50,000 in the preceding year. 
There are now over 1,000,000 claims waiting settlement. 
While many of these will be rejected, the fact remains 
that appropriations for pensions must be very largely in¬ 
creased during the next 10 years. All the more reason why 
the greatest care should be taken to cull out the rogues 
and “ beats.” 
“ Restricted ” Paper Money.— I have read and re¬ 
read “ Do things even up ? ” ou page 769 in The Rural. I 
am tempted to say something on this subject but forbear. 
Bat why should we rejoice that we are sending the results 
of our skill and labor to be paid for in gold? Of course 
all gold in international traffic goes as bullion. But why 
use gold for money at all? Simply from custom and tra¬ 
dition. The true function of money is as the “ tool of 
trade ” and not as a means for concentrating or hoarding 
wealth.- To my mind it would be just as wise to declare 
only copper fit and lawful to make plows of as to make of 
gold the sole monetary basis. Money Is an idea, and not 
a substance. Gold Is not money, but the substance used 
to give form to the idea. The cheiper the substance the 
better the money provided only the same law or fiat is ex¬ 
pressed. I would demonetize all metals and let them take 
their proper places in the arts and industries, using in¬ 
stead paper tokens under proper restrictions. e. l. s. 
North Truro, Mass. 
R. N. Y.—What are the “ proper restrictions? ” That’s 
the rub. Again, what are these “ tokens ” to represent ? 
A Gardener’s Labor.— How much one man can start 
and carry through in one season will depend entirely upon 
the man. No fixed amount can be stated. The soil, farm 
surroundings, knowledge and use of tools, as well as the 
products depended upon as the cash crops for each particu¬ 
lar farm must govern the matter. There is more work on 
an acre of corn here than on 20 in Nebraska. There is 
more dependence here on milk than on any other article. 
The majority of farmers make less than the hired man 
gets, especially if the former’s time is counted at so much 
per day—as it should. Farmers must clear and manure 
their land better and raise more on less ground. With the 
best tools several times more can be accomplished than 
with the old implements. I value the former highly, as 
they enable me to fit my land better, keep the crops cleaner, 
and the land in better condition, and by their aid I can get 
better returns with less manual labor than formerly, and, 
in fact, with less hired help. My crops are better and the 
returns are better. The five tools that save me the most 
labor are the Comstock combined weeder; Goslee’s com¬ 
bined cultivator, etc.; the rake ; the Firefly plow, and the 
wheelbarrow. I have others I could not spare any better. 
I am looking for a riding cultivator—one to close up and 
clean, 18 inches wide, or which I can change to various 
widths according to the crop, and I shall have one for next 
year, I guess. A w. s. 
Litchfield Co., Conn 
The Farmers Club. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
I Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of the 
writer to Insure attention. Before asking a question please see if it is 
not answered in our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
THE BUTTER EXTRACTOR FOR TESTING COWS. 
Several Subscribers. —There seems to be a considerable 
wrangle among breeders about the proper method of test¬ 
ing the dairy cows entered at the dairy contest at the 
World’s Fair. Why would it not be fair to run all the 
milk through the butter extractor and weigh the result¬ 
ing butter ? 
Ans.—W e believe the committee having this matter In 
charge have decided to use the chemical test for butter fat. 
The Jersey breeders object to this because they say the 
churn is the only test recognized by the actual dairyman 
who wants to know how much butter a cow will make. 
The Jersey men wanted each cow’s milk kept separate and 
churned by itself and the butter analyzed to show how 
much water and casein it contained—“ standard ” butter 
to contain about 10 per cent of water, and any excess of 
this amount to be deducted from the weight. The majority 
of the committee said that this individual churning would 
be impossible with 500 or 600 cows to be tested. Again, 
they claim that the chemical test is more accurate because 
it tells exactly how much fat there is in a certain cow’s 
milk while the churn test may vary, as everybody knows 
how different conditions of cream and churning give vary¬ 
ing quantities of butter. Again, they say that the chemi¬ 
cal test is bound to be the test of the future—just as it is 
the test for fertilizers to day. Farmers do not buy fertil¬ 
izers on the strength of the records of crops grown on cer¬ 
tain fields, but they buy them by analyses made by the 
chemists. As to the butter extractor, few of the authori¬ 
ties know enough about it to care to ans ver a question as 
to its value for testing cows. Wnile it does excellent work 
with large quantities of milk, it is thought by some that 
there would be waste in running small quantities of milk 
through it. Mr. Gardiner, whose letter is printed below, 
has had a long practical experience with the extractor, and 
his statements are thoroughly reliable. We give herewith 
three opinions which are typical of many others. 
The Butter Extractor Will Answer. 
I would guarantee with my “ butter extractor ” to give 
a correct butter test of every cow’s milk to within, say, two 
ounces at the very outside, and I really think it would give 
a test within an ounce, and as it would be practically the 
same for each cow, the variation would be nothing. A 
test of 10 cows made here on one day, showed that there 
was scarcely any butter fat left in the milk—merely the 
fraction of an ounce. For such tests it requires a trundle 
wheel constructed on purpose, which the company do 
not make for their ordinary machines, but which is a 
secondary matter as It is oasily constructed; therefore 
my reply would be, that the use of the extractor would be 
decidedly the best way to test all cows. w. L gardiner. 
Huron Co., Ohio. 
Nothing More Unsatisfactory Than The Churn. 
In my opinion no results can be more unsatisfactory in 
determining the value of milk than what is called the 
churn test, as there is no method of testing milk known 
to me subject to greater inaccuracies. The owners of one 
particular breed of stock have been great sticklers for the 
churn test because with cream raised by any of the deep¬ 
setting systems, it seems to show the milk of that stock of 
cattle to better advantage than the milk from some of the 
other breeds; but where the cream is removed by the sep¬ 
arator, this advantage of a particular milk is not so ap¬ 
parent. By the improved methods of dairying, a skillful 
manipulator will take the butter fat out of any milk to 
within less than one-tenth of one per cent of the actual 
chemical analysis, so that to my mind, the proper test of 
milk for butter-making purposes is the determination of 
the butter fat in the milk. 1 have never had any experi¬ 
ence in running the butter extractor, but if It can be run 
with sufficient precision to take out the butter fat to within 
less than one-tenth of one per cent, as we can do with the 
separator, then the butter taken from the extractor, 
treated systematically and weighed, would be a fair test 
for all, but even then there will be a certain amount of 
moisture in the butter, which should be determined by 
chemical methods, so that the final resort in all cases is 
the chemical method. If the cream is churned by any of 
the ordinary processes and a sufficient allowance is made 
for the water present, as has been suggested, this moisture 
must be determined by the chemical method, so that under 
any circumstances the ultimate result is reached only by 
employing chemical analysis. I may add that from what 
I have seen of the wrangle over the testing of milk at the 
World’s Fair, it impresses a disinterested party as being 
more of an effort of one set of breeders to get an advantage 
over another set than to get at the actual facts concerning 
the butter value of milk. john a. myers. 
West Virginia Station. 
The Churn Test Most Educational. 
I think the suggestion to use the butter extractor for 
testing cows for butter at the World’s Fair would, If com¬ 
bined with some chemical tests, answer all purposes from 
a scientific standpoint. But it does not seem to me that 
the extractor is sufficiently known to the public to lead to 
popular confidence in the results, if this were the only 
method depended upon. My opinion is that, in order to 
have the proposed grand tests at Chicago in 1893 command 
popular interest and confidence, especially among the large 
number of cow owners and dairymen who are not accus¬ 
tomed to the advanced methods of creamery management, 
it will be necessary that the methods of the trial should 
conform to the usual ways of making butter on the farm. 
Therefore I think the churn and churning should form a 
part of the procedure, and the completely-made butter 
should be included in the test, and bear a proper part 
in the record and final award. This need not, and should 
not, exclude all additional tests or operations to secure 
scientific accuracy. There should be an established stand¬ 
ard for the comparison of the butter, which phould be 
analyzed, and there should also be chemical tests of the 
fresh milk, the skimmed milk and the buttermilk, all 
constituting a part of the record, and given due weight in 
making up the final result. henry e. alvord. 
Director Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. 
Cow Feeding ; “ Hollow Horn.” 
J. W. H., Wauneta, Neb.— 1. If a cow is fed corn in the 
ear will it lessen the flow of milk or dry her up ? 2. What 
is tbe trouble with a cow and what can I do for her when 
her horns are cold ? I know that when a cow’s horns are 
cold something ails her. Father always called the trouble 
“ hollow horn,” and always seemed to cure his cow by put¬ 
ting spirits of turpentine on her head. When her horns 
are cold, as they have been for the past week, her yield of 
milk diminishes, and she does not eat well and looks bad. 
Turpentine does not seem to help any in this instance. I 
have read lately that there is no such disease as hollow 
horn. 
Ans —1. No, if you give her enough food. Young cows 
with good teeth can grind up a good deal of such corn, yet 
they are unable to digest it all, as you can see by examin¬ 
ing the manure. Old cows with worn teeth cannot thrive 
on such grain. Our own opinion is that it pays well to 
grind all grain for cows. Horses with good teeth do much 
better on whole grain. What is fed with the corn ? The 
cow should have good clover hay, roots or pasture if she 
is expected to give milk. 2. Your latest information is 
just about correct. All horns of mature cows are hollow. 
Application of turpentine to the head or boring the 
horns is about the meanest business a man can be 
guilty of. The latter causes the cow frightful pain and, 
of itself, does her no good. The cold horns indicate that 
the cow is not well—just as cold feet or a hot head 
might indicate sickness in a human being. Both of these 
may indicate a stomach trouble—the eating of indigestible 
food or a half-starved condition. The probability is that 
your cow has not been well fed or well nourished. If she 
is constipated give her a good dose of Glauber’s salts, and 
then see that she is properly fed and cared for. 
Special Cow for Infant’s Milk. 
L. O J., Moline, III.— Is the milk of one cow better for 
infants than the mixed milk of a herd ? If so, why ? 
Ans —The great advantage In having the milk of one 
cow set aside for an infant’s use is that it will be uniform and 
less likely to be diseased. Milk varies considerably in its 
make up—a very fatty milk is not usually wanted for in¬ 
fants. Average human milk contains more water, less fat, 
less casein and more sugar than average cow’s milk. Analy¬ 
sis shows that the milk of the ass is nearer in its composi¬ 
tion to human milk than that of any other animal. There 
seems no reason to doubt that human milk varies consid¬ 
erably in its composition. When the milk of one healthy 
cow can be secured regularly, the infant becomes accus¬ 
tomed to it, and just the right proportion of sugar or water 
will be added. Any sign of disease in that cow will be 
readily detected. Mixed milk from a whole herd gives a 
varying product. In many large herds there are almost al¬ 
ways one or more cows that are more or less sick, giving 
milk unfit for infants. When selling the milk from a herd 
we have frequently had parents come and select a cow for 
their own family use. Several times careless milkers for¬ 
got and poured the special cow’s milk in with the rest. In 
every such case the baby rebelled at the change and the 
parents knew what had happened. 
Grafting Grape Vines In the Fall. 
C. 3. M., Junction City, Kan. —Can grape vines be suc¬ 
cessfully grafted on the side of the crown, letting the scion 
run down into the ground and protecting by a mound of 
earth, if the work is done this fall ? I have been successful 
with this method in the spring, but wishing to graft a 
large number of thrifty Pocklington and Concord vines 
with Moore’s Early, it will be more convenient to do it 
this fall. 
Ans.—The R. N.-Y. has never grafted grape vines in the 
fall and can not speak with any authority. The method of 
grafting is all right, but we should prefer to do it in the 
spring. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Bran vs. Cotton-Seed Meal— Several Subscribers—The 
Pennsylvania Experiment Station—State College, Center 
County, Pa.—has just printed a bulletin giving the result 
of a feeding comparision between bran and cotton-seed 
meal, which are now nearly the same price in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. Briefly stated, the results show that 900-pound 
cows were not affected in health by feeding them six 
pounds of cotton seed meal daily. Green rye or ensilage 
was fed with the meal. One pound per day was too much 
for calves. The cotton-seed meal increased the milk yield 
about one-fifth, but the per cent of fat in the milk was not 
perceptibly changed. The commission men rated the 
cotton-seed meal butter lower in quality than that made 
from bran. The bran butter melted at 93 degrees, while 
the other stood till 99 degrees. 
