i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Business. 
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR COMMISSION 
MERCHANT i — We have numerous inquiries from 
our subscribers for the names of reliable commission 
merchants , to which inquiries we are always glad 
to reply to the best of our knowledge and belief. 
For our further i aformation concerning these useful 
gentlemen we ivould be glad to have any of our read¬ 
ers give us the names of commission men ivhose 
dealings th«y have found satisfactory in any of the 
following, or other large trade centers: Neiv York, 
Philadelphia , Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, St. 
Louis, Cincinnati, etc. The readers of The Rural 
New Yorker cover the continent, and we would 
like to get a list of the commission men who have 
proved satisfactory to them. 
BONE GRINDING AT HOME. 
Will It Pay to Buy a Mill ? 
The following letter, written from Illinois, is a fair sam¬ 
ple of several others from various parts of the country. 
“ I can bay bones at $5 per ton and sell them, ground, at 
$20; I want a great many for my own use; would it pay to 
buy a mill? 
Ans.— Grinding bones to a proper degree of fineness is 
about the hardest problem the fertilizer manufacturers 
have to solve. To do the work properly the bones must 
first be steamed under a 
powerful pressure and 
smashed into small pieces 
before entering the mill. 
Mills For Farm Use. 
We have endeavored to / V 
learn of any mills in general MV —■I jffii 
use that can be used for jj ( 
grinding either grain or bones 1 . 
as desired. The mills cost ^|l 
from $90 to $150. ' ^ 
A, W. Stevens & Son of (if — 
Auburn, N. Y. write: “ We ' r Jf 
cannot at the present time f JW. 
direct you to any party using ^ 
our mills for grinding bone. — 
We understand, however, 
that buhr stone mills will 
do thb work successfully. 
This question has been 
brought to our attention 
many times, and we are quite /l 
sure several mills have been /s/' A* 
sold for this purpose; we find ^ /fy \ 
frequently, after selling a \ \£ 
mill, that it is being used for 
corn and feed grinding, for - ^ 
which it is specially adapted, 
and for doing miscellaneous 1 li 
grinding, such as reducing > 
bones, soft stone and other J /\ y ' u'l 
substances, to fine powder. dfyT ~']8f 
We can only add that buhr P~ 
stone mills will successfully - ' jr ImT — 
grind anything that can be s id 
run between them, which con- " _ s 
tains no gummy material.” _C 
The Nordyke & Marmon 
Co., Indianapolis, say : “ We M " nil 
have furnished a number of (|( M 
our mills for grinding bonbs, ’ 
and from reports received I Jw'~ ^ 
they seem to do the work 
satisfactorily. We have also 
furnished mills for grind¬ 
ing ores, clays, etc. We 
shipped a number of mills 
to the Kansas City Cement Works a short time ago. For 
grinding bone, it is necessary to first crush the bone into 
particles about the size of a walnut. The particles can 
be ground into meal as fine or coarse as desired.” 
The Foos Manufacturing Co., of Springfield, Ohio, refers 
us to the manager of the farm connected with the Clifton 
Sanatorium, who writes: “We have one of the Foos 
Manufacturing Co.’s Scientific Grinding Mills, and use it 
exclusively for grinding bones, for fertilizer. It will not 
grind green bones; we must steam them in a boiler under 
a pressure of 40 pounds per square inch for several hours 
to make them soft, and then dry them, before we can 
grind them. When prepared in this way, we have been 
able to grind 500 pounds per hour. We run the ground 
bone over a screen and return the coarse to the mill, making 
it very fiae. After steaming, the bones break easily, and 
we examine them closely to be sure there is no iron in 
them, and break the larger pieces with a hammer to the 
size of small ear corn. Our engine is 15-horse power, but 
I think one of six or eight-horse power will grind the 
bones.” 
Cut Green Bones for Fertilizer. 
Daring the past >ear a me chine has been perfected for 
cutting or chopping up green or fresh bones into a mass 
much like sausage meat. Mach less power is required in 
chopping these green bones than in grinding dry ones. 
While the product is mainly intended for poultry food, it 
has been used by some parties as a fertilizer. The parties 
writing below have used the largest size. 
The mill cuts bone, meat, gristle, etc , fine enough for 
poultry to eat easily, and as fine as I should care to have 
it for spreading on the soil. There is no trouble in hand¬ 
ling or spreading it. It is not bone flour or bone meal, for 
it is coarse like cracked corn. It heats very quickly unless 
spread and stirred. For grinding dry bone the machine 
doesn’t feed quite fast enough, but I am well pleased with 
it for green bones. A B PIERPONT. 
New Haven C>., Conn. 
We use our cutter for preparing poultry food. We cut 
the green bones with what meat is left on them from the 
markets. The product looks like sausage meat. The cut¬ 
ter will use up any kind of bones and the cut stuff can be 
used for fertilizer as well as for chicken food. Of course 
it is slow work to run bones through the machine. I don’t 
know if the product would pay compared with steamed 
bone for fertillzsr. C. A. BARTLETT. 
Worcester Co , Mass. 
I have cu". perhaps a ton of bones the p ast three weeks, 
and have cut about l}4 ton of scraps per month during 
the past summer, and the machine does all I expected. It 
can cut about 150 pounds of scraps per hour. I have never 
cat any dry bones except what came in the scraps. I think 
the machine will cat the bone fine enough for a fertilizer, 
as the knives can be set to cut one thirty-second of an inch. 
Worcester Co., Mass. p. I lewis. 
Other Facts to Remember. 
There are several machines called “ disintegrators ” 
which are used to grind hard substances. They revolve 
with great rapidity, and fine the materials by throwing 
them violently about Inside a steel barrel or box. They 
require great power. 
As explained last week, the value of ground bone de¬ 
pends largely upon its fineness. Very coarse bone is not 
worth half as much as that which is ground as flue as meal. 
JRS 
getting Ice and chus ready for the deep setting. The 
cream obtained is neither frothed nor churned but Is as 
smooth as that from the deep setting. The machine has 
been in almost dally use for over two months without any 
exp >nse for repairs. For more than half of this time it 
has been run by a tread power upon which a yearling bull 
has been worked with advantage, as it has relieved a man 
for other purposes. It is so arranged that the bull is led 
into the tread just before milking time and as soon as 
three or four cows are milked the machine is started. No 
further care is required except to supply milk to the re¬ 
servoir as it is ml)k j d. The creaming is completed in a 
short time after the last cow is milked. Managed in this 
way the milk is in the best possible condition for separa 
tion, and the sweet fklm-mllk still warm from the cow 
may be fed to calves or other stock The bull used in 
this wotk is a Jersey and weighed at the beginning 510 
pounds. He has steadily gained in weight and is un¬ 
doubtedly better off for the exercise than he would have 
been without it. The tread power used is for two horses 
and has a governor which maintains a very steady speed 
and prevents accidents which might occur from the run¬ 
ning off of belts, etc. The power is set rather flat and Is 
geared so as to give the driving pulley on the separator 43 
turns per minute. The skim-milk is tested almost every 
day and rarely contains more than .1 per cent of fat. In 
no case has it exceeded this when the milk was at the pro¬ 
per temperature. 
“ I believe the B tby separator can be used to advantage 
in herds containing 10 good cows, but for herds smaller 
than this would recommend the deep setting system, and 
would urge when the latter method is used that the milk 
be set immediately after milk¬ 
ing and that sufficient ice be 
placed in the creaming tank 
to keep the temperature of 
!*. the water below 50 degrees 
— 'Bj-Z 'f ~-' Fahrenheit in order to insure 
- rjv,the most efficient work.” 
a" sip* Prof. Babcock puts the limit 
n. ' ° f profifc at 10 K>°d cows. 
\V'| lif which we think is correct. 
The Farmer goes jogging along on the road, 
While fat, smiling middlemen make up his load. 
Then all of a sudden there comes a big thump, 
And co-operation sends them “up a stump.” 
In fact, coarse bone larger than ordinary corn kernels is 
of little value as a fertilizer until it has been ground finer 
or softened by the use of acids or by mixing with ashes or 
potash salts. Where cotton-hull ashes are obtainable they 
cau be mixed with the coarse bone and kept moist. This 
is frequently done at the South, the result being an ex¬ 
cellent fertilizer. As to the profit of grinding bones on 
the farm, our own opinion is that it will not pay unless 
budness enough can be done to warrant the purchase of 
a stout mill, a crusher such as is used in stone crushing, 
a tank for steaming and a power of some sort. Such an 
outfit will cost about $700. With a big supply of bones at 
$5 per ton, such an outfit would pay good interest, as the 
crusher could also be used on stone for roads and the mill 
for grinding grain. 
VALUE OF THE “BABY SEPARATOR.” 
A good many readers have asked this question: “ How 
many cows must I keep in order to make a separator 
pay ?” The expense of creamers, pans and pails, and the 
time spent in setting milk and handling the cream are 
considerable. This is largely avoided when the separator 
is used, but the first cost of the machine is considerable, 
and it is evident that it must be given work enough or it 
will not pay interest. What is “ work enough ?” How 
much milk must it handle ? How many cows must we 
have before It will p jy us to buy one ? Prof. S. M. B ab- 
cock, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, has been in¬ 
vestigating this matter in company with the different 
methods of raising cream. In bulletin 29 of that Btation, 
he says, speaking of the Baby separator No. 2: 
“ It turns easily and is easily cleaned, our dairymen pre¬ 
ferring to separate the milk from our herd in this way to 
'~A RAPE IN SHEEP FAT- 
TENING. 
A number of statements 
have been made about the 
value of rape—a plant quite 
^^r r:D '' largely used in England for 
the fall fattening of sheep. 
Prof. Thomas Shaw, of the 
Ontario Agricultural College 
at Guelph, Canada, has issued 
a readable bulletin on the 
growth and uses of the plant. 
This crop is much like the 
turnip crop in its habits and 
r. growth. Any soil that will 
:f A grow turnips will make a good 
^ — crop of rape - In ° at ario It Is 
sown in a rotation between 
two crops of grain—as rye and 
f ^ oats, barley or corn. Rye is 
I i/I ppB—Jused there for pasturage, hay 
or the silo as well as for grain 
^ an( ^ straw. When for hay, It 
Is cut with a binder as the 
ffljj heads begin to form, and is 
stacked up when dry and fed 
1out in bundles. When rape 
l. M „ is to follow, the rye ground Is 
u well plowed early in June and 
f then harrowed occasionally 
•*" ^ uri til about July 1, when the 
rape is sown in low drills 
about 20 to 25 inches apart. 
About one pound of seed is 
used per acre when in drills. 
The cultivation is about the 
same as that given turnips. It grows very rapidly and 
fills the soil with roots which extend down deep to the 
subsoil. It may be pastured in September and usually 
provides food for sheep until late in November, or until 
heavy snow. It is not a good pasture plant for cows, as it 
imparts a taste to the milk, but for sheep and lambs it 
cannot be surpassed as a fall green food. Prof. Shaw’s 
plan is to turn sheep and lambs into the rape fields early 
in September and keep them there as long as they can feed, 
providing cheap shelter for use in time of storms, and 
feeding a small allowance of grain. In 1890* he had 54 
acres of rape and on this tract he pastured for two months, 
17 head of heavy steers and 537 sheep and lambs. One acre 
of rape sustained 12 lambs for two months. After paying 
all expenses of baying, freight, extra food and attendance, 
it was found that the rape on one acre made a return in 
cash of $16.80. The average cost of growing the acre of 
rape was $11.77. 
In addition to the above profit was the sheep manure 
left on the land and the freedom from weeds which were 
cleaned out by the summer cultivation. Rape does not 
interfere with any other crop and provides a heavier fall 
pasturage for sheep than any other plant. It is worth try¬ 
ing in a small way at least. 
The Smalley Ensilage Cutters are now provided with 
distributors which run over the silo and drop the ensilage 
wherever it is most needed. This prevents so much raking 
and spreading by hand. It works on much the same prin¬ 
ciple as a carrier—with sliding panels fitted at inter¬ 
vals, through which, as opened, the ensilage drops in any 
desired spot. 
