47o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 13 
machinery to better advantage, women will take more 
of their jobs away. 
To return to the cattle, however, we do not suppose 
that steers are going out of date as farm workers, be¬ 
cause a few cows show that they can bear the yoke. 
The cow was made for nobler purposes; still it may 
often be a helpful and interesting thing for a boy to 
train two such heifers as these were trained. Any¬ 
thing that teaches a child self-control, and the proper 
direction of living forces, is a good thing, and the 
care of farm animals affords a good chance for such 
education. 
HOW TO DESTROY WORMS IN CHESTNUTS. 
The two species of chestnut weevil known in North 
America, infest the chestnuts and chinquapins in 
every locality where the latter grow naturally. Three 
methods of combating these enemies seem to me 
practical : 
First, gather the nuts as they fall, and as soon as 
enough are on hand to warrant treatment, put them 
in a tight barrel, box or other receptacle that can be 
tightly covered. Procure a half pint or more of bisul¬ 
phide of carbon, and pour some in an open cup which 
should be placed with the nuts. It will permeate 
every space, and kill all the larvae and eggs within 
30 hours, if securely confined. It will not injure the 
nuts either for eating or planting if they are not 
longer subjected to treatment and are afterwards well 
aired. However, there is no danger from poisoning, 
except by inhaling the fumes. No fire should be 
allowed near, as the gas is very inflammable. 
By the second method, as soon after gathering as 
possible, put a large or small quantity of nuts into a 
basket or tub, and pour boiling water over them, 
until all are covered an inch or more deep. Stir 
vigorously with a stick, and the light and faulty nuts 
will float, and may be skimmed off and fed to hogs to 
destroy the worms. Leave the good nuts in the water 
five minutes, when the eggs and little larvse will be 
scalded. Pour off the water, or re-heat it for another 
batch. Put the nuts in coarse sacks, only half filling 
them. Lay them in the best place to dry, shaking and 
turning often. The kernels of chestnuts so treated 
will not be hard in winter, but will not grow if 
planted. 
Third, put in cold storage as soon as the nuts are 
gathered. This will prevent the development of the 
eggs, and for market dealers, is feasible. The nuts 
may be taken out as the trade requires. A friend in 
the mountains of North Carolina told me that he 
had found by trial, that chestnuts put in a box or 
sack, and buried in the earth a foot deep, did not be¬ 
come wormy, because the conditions (perhaps of tem¬ 
perature) were not agreeable to the hatching and 
growth of the insects. 
In cases where wild trees or bushes of the chestnut 
and chinquapin abound, it is not possible to gather 
the wormy nuts as they fall, and destroy them, or to 
jar and catch, or otherwise materially to lessen the 
number of insects; but in isolated cases, these methods 
may be tried with hope of success, h. e. van deman. 
HOW TO MAKE "SANITARY MILK." 
HOW RACTERIA ARE KEPT OUT OF IT. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Part I. 
What the Market Will Demand. 
As Mr. Powell told us two weeks ago, Eastern milk 
dairymen have not yet been much affected by Western 
competition. That is because milk has been regarded 
as such a short-lived product that it could not stand a 
long trip by rail and reach the market sweet and fresh. 
Therefore, while it cost less to make a quart of milk 
back on the farms several hundred miles from the 
great markets, it was thought that this cheapness 
would not avail, since the milk would not keep long 
enough to make the journey. Putter and cheese from 
these cheap pasture and grain lands, flooded the East¬ 
ern markets, but milk farmers thought themselves 
secure from invasion. 
Within the past few years, a change has come over 
this trade. Fast trains now bring milk from farms 
bordering on the great lakes to the New York mar¬ 
ket, and other agencies more demoralizing even than 
rapid transportation, have been at work. Scientists 
have been studying milk, and learning why and how 
its changes take place, and how they may be pre¬ 
vented. As a result, the practical “ life ” of milk bids 
fair to be doubled. In Europe, milk is frozen into 
solid chunks and kept for weeks if need be. In this 
country the Wisconsin Experiment Station has just 
issued a remarkable bulletin on “Pasteurizing” milk 
and cream, so that with ordinary care, it will keep 
much longer than the raw product. Now, it seems 
evident, that all this investigation and scientific re¬ 
search, can have but one result. As practical means 
are found to lengthen the time that milk can be kept 
sweet, the area from which milk can be shipped to 
our markets, will be enlarged. The cheapest product 
will naturally come from distant sections where land 
is cheap and strong, and climate most favorable. 
This cheap product will determine the market price. 
With unrestricted competition that has been the trade 
history of every other food product, and it will be so 
with milk. 
The Sort of Milk to Make. 
What then is the Eastern dairyman going to do 
about it? Cheap Western wheat has driven that 
grain off the Eastern farm as a profitable crop. Must 
milk go in the same way if its life is lengthened by 
48 hours? We do not think that necessarily follows. 
Milk is the most perfect food known. It is the only 
animal food that is not washed and cleaned in some 
way before serving as food. Of all foods it is the 
most susceptible to the changes influenced by bac¬ 
terial germs. It is one of the best mediums for con- 
veying consumption, typhoid and scarlet fevers, diph¬ 
theria, etc., or for causing stomach troubles in infants 
and invalids. It will do no good to deny these things. 
They are true, and the fact that they are true, affords 
a “way out” for the Eastern dairyman. Let him 
produce a “ germless milk”—one that is absolutely 
free from disease or filth—and he need not fear any 
cheap Western product. My observation is that ordi¬ 
nary townspeople would use twice as much milk as 
they now do if they could be convinced that it is per¬ 
fectly clean and pure. So much has been said in the 
papers of late about tuberculosis and other diseases, 
that thousands of people are afraid to give ordinary 
milk to their children. They want to know where it 
comes from, and all about it before using. Now, in¬ 
stead of injuring the milk business, this feeling is 
going to be a good thing for those dairymen who take 
advantage of it and produce perfect milk and adver¬ 
tise the fact. As true as you live, there is going to be 
as much distinction made between sanitary and un¬ 
sanitary milk, as there is between sirloin steak and a 
piece off the neck. A few men have recognized this 
fact already. The object of these articles is to tell 
what some of these men are doing, and what they 
think about the prospect. Last fall a well-known 
restaurant in this city hung out this sign : 
WE BOOM MILK; NOT MEN ! 
I L K 
I T O U T 
ICR0BE8 
If Tammany will give us better milk we want it. 
AN IT IS WE SELL MILK FltOM ELLERSL1E 
FARM. T1IE REST TO RE HAD. 
On investigation I found that, while the market was 
almost washed away with ordinary milk, there was 
not half enough of this “sanitary” article to go 
around. It brought 12 cents a quart without diffi¬ 
culty. I determined to trace this milk to its source, 
and see what there is about it to justify its name of 
“sanitary.” So on a recent hot and “milk-killing” 
day, I went to “Ellerslie”—Governor Morton’s great 
farm on the Hudson. 
Mr. II. M. Cottrell, the superintendent, has studied 
this milk problem until he loathes bacteria as a potato 
farmer hates the Colorado beetle. He has reached 
the point where he sees thousands of germs headed 
for that milk from the time the cow is fed until the 
milk is handed to the consumer. His study has been 
to secure the cows, the appliances and the care that 
will head off every one of these germs. When you 
get the milk bottled and on the ice without a single 
unhealthy germ in it, you have “sanitary” milk. How 
is it done ? 
How the Milk Is Cleaned. 
First of all, come healthy cows. The cows at 
“ Ellerslie ” are Guernseys. This breed is noted for 
its health and vigor. The cows are gentle, and good 
eaters, and give a large flow of rich, high-colored 
milk. The herd has been tested with tuberculin re¬ 
peatedly, and there is not a trace of tuberculosis in 
it. A lot of imported Guernseys were carefully 
tested, but not one showed any reaction. 
“ Put before we look at the cows,” said Mr. Cottrell, 
“ let’s see just what happens to the milk in the dairy 
house. We will have two cows milked at once to 
show you.” 
The dairy house was as neat as wax in all its ap¬ 
pointments. The great object in such a building is 
to avoid all cracks or crevices in floor, wall or ceiling. 
Such cracks cannot be easily reached and cleaned, 
and if milk be scattered about, they are sure to be¬ 
come breeding places for bacteria. The milk was 
brought in warm from the barn. It was strained 
twice—once through a cloth, and once through a fine 
wire gauze strainer of peculiar shape. In outward 
appearance, this strainer is like the ordinary tin 
strainer that fits into the large can. Instead of having 
the gauze at the bottom, this strainer is solid with the 
<■>- ^ze raised at the side, so that the milk must rise at 
least two inches before running through into the can. 
The reason for this is that when the gauze is at the 
bottom, the strainings all collect on it, and each sue 
ceeding pail of milk is washed through them, carrying 
more or less into the can. With the gauze at the 
side, this is prevented, as the milk must rise and is 
not washed through. First of all, the cow must be 
perfectly clean before she is milked. All the filth 
found in milk is dropped into it from some dirty sur¬ 
roundings. 
“ That milk is as clean as we can make it,” said Mr. 
Cottrell; “but I want you to smell of it before the 
next step is taken.” 
The warm, indescribable “cowy” odor was very 
apparent. 
“ We don't wish to bottle that up, and cooling alone 
won’t take it out, so we blow pure air through it by 
means of Hill’s aerator.” 
This device is a square box in which are two small 
bellows which connect with a crank or shaft outside. 
The bellows blow into a long rubber tube, at the end 
of which is a rose like that at the end of a watering 
pot. At Ellerslie, when a can of warm milk is 
brought in, this rose is placed at the bottom of the 
can, and a belt from the engine shaft attached to the 
aerator. There was a great commotion in the can at 
once as the strong current of air blown through the 
tube made the milk fairly boil, while the “ cowy ” 
odor was nearly doubled in strength. In a little over 
a minute, this odor had practically disappeared, and 
the milk was pronounced ready for cooling. 
“ I find the aerator a great help,” said Mr. Cottrell ; 
“ and consider it a valuable aid in producing sanitary 
milk.” 
“ Put what does the aerator really do to the milk to 
help it ? ” 
“That I don’t know. I have not been able to ob¬ 
tain a satisfactory explanation from any of the scien¬ 
tists. They have various theories, but no facts that 
I have heard to show what good this forced air does.” 
“ How do you know that it is a good thing then ?” 
“Because I have tested it carefully. Let invalids 
or a baby be fed regularly on milk that is aerated 
before being cooled, and then some day give them 
milk from the same cow treated exactly the same, 
except that no pure air has been blown through it 
before cooling. They will tell it every time and in 
most cases will refuse it ! That is evidence enough to 
satisfy me that aeration takes something out of the 
milk that we don’t want there.” 
“ Yet I have heard people object to it !” 
“That is easily explained—they blew impure air 
through the milk and, of course, did it no good. 1 
went to a famous milk dairy once and saw them work 
the aerator, right in the barn close to the manure 
gutters. The air was strong enough to knock a man 
down ; yet they were blowing it right through the 
milk. Of course they hurt it, both in flavor and keep¬ 
ing qualities. See how we have ours arranged. The 
original machine would have taken the air right from 
this room, and before it reached the milk, it would 
have passed over the wheels which are more or less 
covered with oil. We run an air pipe to the outside of 
the building, so that the air comes from outdoors. 
Before it enters the bellows, it passes through a box 
stuffed full of absorbent cotton, and is thus forced 
through the milk absolutely pure. That sort of aera¬ 
tion is a good thing and helps the milk.” u. w. c. 
IRRIGATION BY RAM POWER. 
A STREAM TURNED OUT OF ITS RED 
And Made to Wait on a Connecticut Yankee. 
In New England, thousands of acres of land are dry 
and practically arid, as far as the production of crops 
is concerned, during such seasons as the present and 
that of last year. What is to be done with them ? 
This question seems to have been solved by an enter¬ 
prising young farmer of Simsbury, Conn. Simsbury 
lies in the beautiful Farmington River Valley, in 
Hartford County, a few miles south of the Massa¬ 
chusetts line. To the north and south of Simsbury, 
for many miles, there are stretches of sandy plains, 
and it is of this sandy and somewhat rocky soil, that 
Ilopbrook Farm is composed. Between the hillsides, 
many brooks wind their way to the Farmington River. 
One of these, running through Ilopbrook Farm, was 
changed in its course, being made to run through a 
canal six feet wide along the slope of a hill. About 
20 feet away, and seven feet lower, nearly on a level 
with the water table, one of the strongest and most 
powerful hydraulic rams that could be secured, was 
located. The water in the canal was given a fall of 
seven feet to the ram where the pressure was intensi¬ 
fied to 2(5 pounds to the square inch, sufficient to water 
as desired a six-acre field of strawberries nearly a 
mile away, or to force the water 65 feet above into a 
pond holding 300,000 gallons. 
The pond was made by drawing stones and dirt, and 
throwing up an embankment in a well selected loca- 
