488 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 20 
ful, both as a fertilizer and in loosening up the soil. 
Thus far he has used Red clover for this purpose, but 
this year he will experiment witli Crimson clover. 
After the last picking of strawberries, the beds can 
be plowed and worked up fine, and seeded to Crimson 
clover. This will make a heavy growth during the 
late summer and fall, and may be plowed under before 
frost sets in. If, as I believe, the Crimson will make 
a larger growth before winter than the Red, it will 
prove a great help to strawberry growers. Of course, 
in a nursery of this sort, the main object is to grow 
berry plants. The fruit crop is of secondary import¬ 
ance ; yet during the season, 400 or more quarts are 
sold daily. Most of these are sold in the local market, 
many dealers coming to the house for them. The 
fact that this daily supply is made up of many differ¬ 
ent varieties, gives Mr. Dwyer an excellent chance to 
observe what consumers think about quality, size and 
appearance, and how far these things go to make up 
a desirable berry. That is what gives value to his 
opinion about such a berry as Timbrell. h. w. c. 
FARMING WITHOUT A HIRED MAN. 
The help question is one of the most difficult mat¬ 
ters with which farmers have to deal. Help is often 
costly, unreliable and sometimes burdensome. A few 
years ago I found myself alone on a stony New 
England farm. I was not a strong man, and there 
was much hard work to do. How was it to be done ? 
For several reasons, I decided to do my work alone, 
hiring only in haying until the children were large 
enough to help in this. Some of the lessons I have 
learned may be of use to others. 
For one thing, if a man carries on a farm without 
hiring, he should not undertake too much. He should 
not try to raise a little of several crops. On this farm, 
there were formerly grown a little corn, a small piece 
of oats, of buckwheat, of barley, of potatoes, and con¬ 
siderable grass. A few cows and a few sheep were 
kept, usually a yoke of oxen, and always a horse or 
two. Now there are only two crops grown, grass and 
corn, with a few potatoes for home use, and the farm 
which formerly barely supported a family of three, 
now supports eight persons. I do nearly all the plow¬ 
ing in the fall, after the corn is harvested, and draw 
manure and wood in the winter and early spring. 
This lightens the burden of spring’s work, as I spread 
the manure where it is to lie. I prefer a sled to a 
wagon for drawing manure, because I can draw much 
larger loads, it does not cut up the meadows, and 
does not pack the soil. 
With a child to ride, 1 can put in several acres of 
corn in a short time, and then we begin to run the 
Planet Jr., cultivator and horse hoe. I like the idea 
which I got from The R. N.-Y. of running the culti¬ 
vator as deep as a horse can comfortably draw it 
through the corn as soon as possible after it is planted. 
Then the smoothing harrow is used once, and then the 
horse hoe is run every few days till haying. Owing 
to the fact that my soil is stony and hard, I have given 
up the use of the weeder. The cultivator and liorse- 
hoe steels do far better work than the teeth of the 
weeder or harrow. With a steady-walking horse, one 
can run the side steels close to the corn, first throw¬ 
ing the soil away from, and then towards, the corn. 
There is a rush of work from the middle of June 
till the middle of July, the haying needing to be done 
and the corn to be cared for at the same time. I find 
that the best way is to rush the cultivating till about 
the third week in June, then di-op it and do the hay¬ 
ing. My grass consists largely of Meadow Fescue 
and buttercups, and both need cutting very early. 
The cultivating can be attended to inlowery weather, 
and also after the haying is done. In this way, I can 
farm without a hoe as well as without a hired man. 
The mowing machine, horserake and horse hayfork 
are better than several hired men. I mow in the even¬ 
ing, rake in the afternoon, and leave the hay in the 
windrow if the grass is green and heavy, tumbling 
and getting it in the next day. This programme is, 
of course, varied to suit changes in the weather, and 
the like, but it is the most satisfactory way to get hay 
with no help or only child help. 
After haying, there is a let up in the work, but 
there is always enough to do. Cutting the corn and 
filling the silo is the hardest work to do without a 
hired man. I have done it alone, but hope to have help 
in the future, and would not advise any one to try to 
fill a very large silo without plenty of help. 
The man who does his own work knows how it is 
done, and, I believe, takes more comfort than one 
who has to trust a large part of it to others. This is 
especially true of the care of cows. I keep no sheep, 
just cows and hens and two horses. Half the farmers 
around here went into horses, and many are weighted 
down with them now. Taking up dairying and stick¬ 
ing right to that, has been a great blessing to me. 
Hut it was very discouraging work at first with a poor 
pasture,and only small spots here and there] on the 
farm on which corn could be grown. Winter dairying 
solved the pasture question. I turn the cows into a 
back pasture when they are dry the first of August. 
I have not become rich, but have found that, with the 
blessing of God, a man who is not strong, and who 
has a hard, stony farm, can have a happy home and 
bring up a family in these times of depression in 
agriculture. j. w. newton. 
Lamoille County, Vt. 
HOW TO MAKE “SANITAR Y MILK.” 
JIOW HACTEKIA ARE KEPT OUT OF IT. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Part II. 
The milk was now pronounced ready for cooling, 
and Mr. Cottrell led the way into another room in 
which was a Star cooler. The principle on which 
this cooler works is very simple. The milk is per¬ 
mitted to run slowly over a thin, hollow metal box 
which is kept cold by ice water which circulates all 
through it. In order that the milk may flow slowly, 
the metal surface of the cooler is ridged or fluted 
horizontally. The milk drops through little holes in 
a metal trough upon the cooler, and slowly trickles 
down over it into a can placed beneath. The ice water 
used to run through the cooler is the waste from the 
ice placed above the cold storage room. The tempera¬ 
ture of the milk as it dropped upon the cooler, was 
96 degrees F. As it came off the bottom, it was 49 
degrees F., having lost 47 degrees in trickling over 
the cooled metal. This system of cooling is very satis¬ 
factory. 
The sooner the milk is bottled after cooling, the 
better. It is now practically “ germless,” and the 
object is to keep it so by excluding the air. As fast 
as cooled, it is poured into a filler. This is a square 
tank or vat arranged to run on wheels over a box in 
which stand rows of empty bottles so exactly placed 
that a whole row can be filled at once. By touching 
a spring, the milk runs through a row of little tubes, 
each leading to a separate bottle. In this way, the 
filling is easily and rapidly done. As soon as filled, 
the bottles are sealed with thick paper covers which 
fit exactly into the top. They are then placed in 
crates with separate compartments for each bottle, 
and fine ice is packed around them. The milk is 
now all ready for shipment, and will keep for 72 
hours without trouble. 
All this seems very simple to write about ; yet not 
one man in 100 could be trusted to do it without super¬ 
vision. The trouble is that there is no exact standard 
for personal eleanliuess. What is “clean” to one 
man may be dirty to another. In preparing “ sani¬ 
tary milk,” absolute cleanliness must be the watchword 
at each part of the process. Hot water, steam and 
constant scouring must be ever ready. Mr. Cottrell 
says that he finds it hard to get the dairy manufac¬ 
turers to make sanitary milk utensils. The milk 
filler, for example, is made like a wooden box with 
an inside metal sheath. All around the edges, where 
the metal is fastened to the wood, is a crack which is 
the best possible breeding place for bacteria, because 
it cannot easily be washed and steamed out. Such 
fillers should be of solid metal. All tools, cans or 
pails that contain crevices, cracks or wrinkles, or that 
are smaller at the top than at the bottom, are danger¬ 
ous in handling sanitary milk, for they are hard to 
clean, and some careless hand may leave a bit of milk 
to sour in them that will upset a whole milking. 
Great care is taken with the glass bottles. They 
are all, doubtless, washed clean by the consumers ; 
but are also rewashed at the dairyliouse. They are 
also “ baked ” as a further precaution. This “ baking” 
is done in a strong cabinet, on the shelves of which 
are short wooden pegs. The washed bottles are put 
on these pegs, the doors closed tight, and a fierce heat 
started by letting on steam. It is safe to say that no 
“germ” yet discovered can survive such treatment 
as that. 
Briefly stated, that is the way “ sanitary ” milk is 
treated. The bacteria might be destroyed by heating 
the milk to a high temperature, and bottling it while 
hot; but this heated milk is never fully satisfactory. 
When heated to the boiling point, there is always a 
disagreeable “cooked” taste about it, and un¬ 
doubtedly such boiling makes it less digestible. The 
raw milk is better in every way. Mr. Cottrell’s plan, 
you will notice, is not to destroy the bacteria after 
they get into the milk, but to keep them out of it entirely. 
The point is first to get milk from absolutely healthy 
cows, and to get it into the bottles and on the ice in 
the quickest and cleanest way possible. The methods 
here outlined are the best he has yet found—if there 
are better ones he wishes to know what they are. 
How the Milk Is Made. 
Haring described how the milk is handled, let us 
now see where it comes from. The cows, as already 
stated, are registered Guernseys. They are big, strong 
animals—as quiet and gentle as sheep. I have already 
told the readers why Guernseys are preferred to Jer¬ 
seys at Ellerslie. The Guernsey is the better barn 
cow. She is less nervous and excitable and, gener¬ 
ally speaking, has greater vigor, and will stand heavy 
feeding for a longer period. Let a stranger walk 
into a barn where 150 high-bred Jerseys are kept, and 
most of them will quickly jump up and show by their 
actions that they are restless. Not so with these 
Guernseys at Ellerslie. Not one jumped to her feet 
as I walked among them, but all seemed as happy and 
contented as they well could be. These cows are never 
turned out to pasture. They remain in the barn except 
for exercise in the barnyard during the cool evening 
or night. The barn windows can be shaded and dark¬ 
ened so that flies are never troublesome. Of course, 
with such a system, green crops are hauled from the 
field and fed in the stable. At the time of my visit, 
green wheat—cut just in the milk—was being fed in 
this way. Following it will come oats and peas and 
green grass. One of the big silos still contains con¬ 
siderable ensilage, and this will be fed during the 
period between grass and corn fodder. Thus the 
cows have green or succulent food every day in 
the year, though they do not know what a pas¬ 
ture is. 
The hay crop cuts but a small figure on this farm. 
When, two years ago, the grea barn and its contents 
were destroyed by fire, hay for the new herd had to 
be bought. That cash outlay showed what expensive 
“roughage” good hay is when one can get plenty of 
ensilage. Fully convinced of the great economy of 
the corn crop when put in the silo Mr. Cottx-ell care¬ 
fully tested the hay question to see how much dry 
fodder is really needed, lie obtained satisfactory re¬ 
sults with l }4 pound of hay per day fed with ensilage 
and is convinced that, in his practice, the feeding of 
10 or 15 pounds of hay is unnecessary and expensive. 
With a silo full of ensilage the hay problem does not 
trouble him. He would be willing t:> sell most of it 
and put the money into corn meal and bran. This 
idea of stuffing a cow with hay—no matter what else 
you have to feed—is like the old belief that he was 
obliged to buy straw for bedding or raise rye for a 
bedding crop. He has found that planing-mill shav¬ 
ings are much cheaper and handier than straw for 
bedding. He could raise the rye, sell it and with half 
the money obtained for it buy shavings enough to bed 
his cattle. These business discoveries are illustra¬ 
tions of the changes that are possible in farm prac¬ 
tices. Study and careful figuring will show many a 
man that he is paying his hard earned cash as a 
tribute to some old idea that was true in his grand¬ 
father's day, but has been false since his father’s 
time. _ h. w. c. 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Thkee-Hokse Eveners Once Moke. —If W. C. McE. 
will turn to my description of a tliree-horse evener, 
page 50 , under the title, “ How They Work in Maine,” 
and follow directions, i. c., make the two-horse evener 
of extra length, he will have a rig that will work 
on a pole with no crowding of horses, and absolutely 
no side draft, as I can see. His device for hitching a 
long chain to the hind axle, may do for a wagon, but 
let me remind him that we have lots of farm imple¬ 
ments, such as riding harrows, sulky plows, land 
rollers, etc., that don’t have any hind axle to which 
to hitch. I think, for all purposes, our Aroostook 
County three-horse evener is a little ahead of anything 
yet presented. j. e. 
Caribou, Me. 
Potatoes Under Straw. —The article on page 450 , 
on mulching, brought to my notice a little experience 
a number of years ago. I moved my barns, and 
in doing so, exposed a corner between the barns 
where some common dock and some burdocks 
had got a firm footing, though cut so often that 
they never went to seed. I conceived the idea 
of preparing this for a future strawberry bed. 
On June 1 , I dropped an uncut potato once in 
about every 18 inches (there was but a slight sod) ; 
then I covered the entire piece, about four rods 
square, about one foot deep with wet or unsalable 
straw from the top of a straw stack. In about 20 
days, the tops began to make their appearance 
through the straw, and grew rapidly, strong and of 
fine color. They died down or ripened about October 
1 . On October 1, 1 took off the straw, and a prettier 
lot of tubers I never saw. They were the old-fash¬ 
ioned “ Pink Eye,” and such a crop of sizable tubers 
of uniform size and as clean as though they had been 
washed ! There was not a sign of either dock or bur¬ 
dock, and the ground was as mellow as though it had 
been thoroughly worked. Several times since, I have 
tried this method in out-of-the-way corners with good 
results. Once near where bees were kept and the 
ground became quite weedy, the bees were inclined 
to be cross. So I tried this plan, doing the work of 
planting and mulching in early morning, and with 
equally pleasing results. 
