1192 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The milk-house shown in Fig. 51 s is part of a work¬ 
shop ami tool room, anti is sided with rough hoards 
with nioxt of the cracks battened. While the sid¬ 
ing is rough it is whitewashed inside. The ceiling 
is of common wall-board and the floor and walls, to 
a height of about '-! ft., are of concrete. Tu an ad¬ 
joining room are the steam boiler and washing 
equipment. The bottles and utensils are washed in 
a galvanized tank consisting of two parts, one for 
the actual washing, the other for rinsing. A tur¬ 
bine washer is used in washing the bottles. The 
water for both bottles and utensils is kept as warm 
as the hand will stand with comfort, and contains 
sal soda or some good washing compound. Soap 
powders are apt to give the bottles a clouded ap¬ 
pearance. All bottles and utensils are rinsed in 
plenty of clean water; the liott’es are then packed 
in the sterilizer, together with the smaller tin uten¬ 
sils and strainer cloths, and sterilized with live 
steam for 20 minutes. The larger tin utensils are 
inverted upon a shelf at the end of the rinsing vat 
and live steam turned into them from a pipe pro¬ 
jecting just through a hole in the shelf. 
STERILIZING UTENSILS.—The sterilizer is a 
homemade affair, such as any tinner can make. It 
is of galvanized metal and made in (lie form of a 
chest with a tight-fitting hinged cover. The bottom 
slopes from both sides to the center at an angle of 
about 30 degrees. At the center and running nearly 
the whole length, and resting upon the bottom of 
the sterilizer, is a small steam pipe with a number 
of small holes through which the steam escapes into 
tin* sterilizer while sterilizing the bottles, etc. The 
object of the sloping bottom is to enable all moisture 
to drain from the bottles, as they are placed with 
tops inclined toward the center. With live steam 
at a temperature of around 300 degrees as it leaves 
the boiler bacteria must be pretty husky to live and 
multiply in the next batch of milk. 
CLEANLY CONDITIONS.—In addition to keep¬ 
ing ilie interior of the bottling room and of the milk¬ 
ing barn whitewashed a little lime is sprinkled over 
the floors once or twice a day. This acts as a sweet¬ 
ener and is odorless. The bottling table and the 
interior of the concrete vat are frequently scrubbed 
with a two per cent solution of chlorinated lime. 
Rusty tinware and tinware without all seams thor¬ 
oughly loaded with solder are not used. Producing 
clean milk by the use of some one's else formula is 
riot as easy as it would at first seem, because hardly 
any two persons will interpret the formula the same. 
As evidence of this the July report of the Atlanta 
City Laboratory of Hygiene shows that the bacterial 
count of dairies using steam sterilizers varied from 
500 to 100.000. What one man considers a clean 
cow would at once be attacked by another with 
currycomb, brush and water. One man will start 
washing a lot of bottles and utensils in a few gal¬ 
lons of water that is soon as cold and dirty as the 
articles being washed. The quantity of water is so 
small that it is soon so dirty that rubbing it over 
the bottles and tinware adds only, if possible, to 
their filthy condition. Then rinsing them in a little 
water which soon becomes dirty does not add much 
to their cleanliness. To state a concrete case to 
bring out this point more forcibly; A father and 
son near here are using the same barn and the same 
kind of equipment for their dairies while the son is 
erecting bis own buildings. While both use the 
same lmrn and same equipment for cooling the milk, 
each washes his own pails and bottles, with the re¬ 
sult that for July one had a count of 9.000. the other 
50,000. Each honestly believes that both herds and 
all equipment are handled exactly in the same way. 
WASHING IN CLEAN WATER—Wlien one refers 
to using clean water it is understood that the water 
is not only clean, but sufficient in quantity to remain 
so to a reasonable degree. If tlie vessels containing 
the water are not sufficiently large the wafer must 
be frequently changed. It is not sufficient to start 
washing in clean, warm water; it must be kept this 
way so far as it is practical. The writer recently 
saw a man washing the udder and flanks of his 
cows. It happened that the first cow washed had 
become very filthy in the sleeping bam. After wash¬ 
ing the soiled parts the water was exceedingly filthy, 
but this man kept right on "washing" bis cows in 
this same filthy water. This man spends about as 
much time washing his cows as some of his neigh¬ 
bors. and wonders why his bacterial count is several 
times as high as theirs. Ilis manner of washing liis 
cows is not wholly to blame for liis high count, of 
course, because be washes bis bottles and utensils 
in about the same way as he washes liis cows. 
ONE-STORY EA RNS.—It will be noticed I hat the 
barns are but one-story, and the milking and sleep¬ 
ing barns are separate. Here in the South, where 
the barns are not necessarily very warm, these low 
barns may be very cheaply constructed. Where but 
little grain and roughage are grown the low barns 
are adequate, but in the North, where most of these 
are produced on the farm, one higher barn with 
storage room above the stable is cheaper and han¬ 
dier. Where feed is stored above the cow stable of 
course it would be necessary to have the stable 
sealed overhead to exclude dust and litter, and 
where the cows sleep in the same stable as they are 
milked it is necessary to keep absolutely all soiled 
bedding removed. But it was the intention of the 
writer to tell the readers of The R. X.-Y. how good 
milk is produced hero, and not to attempt to tell 
how he believes it can be produced somewhere else. 
DOES IT RAY?—After all. the question is, does 
it pay to produce this high-grade milk? Under our 
conditions it does. If we were hampered by a lot 
of unreasonable regulations and compelled to install 
a lot of unnecessary and expensive equipment to 
gratify the whims of some inspector who never pro¬ 
duced a quart of milk in bis life it might not. The 
health department of the city of Atlanta has adopted 
a very liberal policy toward the dairymen of this 
T. 11. Townsend sends us this picture of (lie lire swing 
and says: "I haven’t as ye| seen an illustration of the 
common swing of the present generation. Mother says. 
Don't you children get tired swinging?' The children 
answer. ‘No. because the swing is ‘tired.’ Any old 
lire, whether from a Pierce-Arrow or a Ford, will do. 
and the children are happy. Our swing had to be built 
strong enough to hold two. as yon will notice from the 
picture." 
district A sample is taken once or twice per month, 
and tested for bacteria and butterfat, and a monthly 
report issued. This report is published in a city 
paper, so that consumers know just what kind of 
milk their dairyman is supplying them. As long as 
the laboratory findings do not indicate unsanitary 
conditions at a dairy nothing is said. However, the 
board of health is quick to correct abuses, nearly 40 
prosecutions having been made during the past 00 
days. It is not the writer's intention to condemn 
entirely what, to some, seems like uncalled for regu¬ 
lations and expensive equipment, as he realizes that 
if many were permitted to furnish what equipment 
they see fit and to use Ibis equipment without some 
sort of regulation (he milk produced would be unfit 
for human consumption. It may be stated without 
contradiction that elaborate equipment does not 
always mean high-grade milk; neither does crude, 
simple equipment make it impossible to produce milk 
that will compare favorably with the best. Let us 
see bow it pays to produce a high grade of milk 
under our conditions. The average retail price of 
milk in Atlanta is, perhaps. 15 cents per quart. We 
cannot supply the demand for milk from this dairy 
at 25 cents per quart. The cost of feed does not 
enter into the calculations In this case, because the 
feed costs the same whether 15-ceut milk is produced 
or the better kind. Our equipment costs no more 
than that used in producing the cheaper milk. The 
labor cost is but little more, because it takes no 
longer to wash a bottle in clean water than in dirty 
water. We aim to Atc/j our cows clean, because this 
requires less labor than to clean dirty ones. It costs 
October 7, 1022 
tin more to hire a man to cool and bottle the milk 
properly than to do it carelessly, and the cost of 
delivery is just the same as when delivering the lu¬ 
cent kind. We use ice very liberally in cooling (he 
milk and in keeping it thus. This involves some 
additional expense. All milk is Sold at. retail in 
quart bottles. If a customer cannot use a whole 
quart per day she buys a quart every other day. as 
this milk will keep, if properly eared for, for is to 
72 hours after reaching our customers. The output 
at present is about 75 gallons per day. Selling, as 
it does at 10 cents per quart, or 40 cents per gallon, 
above the average, a profit of $30 per day is realized 
above what we would receive for average priced 
milk. This $30 is realized for the exercise of a little 
extra care and but slight additional expense. What 
has been done here can be duplicated in any city of 
moderate size. j. d. pkickett. 
Poisoning By Laurel 
Will sheep <*at laurel enough to kill them? Are there 
more kinds of laurel than mountain laurel? I am •are- 
taker for a wealthy woman who has a 120-acre farm, 
and would like to start sheep raising, but we have con¬ 
siderable mountain laurel on part of farm. We would 
not want to use iliat part of farm for sheep if there 
would be danger from the laurel. r. t. W. 
Dutchess Co.. N. Y. 
HERE are three varieties of laurel, and each of 
them is more or less poisonous. They are: 
Kalmia latifolia, known as calico bush or mountain 
laurel; Kalmia angustifolia. also called sheep laurel 
or lambkill, and Kalmia polifolia. or swamp laurel. 
Mountain laurel is a shrub of 4 to S ft. high, the 
blooms of which are so much sought after by city 
folk on auto trips. It grows on rocky hills and in 
damp soils, forming dense thickets, and high in the 
mountains becoming a tree of 10 to 30 ft. This 
plant has long been known as poisonous, and is much 
dreaded in the Allegheny .Mountains. Scores of cat¬ 
tle and sheep tire poisoned annually by eating tbe 
shrub. Sheep laurel is a shrub of ] to 3 ft. high and 
has beautiful rose-colored (lowers. It. grows in 
patches, like those of the huckleberry, in pastures. 
It is eaten by lambs when first turned out in Spring. 
Mountain laurel is also eaten by cattle before grass 
is ready in Spring. There will therefore be less 
danger of poisoning if cattle and sheep or lambs are 
kept off laurel infested pastures until grass is well 
grown. Animals do not take to the plant readily 
when plenty of other more palatable green feed is 
available. Wherever possible the plants should be 
grabbed out. We know of no other way of destroy¬ 
ing them, but salt, heavily applied, may help to 
keep down new growths. Some years ago G. A. M.. 
a R. N.-Y. reader living at Litchfield, Conn., re¬ 
ported that he remembered as a child having seen 
his father administer a pint or more of melted lard 
to any animal that had eaten laurel. It was given 
very carefully from a long-necked bottle and caused 
vomiting. If much green stuff was vomited the 
poisoned animal generally survived, but when the 
lard was given too long after eating the plant, and 
came up uncolored, the animal succumbed, lie also 
stated that warm, new milk was a certain remedy 
for laurel poisoning in lambs. It cured 4hem when 
so stupid that they were practically unconscious, but 
tbe sooner it is given the better. Raw linseed oil, or 
sweet oil, might be given instead of melted lard. It 
should be very freely given, but must be carefully 
administered to prevent it from running into tbe 
windpipe and lungs and causing fatal pneumonia. 
Any drug that will cause vomiting will be likely to 
help. Mustard and salt in tepid water might have 
that effect. The scientific treatment for poisoning by 
laurel and other poisonous plants is to give per¬ 
manganate of potash and powdered alum in water. 
The dose for a sheep is 10 grains of each of these 
drugs in half a pint of water, and the dose should 
be repeated in 2*► minutes. The dose for a cow would 
be a dram of each in a pint of water. M. G. S., writ¬ 
ing in The R. X.-Y., recommended the following 
treatment for laurel poisoning: First give a sheep 
1 j lb. of Epsom stilts in one pint of hot water. Fol¬ 
low up with five to 15 grains of permanganate of 
potash dissolved in four ounces of hot water. Also 
give stimulants, like aromatic spirits of ammonia, 
one to two teaspoons, in four ounces of water. Ad¬ 
minister such doses alternately, every one to two 
hours, according to the severity of the symptoms. 
Another treatment we have seen recommended for 
laurel poisoning in sheep is to give three drops of 
croton oil mixed with 10 drops of olive oil and placed 
on tbe back part of the tongue. Repeat the dose once 
an hour until relieved. a. s. a. 
I n the Connecticut egg-laying contest at Stores elec¬ 
tric lights will he used after November 1. 
