Qturg fjusbatttrrn. 
X. A. WILLARD, A. EDITOR, 
Of Lims Falls, Hekkiveb County, New Yobk. 
ABOUT MILK HOUSES. 
W. S. Potter, State Bridge, N. Y., writes 
ns under date of April 6th, for a plan of milk 
house for butter making. He says lie shall milk 
from forty to fifty cows, and wants to know 
whether to build of wood or stone, and how 
to ventilate, &c. He does not state as to the 
situation of the building, whether advantage 
can be taken of a side hill or whether the 
ground is level. Nor does he state in refer¬ 
ence to a supply of water and its tempera¬ 
ture, all of which would have some bearing 
upon the plan. 
In Chester county, Penn., where the cele¬ 
brated Philadelphia butter is made, the 
spring house where the milk is set, is placed 
partly in the hill side, with a foundation of 
stone about four feet below the surface of the 
ground on the lower side. The walls are 
ten feet high, and at the top there are long 
windows, closed only with wire cloth, which 
give circulation of air at the upper part of 
the room. 
The ground floor of the buildings is 
about twenty-four by eighteen feet, the 
floors of oak, laid on sand and gravel. 
The water is allowed to flow over this area 
to a depth of about three inches, and is con¬ 
ducted off to a tank on the outside. On the 
floor of the spring house there aro raised 
platforms or walks, to allow moving about in 
the room. The pans of milk rest on the oak 
floor. 
In the Orange Co. system there are tanks 
or vats of water in the spring house, the 
tanks being about two feet deep in the 
ground, while the floor of the room is a little 
above the level of the ground. 
Where there Ls to he no running water, 
we should prefer the lower part of the build¬ 
ing, at least, of stone. The English. build of 
hollow brick, and their dairy houses, when 
thus built, are excellent for maintaining au 
even temperature. 
We should prefer openings at the lower 
part of the building, secured by gauze wire, 
and arranged with a wicket for air, but so 
placed as not to blow directly upon the milk. 
Tii6n the ceilings should be high—ten to 
twelve feet, with windows arranged on the 
Chester Co. plan, or a large ventilator in the 
center, with gauze wire and wicket, so that 
the ventilation can be regulated at any time, 
by opening or closing the wickets, partially, 
as desired. 
In connection with this subject we give 
the subjoined letters, which will be found 
suggestive and useful: 
“A young: Farmer ” ttsk3 for information (In 
the Rural of March 20th,) in regard to the best 
way of building: a milk-house for fifteen or 
twenty cows. I shall build It “ half cellar and 
half house," Bay four feet in the ground with a 
stone wall, and four above of wood, sided with 
clapboards outside and lathed and plastered in- 
Bide. I shall not fill the space In the wall with 
sawdust, as In our moist climate I have found It 
tends to rot the wood-work, and thus generate a 
foul air. It must he well lighrod with double- 
glassed windows, as light Is necessary to develop 
the color In butter. It should be painted white, 
because that will reflect the light, and heat of the 
6un and not absorb It, as any dark color would. 
Milk houses built In tills style and set In a ter¬ 
race, or on rising ground, so as to hat e the en¬ 
trance on the north or east side, on a level with 
the floor, huvegiven the best satisfaction. When 
warmed by a stove, in spring and fall, the cream 
never dries enough to make “specky butter,’’ 
and it is not so damp in hot and wet weather as 
it would bo if It was all below ground. Opening 
on the level of the gcound on one side, the foul 
air that Bottles can pass out. 
But there ls one objection to this mode of con¬ 
struction, and quit® a serious one it is, for ex¬ 
perience has proved that any mode of ventilation 
which permits gusty currents of air over the 
milk ls wrong. Hence some prefer that the 
milk room should stand over a cellar and receive 
the air from it through openings In the floor. 
Now, it has occurred to me that to have a cool 
and perfectly ventilated milk room without a 
cold spring, we need only to build in the ground 
as I have described, and then conduct cooled air 
through an air-duct of some three or four rods 
In length down the hill to an opening in the 
middle of the floor. This air-duct, being laid 
deep enough co be below solar heat, will cool the 
air, which will descend by Its increased gravity, 
and expanding again by the higher temperature 
of the room, will pass out at the top of the room 
through a ventilator provided for the purpose. 
At the opening In the floor a reservoir should be 
made largo enough to hold the oream. can, &c. 
This, I thiuk, would make ice unnecessary in 
the hottes t weather, and save the awkward and 
laborious trouble of “hanging in a well." Of 
course, to guard against water, the air-duct and 
cellar should be well cemented. I know not if 
this thing lias boon tested, but If so, 1, with many 
other butter makers, would like to know with 
what results. It looks well, in theory, and I will 
try It if it has not been already. 
I.e Roy Wiiitford. 
Harmony, Chaut. Co., N. Y., 1869. 
Another correspondent -writes as follows: 
“ Seeing an Inquiry for a plan of milk house, 
I will give one, believing it to be the best extant. 
Dig a oellcr, say on the north side of some good 
shade trees, ten feet wide and sixteen feet long 
— the long way east and west. Build the cellar 
wall so that It will be eight by fourtoen feet on 
the inside, with a good door on one end, a wire 
sieve In the top of the door, and a window at the 
other end, supplied with wire sieve so that it can 
be aired without letting in flies. 
The cellar should be plastered all around and 
overhead, have a good brick floor, shelves on 
each side about fourteen Inches wide, and about 
three inches from the wall. The noxt story 
should be built of brick, eight inches thick, 
eight feet high, plastered on the hriek, and 
celled overhead with well seasoned matched 
boards; a door at each end, the top half to be 
made with a wire sieve, so that it can be left 
open to air the room and keep out. the flies; 
shelves as in story below. 
The basement should be at least two feet 
above the level of the ground. A good chimney, 
a little cast of the center, Is indispensable; it 
will answer as a ventilator during the heat of 
summer, and serve a stove the rest ol’ the sou- 
sou. The upper room will be an elegant place to 
keep cheese as well as milk. Do not build over a 
spring or stream of water, as some do. Milk and 
chceso should bo kept dry, and provided with 
plenty of air. A good wind-mill should be 
attached to the roof to do the churning. 
Riga, Monroe Co., N. Y., 1869. C. w. p. 
--- 
CARTING CREAM. 
L. J. Randall of Chardon, Ohio, asks 
whether injury would result to cream from 
being carted five or six miles. He proposes 
to collect the cream from three or four facto¬ 
ries early in the morning, and have it all 
churned together. He asks“ Can this he 
done safely, or without injury to the cream, 
so that it will make as good butter as if all 
churned where the milk Ls set ?” 
At the butter factories it is usual to churn 
the cream upon the premises where the milk 
is set. We have never heard of an instance 
where cream has been collected from two or 
more factories, and the churning done at one 
place on the plan proposed. It is possible, 
however, that such cases may have occurred. 
Asa rule, neither milk nor cream is im¬ 
proved by being canned and carted over the 
roads; but, when the necessary precautions 
are taken to have good milk delivered at the 
factory, the cream nicely put up In small 
cans, the plan proposed may possibly be car¬ 
ried out successfully. There may be some 
advantages to be gained in this over the old 
system. The butter making would be done 
at one place, obviating the necessity of hav¬ 
ing several sets of machinery and implements 
in butter making. Something, too, would be 
gained on the score of skilled labor, since 
there would be no necessity of an experi¬ 
enced butter maker at each of the factories, 
and only at the central depot or department 
where the cream is delivered. If the facto¬ 
ries have but a small number of cows each, 
this plan, it is evident, would reduce the 
expense account very considerably, and with 
proper precautions we are disposed to think 
it could be carried out successfully. 
Cream is transported to cities and dis¬ 
tributed to customers without material in¬ 
jury. Why, then, may it not be carted in 
the way proposed, especially ns it is to be 
moved in its freshest state, the time of trans¬ 
portation being at most, but short, and on its 
arrival coming into the hands of skillful and 
experienced workmen? In case the experi¬ 
ment is tried, we would suggest that the 
cream be packed In small cans not exceed 
ing six or eight gallons in size, each to be 
filled thoroughly full and provided with a 
close-fitting cover pushed down upon the 
cream so as to avoid shaking or disturbance 
of the cream while being carted. 
Again, the cream carts should be upon 
springs and have an awning or cover to pro¬ 
tect the cans from the sun. If the cans are 
encased in coarse matting to be saturated 
with cold w f ater when they are put into the 
cart, this will have a tendency to keep the 
cream at a low temperature while traveling. 
Ice possibly could be used, but there woukl 
bo probably no necessity for it. This Ls 
sometimes done when the cream is to go a 
long distance for city consumption. It is, 
however, not considered well to use ice 
about cream intended for butter-making, if 
it can be possibly avoided, since it is said to 
affect the keeping quality of the butter. 
The plan of gathering cream and carting 
it to a central point where it. is to lie made 
into butter is one which must be tested by 
trial and experiment; but if we had abund¬ 
ant reason for adopting such a system, we 
should not hesitate to make the trial iu the 
full confidence of success. 
- — - 
The Country Chcene Market.—Tho roads in 
the country are bad, and there is bur, little of 
the new crop of cheese coming - into the Little 
Falla market. Sales were made for week ending 
April 17th; for best new Cheese (farm dairies,} 
at 13c. Some lots, very poor skimmed, at 12c. per 
pound. Wo hear of but one factory sale, that of 
the Fairfield Association, Herkimer Co.,—a lot 
of some sixty cheese, at 19.kc. This lot was 
among the first made and was partly skimmed. 
Butter, at the opening: of the market at. Little 
Falls, sold for 45c. per pound, but prices dropped 
during the day to 40c. No cheese of the old crop 
on sale. 
-m- 
Abortion In Cows—H. K. O linger writes the 
Country Gentleman that “closeobservation will 
reveal the fact that in nine cases out of ten 
where abortions are produced cows have been 
suffered to slip and fall upon ice, or hang them¬ 
selves on fences, or perhaps have been kicked by 
a horse, which is too frequently the cose, as cows 
and horses In many instances run together.” 
-♦-<>-*- 
Feeding for Milk.—At a Farmers’ Club in Long 
Meadow, several milk feeders gave their experi¬ 
ence In cow feeding. Mr. Allen said he had 
found that wheat shorts make the sweetest milk, 
rye bran the whitest , Indian meal the richest, 
and oil cake the most. 
\mxtstk ter0H0min 
CONDUCTED BY MARY A. E. WAGER. 
t 
GOOD BREAD. 
By Julia Column, Professor of Philosophy 
of Food in the Dixon Institute. 
[Miss COLMAR sends us the following rejoin¬ 
der to “Avena's” theories, published a few 
weeks ago In this department. Wo are obliged, 
for want of j-oom, to abridge if somewhat. We 
hope such temperate, yet earnest, discussions on 
the bread question will arouse the minds of our 
readers In regard to this great article of food 
that lies In the berry of wheat. J 
There is, perhaps, no better illustration 
of the mischiefs resulting from ignorance of 
the properties of food than that afforded by 
our tampering with wheat, the most impor¬ 
tant article of ourclfet. This precious berry, 
as it is shelled out from the bending sheaf, is 
a perfect article of human food. It contains, 
in their proper proportions, every element 
necessary for building up the tissues of the 
human form, as proved by chemical analy¬ 
sis. When eaten alone, with water, it will 
keep the body in a state of vigorous health, 
as proved by repeated experiments. But let 
the perfect proportions of those elements bo 
detroyed, and the body will be imperfectly 
nourished, leaving some portions weaker 
than others, and therefore more liable to dis¬ 
ease. But this is precisely what we do 
constantly in many ways. In the first place, 
we take out the bran, which, as a natural In¬ 
centive to action, (not “ irritant,” as your 
correspondent, “ A vena,” hath it,) helps to 
clear the waste matter out of the system. 
"With the bran, we take out the greater part 
of the phosphates and much of the gluten. 
Any one who will examine wheaten bran 
and “ middlings” will see that there is much 
in them besides woody fiber. By taking out 
these elements, we directly deprive both 
muscle and brain of much of .their proper 
food, 
This analysis might be extended to several 
•other items, all of which, as well as the 
phosphates and the gluten, the system craves, 
and to get them will take (because the pro¬ 
per balance has been lost,) an unnecessary 
quantity of Lite starchy, carbonaceous matter, 
which is the principal element in line flour 
bread, and the getting rid of which creates 
an unnatural tax upon the system. And 
further, with the loss of the bran the lower 
part of the alimentary canal has lost its best 
aid in getting ri,d of the waste matter, thus 
creating a still increasing derangement. It 
frequently becomes unable to act vigorously 
for days together. But nature is not idle, 
and as a last, resort the fluid portions of the 
detained mass are reabsorbed and carried by 
the blood to the skin and lungs, though they 
poison the whole system through which they 
pass, and make the exhalations as vile as 
themselves. 
This is constipation, a disease which is 
said to afflict nearly two-thirds of the Ameri¬ 
can people, and which, bud as it is in itself, 
is worse in its results, for it unsuspeotcdly 
predisposes the system to innumerable other 
diseases, some of which are sure to follow 
sooner or later in its train. Thus our pre¬ 
cious wheaten berry, which should be our 
greatest physical blessing, is transmuted by 
our ignorant tampering into our greatest 
physical curse. After wide investigation, I 
am led to believe that fine flour, in its various 
combinations, is the most hurtful article of 
food which we place upon our tables. Sci¬ 
ence points in the same direction. All our 
best physiological writers maintain the same 
thing. 
The objections to its use are not trivial 
but well founded. It Is true that the use of 
all unnaturally concentrated food begets an 
action of the digestive apparatus, perverted 
to its own demands, and that any other form, 
though it be more natural and more whole¬ 
some, will require a readjustment of that 
apparatus, which process will suggest to the 
uninitiated the idea of derangement, but it 
might rather be called arrangement, since it 
is a returning to health, while the former 
leads in the sure road to disease. When 
persons have all their lives been accustomed 
to the use of fine flour, it is very possibly 
true that the other part of the kernel could 
not at first be readily digested, and the phos¬ 
phates and the gluten be fully appropriated. 
As for the fiber of the bran, it is not neces¬ 
sary to digest that in the ordinary acceptation 
of the term. It does its appropriate work 
without dissolving or disappearing from the 
excreta. The reasoning of “ A vena” Is in 
this respect sophistical. Neither is the pop¬ 
ular objection to the coarseness and harsh¬ 
ness well founded. It is very possible that, 
as we have already hinted, the long continued 
use of so unnatural an aliment as fine flour 
may induce so tender and inflamed a state 
of the digestive organs that even the pres 
ence of their natural aliment, or stimulus, 
will be irritating, but that it is not really 
harsh to a natural stomach has been proved 
repeatedly by the kindness with which the 
most delicate infantile stomachs receive it. 
There is no food more wholesome for the 
i first introduction of the nursing child to for¬ 
eign aliment than a soft mush of the best 
wheat meal and milk. Farina, arrow root 
and cornstarch sink into utter insignificance 
compared with it. It has often been known 
to restore to health the action of the little 
organs already perverted by an inherited 
tendency to constipation. Its action here 
is not that of medicine, but natural, healthful 
food. It is a popular fallacy that Graham 
flour, (or more properly wheat meal,) is a 
medicine which one is to take only till lie 
gets well; but it is really indispensable for 
the preservation of the natural action of the 
sj-stem —that is, if wheat flour be used at 
al). Many argue that because they are not 
constipated they can use fine flour with 
impunity. The violation of natural law 
certainly will be visited upon them in some 
way, and they will feel it sooner or later, 
whether they recognize the cause or not. 
Wheat meal is just as good to cure looseness 
ns constipation, but in both cases its use re¬ 
quires judgment, patience and perseverance. 
As to the mode of its preparation, if it is 
genuine wheat meal, that is, if it is the whole 
berry coarsely ground, (and the better the 
wheat the better the meal,) we may dispense 
with the use of soda, hydrochloric acid, and 
all other drugs and chemicals which accord¬ 
ing to a great law of our nature now rapidly 
gaining recognition, cannot nourish the sys¬ 
tem because they are inorganic. We can 
make light bread without them. We may 
also dispense with panary fermentation: we 
can make light bread without that. But let 
us look a moment iuto the nature of the lat¬ 
ter and we will have an additional reason 
for not using it. Yeast is not “dead,” but it 
produces death by promoting the disorgan¬ 
ization and decay of the flour, and that very 
rapidly, too, as may be proved by letting the 
act ion proceed only a little beyond the “ pro¬ 
per ” hour for putting it into the oven. The 
result will be a horribly disorganized and de¬ 
cayed mass, so offensive to the taste and 
smell as to be utterly refused even by those 
palates well accustomed to partially decayed 
bread. It deserves the full opprobrium of the 
term “ rotten.” To suppose that all the ob¬ 
jectionable action comes alter the usual hour 
for baking is simply absurd. The previous 
presence of alcohol and carbonic acid gas 
proves the existence of actual decomposition. 
The decayed matter which results from this 
decomposition so far from aiding the process 
Of digestion only taxes the vital powers to 
get rid of it. 
All these causes, together, aro so deterio- 
ating that fermented bread of fine flour 
usually contains but lit tin more than one half 
the nutrition which wheat bread ought to 
have, and which it will have, if properly 
made of good wheat meal and pure water, 
according to recipes given iu the “ Rural ” 
of January 23rd. “ Avena ” may walk in 
the old way if he choose, and eat the bread 
that is made by the old process of fermenta¬ 
tion; he may ignore the fact that our health 
can be improved by proper attention to our 
diet; he may scorn anything “concocted” 
after said recipes, and tell about “new- 
tangled ideas,” even alter reproving me for 
“ influencing opinion by the use of mere 
terms,” (which, after all, he is obliged to 
acknowledge are strictly correct;) but his 
readers will hardly give him credit for the 
spirit of fair inquiry, and willingness to see 
the truth, until he has shown some signs of 
having tried said recipes, and experimentally 
compared the results with those produced 
by panary fermentation. Besides this, his 
main criticisms are, unfortunately, the most 
of them, founded on typographical or re- 
portorial mistakes (of which there aro indeed 
very few,) such as the rotting after putting 
in soda, and the production of alcohol from 
carbonic acid. The idea of breaking the 
pledge by using bread containing alcohol he 
did not even, find in the report, neither did 
he find in it occasion to make so much ado 
about the use of oat-meal. I certainly would 
not advise any one to live entirely on it, or 
on any other one article, when we can have 
so great a variety of things quite as good, 
but I do consider it as he does, apparently, a 
wholesome article of food. His scientific 
objections I have tried to meet by a fair, if 
not a very full statement of facts. 
It would be an easy matter to return ridi¬ 
cule wit h ridicule, but I am not disposed to 
make light of important matters when I see 
so many of the race dropping into the grave 
before they arrive at maturity, so many valu¬ 
able lives cut, short in the midst of their use¬ 
fulness, and so many earnest men and women 
inquiring what can be done to bring about a 
better state of tilings. To those like minded 
I commend a careful consideration of the 
subject and careful experiments with the 
principles already briefly given by the grace¬ 
ful reporter of the “ Rural” in some of the 
numbers for last January and February. 
-- 
PiuMing.—Two eggs, one cup sugar, one cup 
sour milk, one-half teaspoon saloratus, one cup 
dried currants, raisins or other fruit, a little 
salt, and flour enough to mako it somewhat 
Stiffcr than for cake. Put lu a cake pan and 
steam one hour and (i half; eorvo warm with 
cream and sugar. The only trouble will be in 
not making it thick enough.— Maud. 
-- 
Yeast Cakes. — Will mine one give a recipe for 
making yeast cakes?—A. G. 8 ., Waukegan, 111. 
jcieniific unit ftscfnl. 
SOUNDS OF TELEGRAPH WIRES. 
As the cause of the sounds frequently 
heard to proceed from the wires in the open 
air, it has been customary to accept the wind, 
and its producing the soundings by direct 
vibration, similar to those of the HSolian 
harp. A different view of it, however, is 
given by a railroad officer iu the Austrian 
Railway Gazette. 
lie calls observation to the flict that one 
who gives his close attention to both the 
wires and sounds will find that tlio latter 
make their appearance likewise w hen there 
is a total absence ol wind; and in a quiet 
morning in winter, when the wires appear 
covered witli frost to the thickness of a 
finger, they nevertheless carried on lively 
vibrations and swinging while the air was 
totally quiet. The observer had noticed this 
for eighteen years past, and at last was led 
to the real cause of the phenomenon. 
According to him, therefore, tlm vibrations 
are not due to the wind, but to the changes 
of atmospheric: temperature, and especially 
through the action of cold, as lowering of the 
temperature induces a shortening of the 
wires, extending over the whole length of 
the conductor. A considerable amount of 
frict ion is produced on the support lug hells, 
and this gives the explanation for the sound¬ 
ing both in the wires and the poles. This 
explanation also concurs with the fact that 
poles bearing but one or a few wires give off 
far louder sounds than when loaded with 
many, because in the latter case the vibra¬ 
tions produced must be less uniform and 
simultaneous, 
--- 
INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS IN 
ELECTRICITY. 
The Boston Journal of Chemistry gives 
the following amusing and instructive ex¬ 
periment “ Procure four glass tumblers 
or common glazed teacups, and having 
wiped them dry as possible, hold them over 
the fire to evaporate any moisture that may 
still adhere to their surface; for if there is 
the least moisture it makes a connection and 
spoils the experiment. Place them upon the 
floor in a square, about one foot apart; place 
a piece of board upon the tumblers, and 
have a person standing upon the board. 
This person is now completely insulated, the 
glass being a non-conductor of electricity. 
Now take a common rubber comb, and 
having wound a piece of silk round one end 
of it, rub it briskly through your hair, and 
draw the teeth parallel to the insulated per¬ 
son’s knuckles, leaving a little space between 
the comb and the person’s hand. The result 
will be a sharp, crackling noise, and if dark, 
there will be seen a succession of sparks. 
Repeat the process until the phenomena 
cease. The person is now “charged” with 
electricity, the same as a Leyden jar. To! 
draw off the electricity, approach your 
knuckles to the person’s hands or his nose 
(being careful not to allow any portion of 
your body to come In contact with his,) and 
there will bo a loud snap and the sparks will 
be very brilliant. If a cat be held so that 
the charged personcaii place his knuckles in 
proximity with the animal’s nose, it will 
suddenly appear as if it were iu contact with 
an electric battery. A glass bottle may be 
used iu lieu of the comb, but it is not so 
well adapted for the purpose. Much amuse¬ 
ment may bo derived from this extremely 
simple experiment, and Bomo of our numer¬ 
ous young readers will hasten to try it for 
themselves.” 
- —■ ■ * - 
A New Cement for Bottles. — Chemists and 
others kuow well the difficulty of keeping: very 
volatile liquids. Bottles of ether, for example, 
are shipped for India, and when they arrive are 
found to be more than half empty. The chemist 
sometimes puts a bottle of benzole or bisulphido 
of carbon on his shelves, and when he next re¬ 
quires it he finds the bottle empty and dry*. The 
remedy with oxportorf} Is a luting of melted sul¬ 
phur, which is difficult to apply and hard to 
remove. A new cement, which is easily pre¬ 
pared and applied, and which is raid to prevent 
tho escape of the most volatile liquids, is com¬ 
posed of very finely ground litharge and concen¬ 
trated glycerine, and it is merely painted around 
the cork or stopper. It quickly dries and be¬ 
comes extremely hard, but can be easily scraped 
off with a knife when ii is necessary to open tho 
bottle. 
--- 
Power of the Sun’s Heat.—Captain ERICSSON’S 
conclusions as to the powor of the sun’s rays are 
as followsAt the high temperature requisite 
for Mourn engines, the heating power of the sun 
on a surface ton feel square will evaporate, on 
an average, four hundred and eighty-nine cubic 
inches of water per hour, by means of his 
contrivance for effecting the necessary con¬ 
centration. This evaporation demonstrates tho 
presence of sufficient heat to develop a force 
capable of lifting 33,000 pounds one foot high in 
a minute, equal to one horse-power. 
--»- 4 -*-- 
A Bake Wanted.—A Massachusetts man asks 
J somebody to Invent a kiud of rake on wheels, 
eight or ten feet apart, drawn by a single horse, 
that will go inio the spread hay, rake up and 
load upon itself eight or ton hundred pounds of 
hay, and bring it to the barn without further aid 
than the boy that drives it can render. 
