AUS. 24 
MOOBE’S 
9 
MILKING MACHINE. 
Will you please inform me if there is 
such a thing: as a milking machine; and if 
there is, where one could be got?—E rnest 
Beckert, Helena, Montana Ter. 
Yes, there is such a device as a milking 
machine. The early inventions consisted 
of silver tubes, the upper parts pierced 
with holes and the point blunt and rounded 
off so as not to injure the teat whilst being 
forced up the orifice. These tubes when in 
place will draw' the milk from the udder, 
and in case of inflamed udders, when it 
would be difficult to milk by hand, may of¬ 
ten be employed with advantage. They aro 
not to be recommended for steady milking, 
as a continued use is apt to make sore teats, 
while they have a tendency also “ to dry up 
the cow.*' 
Probably the most perfect invention in 
this line that has been brought out is the 
Colvin Cow Milker. It consists of a set of 
India rubber thimbles, or cups, with an ar¬ 
rangement attached for exhausting the air. 
It has handles by which It may be worked 
by hand. The four teats of the cow being 
placed in the India rubber cups, the han¬ 
dles of the machine are worked backwai'd 
and forward which produce a suction, and 
the milk is drawu out similar to the act ion 
of the calf while sucking. It is claimed to 
closely resemble nature In its operation, in¬ 
asmuch as the working of the handles of 
the machine produces ft kind of bunting 
motion, like that of the calf at the udder, 
whereby the milk cells are emptied of their 
contents, and thus the whole process of 
milking is copied from nature. The ma¬ 
chine is quite ingenious and draws the 
milk rapidly. 
Some two or three years ago this machine 
was on exhibition at the American Dairy¬ 
men’s Convention, at Utica, and a commit¬ 
tee was appointed to test its merits. The 
Committee, consisting of three well known 
practical dairymen, reported as follows :— 
“ Your committee, to whom was referred 
the investigation of the Durand & Colvin 
Cow Milker, beg leave to report: -That a 
high degree of mechanical skill is displayed 
in its construction; that it appears to be 
easily adjusted to a cow of any length or 
hight, to teats of any size, or distance apart; 
that, it draws the milk byBuction; will milk 
all four teats at the same time, and will 
milk a cow in about, the same time t hat a 
good milker would require: hut your Com¬ 
mittee regret to report the fact that on the 
two trials made it failed, in its present im¬ 
perfect condition, to milk the cows clean.” 
We cannot say whether the machine has 
been improved or not; but we do not hear 
of its introduction into the best dairy dis¬ 
tricts of New York. We presume, however, 
the machine may be obtained at any of the 
various dairy furnishing stores, but we can¬ 
not name price and place, as this informa¬ 
tion properly belongs to the advertising 
columns of the Rural. We have had sev- 
eral other communications recently respect¬ 
ing milking machines, all of which, we hope, 
will be pretty fully answered in the above. 
---- 
PROFITS FROM BUTTER MAKING. 
When the profits to be realized from but¬ 
ter dairying are llgured, it makes a great 
difference whether tho estimates are upon 
“a fancy,” or upon an ordinary product. 
As an example of the former, take the state¬ 
ment of Mr. Sargent in tho American Ag¬ 
riculturist for February. He says our total 
yield of butter for the year was 1,812 
pounds. Number of cows, ten. Of these 
“Anna” has not yielded one cent during 
the year, and supposing that the yield of 
two others has been consumed at the house 
in milk and cream, it leaves seven butter 
makers, or 1158 pounds per cow. This at 
81.15 per pound makes $296.70. lie thinks 
the yield is not so good as it should or prob¬ 
ably would be on account of the drouth and 
heat of the preceding year, from which the 
cows had not recovered. 
Now in this statement the most extraor¬ 
dinary part is not the quantity yielded, but 
the price received. If ordinary butter had 
been made, perhaps 80 cents per pound 
would be all that could be reasonably ex¬ 
pected. The seven cows would then have 
brought in $5-18.66, while the 1,812 pounds 
at $1.15 amounts to $2,088.80, a difference of 
more than $1,500. We arc quite willing to 
admit that $1.15 per pound for butter is an 
extreme prico, which many dairymen 
would not be able to obtain, even if they 
made a product every way equal to Mr. 
, Sargent’s, still the difference between the 
V price of fancy and ordinary is always con- 
BUBAL 
423 ^ 
aiderable, and it is thi3 difference which 
will always make “fancy butter making” 
remunerative. 
It may be all well enough in theory to 
talk about exorbitant prices paid for fanoy 
butter: but when one comes to contrast 
the difference betweeu the rich, perfeot 
flavor of a “ tip-top article,” and the rank, 
oily taste of the great bulk of butter in 
market, the exti'a prico asked for a fancy 
ai'ticle does not seem of so much account. 
There are a greater number of people who 
are fastidious about their butter than is 
commonly supposed, and there is not much 
danger in overstocking the market with a 
flue thing. Hence we say to butter dairy¬ 
men, look to the quality of your goods, for 
it is tho extra price which such goods bring 
in market which is to make your business 
highly remunerative. 
--- 
Dairy Factories in England.—The 
London Milk Journal says:—In England, 
the system of associated dairies steadily 
gains ground, and butter factories on this 
principle are being opened* Tho quality 
also of tho butter is steadily improving, and 
bids fair to rival that produced in lloisteiu 
and Mecklenburg, which now stands first in 
that market. 
Itcfj? gitshtiulrjr 
♦ 
OHIO SHEEP AND WOOL. 
There is quite an interest manifested in 
the growing of line wool in this part of 
Ohio, the Merino being better adapted to 
our hill country than other breeds. Most 
farmers are convinced of the great need of 
improving their flocks as land increases in 
value; thoroughbred stock must take the 
place of tho inferior mixed breeds that have 
formerly been kept. We are aware there 
are a few farmers in almost every commu¬ 
nity who aro hot convinced of the increased 
profit of keeping improved stock. A few 
facts might bo of interest to your readers, 
showing some of the profits of keeping such 
stock. 
Tho first week in May, 1872, the under¬ 
signed clipped from SO head of American 
Merino sheep, consisting of 20 rams and 60 
ewes, 1,080 pounds of wool, the greater part 
being unwashed, which sold for $586.80. 
averaging $6.71 per fleece, the heaviest ewe’s 
fleece weighing 21K lbs., *md selling for 
$9.67; heaviest ram’s fleece weighing 241.1 
lbs., arid selling for $10.91. 
Seventeen of these ewes, weighed Feb. 
20th, averaged 120lbs. each; three rams 
averaged 154 lbs. each; six ram lambs, less 
than one year old, weighed at tho same 
time 107 1-8 lbs. each. We give flgnreB be¬ 
low showing the age of sheep and weight of 
fleeces of forty of our best sheep. This 
wool was sold to H. Smith of this place, 
Agent for the Chambersburg Woolen Com¬ 
pany, £’a,, and was sent direct to that fac¬ 
tory. They have bought two of our clips 
previous to this. 
Sex. 
° o 
Sm 
Mo’s. 
o . 
£ 
lba.— oz. 
Sex. 
o » 
® ® 
sta 
Y’rs. 
*'Weight of 
j Fleece. 
N 
E. 
U 
12.4 1 
E. 
5 
12 
E. 
It 
13.4 
E. 
7 
12.8 
E. 
13k 
13.12 
E. 
0 
12.8 
E. 
tag 
14.4 
E. 
0 
12.8 
E. 
14 
14.4 
E. 
3 
12.8 
E. 
14k 
15.4 
E. 
3 
12.8 
12.12 
E. 
11 
10 
K. 
7 
K. 
14 
15 
E. 
5 
12.12 
n. 
lag 
10.4 
E. 
5 
12.12 
it. 
17.9 
1 E. 
8 
13.4 
it. 
14 
17.9 
E. 
3 
13.8 
13.12 
u. 
14 
19.4 
E. 
5 
u. 
14 
Y’rs. 
3 
19.8 
E. 
3 
13.12 
R. 
15 
E. 
2 
13.12 
R. 
2 
10.9 
E. 
2 
15.8 
R. 
2 
10.8 
E. 
2 
15.12 
R. 
9 
16.8 
E. 
t» 
15.12 
R. 
2 
17.12 
E. 
3 
17 
21.8 
R. 
2 
20 
K. 
•t 
K. 
2 
20.4 
It. 
_2_ 
24.4 
Morgan Co., O. E. J. IIiatt & Brothers. 
-■■♦»•»- 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Sheep and Wheat.— Eli Stilson, Presi¬ 
dent of the Wool Growers' Association, has 
proved to a demonstration that his flock 
of 1,506 sheep has enabled him to produce 
eight or ten more bushels of wheat to the 
acre than is grown on the average lands of 
Wisconsin, where sheep husbandry is not 
an auxiliary to wheat farming. 
Fruitful old Ewe.— The Tuscarawas (O.) 
Advocate says that John Mtli.ek, a farmer 
of that county, owns a blind ewe that is 
twenty-five years old and the mother of 
sixty-two lambs. This animal gave birth to 
two lambs when she was one year old, and 
three each year after until she was twenty- 
one years old. 
.N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
In the Rural New-Yorker I see some 
contributor criticises the young farmers 
of the State for their uon-atteudance at the 
annual meetings of this Society; says these 
meetings do not attract the attention of 
farm or s in general—that they treat with 
indifference their proceedings, as though 
they were a more farce, and thinks the young 
farmers of the State should attend and 
take an interest in tlmm. All very good 
reasoning, and very true; but blessings on 
his unsophisticated soul, does he not know 
that no young farmer or any one else out¬ 
side the charmed circle has the least chance 
of influence or voice in their proceedings? 
The writer hereof did for fifteen years 
regularly attend these meetings, was often 
on the Committee of Nominations, and 
even to some extent “inside of the cur¬ 
tain," and knows whereof he speaki}. There 
would always be enough old members to 
overbalance all change in management, and 
whenever some luckless new man would 
intimate the desirability of such change, he 
would be scouted at and generally retire 
with a largo “ flea in his ear.” The formers 
of New York have long since ceased ex¬ 
pecting any good to result to them from 
this Society, and have left the thing in dis¬ 
gust, to be run as it has been by tho few 
and their coadjutors ns they pleased. Does 
your contributor not see that the same men 
year after year manage the meetings, make 
all the motions, a majority serve on tho 
committees, and tho same ones receive the 
nominations and appoint the same superin¬ 
tendents and committees at the Annual 
Fairs, year after year ? Indeed, the writer 
hereof will wager the price of the benefit 
any farmer in the State receives from six 
numbers of tho Journal of tho Now York 
State Agricultural Society that he cau give 
a correct general synopsis of the pro¬ 
ceedings of the next annual meeting of 
this Society — giving tho names of those 
making the motions, the names of a major¬ 
ity of the committee ou nominations, the 
names of tho ollioers ejected, if living at 
that time, together with the names of those 
exhibiting articles ami receiving premiums, 
(a very small list by the way,) and a general 
outline of tho speakers and LUeir subjects, 
with a general digest to close up, of tho 
prosperity of the Society and the benefit it 
has been to the Agriculture of the State 
ending by returning thanks in particular to 
the Committee on “ Abortion in Cows.” 
The fact is, Messrs. Editors, this Society 
is a “big institution,” and young farmers 
should “ tarry till their beard is grown,” be¬ 
fore expecting to have any influence in their 
sage proceedings, leaving these to those 
who have grown gray and fat in tho “ Ser¬ 
vice of Agriculture.” But, seriously, there 
should be an entire change in the manage¬ 
ment of this Society, and it is time the 
farmers of the State spoke out in this mat¬ 
ter. A small amount of brains, to say the 
least, should be placed in that Secretary’s 
office, iu Albany— some one, if nothing more, 
who can get up a Journal that is not a dis¬ 
grace to the Agriculture of the State—or 
the whole thing will be tho disgust of the 
farmers of New York. The Society has even 
now become so unpopular that no locality 
wants the Animal Fair tho second time, 
and tho ollioers, have oftener than other¬ 
wise, to solicit the holding of them, instead 
of being flooded With applications, as they 
were a few years since. 
A Western New York Farmer. 
THE OPPRESSED EMPLOYER. 
I low many farmers are in trouble like 
Sears CounTNEY, that have no wealthy 
aunts or other relatives to bestow a for¬ 
tune upon them, and with all their toil and 
care and sacrifice can soaroly bring tho year 
around? Why is all this? Why do they 
not speak their grievances? Is it not be¬ 
cause so few of them aro accustomed to 
write for publication, and can find so lit¬ 
tle leisure to write at all ? 
If all should adopt four-acre or ten-acre 
farming, from whence would tho bread, 
butter, cheese, beef, pork, wool, cotton 
and many other useful articles be derived? 
There must be some large farms, some to 
direct and manage them, or all would suffer 
for the necessaries of life. There must be 
some to employ others; for so many can¬ 
not employ themselves; but little work 
would be done. 
Now the question arises with fearful im¬ 
port at this time, who are the laboring peo¬ 
ple ? Let the employed reflect; let all re¬ 
flect candidly and justly upon this impor¬ 
tant question. We read that the laborer is 
worthy of Ills hire. But what we all need 
to consider Is, who are the laborers, and 
what is their hire? The employers may 
labor from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, 
as they often do, for much less thau the 
employed would accept for half that toil. 
His pay oomes hi a different way. He must 
sustain his own losses often, aud work out 
his hire, as best he may, by putting his pro¬ 
ductions in market, for such price as ho can 
get for all perishable articles that cannot 
be kept. 
To see tho strife among hired laborers 
with employers one would think they 
thought themselves tho only laborers In the 
world. That all the work and hire came by 
their oxortion. If so grievously wronged, 
why not employ themselves instead of clam¬ 
oring about employers? Do they forgot 
that the Scripture says, “ Bo content with 
your wages?” 
Why this discontent among the employed 
in city mid country? Is it just, wise or 
humane? Wages wero high when articles 
of living were high, because in most Instan¬ 
ces production brought a remunerating 
price. But it is very different now when 
almost everything has falleu to its old 
standard. Those who engage iu extensive 
business, aud havo not help of their own, 
must employ others. But ought they to do 
it at a loss? Will they oontluuo to do it at 
a groat loss for a long time? Some who 
cannot shift their business may; but ought 
they to make ruinous sacrifices? Ought 
not tho discontented employed to consider 
that, taking all things us they exist at the 
present time, they are much better paid for 
their labor than many of their employers? 
Let them look at both sides of tho shield 
before they quarrel like tho foolish knights. 
“They that take the sword shall perish by 
tho sword.” Docs not tho history of na¬ 
tions prove this assertion true? Will nob 
many employers grow disheartened and 
cease from oarryiug on many branches of 
business unless there Is a more contented 
ami just feeling among the employed? 
Employers, runners certainly, (t speak 
more particularly for that class, as I am 
most familiar with their circumstances), 
cannot maintain the present high price of 
wages, while their productions must be sold 
so low. Now what aro they to do? The 
employed will take all they can get and 
often strive with the employer for more, 
whether anything is left to reward him lor 
his care and toil and expense. Does this 
proceed from ignorance, or avarice, or both 
combined? 
Onco laborers would say—“ I have not 
earned so much, and I will not take It." 
Was not this an honest principle that Bpoke 
of justice in their souls? O, would that a 
little of this honest principle might revive, 
is the wish of a many a struggling farmer. 
E. E. 
(&ntomolhi}tcal. 
PATIENCE AND POTATO BEETLES. 
Won’t you please tell our friend J. B. T. 
Collins, Michigan, just to keep up his cour¬ 
age ; that we know exactly how it is ourself 
about the potato bugs, for we have seou them 
and had them just us thick ou our potato 
vlues us you ever saw currants or grapes 
ou a bunch; have tried (in vain) both Paris 
green and eternal vigilance, taking them by 
panfuls, pouring boiling water on them, and 
then throwing them into an old cellar hole ; 
and by the time we had vigllized across the 
patch, wo might begin at the beginning aud 
do the same again. Yet, now, I have as nice 
a piece of potatoes as I ever saw, and not a 
bug upon them; and another piece ou the 
same place, where they were so thick that 
Iliad to abandon it to them entirely two 
years ago, has this year only a very few—not 
enough to hurt tho crop, although wo have 
let them “severely alone.” I have seen 
three at a time on the first shoot, when it 
was not larger than your thumb nail, and 
some actually standing on end In tho little 
holes, to meet tho coming sprout; so let him 
hope. J. II, Dodger. 
-■» « +. — 
Stinging Ant.—l send you an luseot 
which I found at Sour Lake, Texas. It was 
a great curiosity to me, and I thought it 
might be to you. Is it an ant? It has a 
very long sting; it is alive now, and has had 
tho pin through it for weeks.— Lloyd 
Arnold, Uulvestou, Texas. 
Tin: bright scarlet, wingless inseot, with 
black bands across the abdomen, is tho fe¬ 
male MuUlla c occlnea, or Stinging Ant. It 
is also called Cow-Killer in some localities; 
why, we do not know. The male MuUlla 
has wings, but no sting, and, therefore, may 
be handled without fear of injury, which is 
more thau can be said of the female. 
