JAW. 4 
Bairn Husbanilrn. 
THE DAIBY CONVENTIONS. 
The New York State Dairymen’s Associa¬ 
tion will hold its Annual Convention at Little 
Falls, Jan. 7th and 8th. Hon. J. Stanton 
Gould of Hudson gives tho annual address 
on tho evening of the 7th. Tho speakers en¬ 
gaged to deliver addresses on various topics 
are:—J. W. Cronkthte of Herkimer; T. D. 
Curtis of the Utica Herald; Harris Lewis 
of Herkimer; Ceo. W. Davis of Little Falls; 
J. V. H. Scoviu.e of Oneida; L. B. Arnold 
of Tompkins; Gardner B. Weeks, Secretary 
ot American Dairymen’s Association, Syra¬ 
cuse, and David W. Lewis of New York 
City. Josiah Shule of Ilion, N. Y., is Sec¬ 
retary, and X. A. Willard President, of the 
Association. 
The American Dairymen’s Association 
holds its Cun volition at Utica, Jan. 14th, 15th 
and 10th. L, B. Arnold gives the annual 
address. Addresses will bo made by David 
W. Lewis of N. Y.; O. S. Bliss, Secretary 
of tho Vermont Dairymen’s Association; B. 
B. Moon of Herkimer Co.; Wm, Branding j 
of Broome Co. ; S. A. Farrington of Yates; 
T. D. Curtis of the Utica Herald; Harris 
J.KWIS of Herkimer; A. McAdam of Mont¬ 
gomery; J. V. II. Scovn.i.E of Oneida; Messrs. 
Levi and Chas. Schermeruorn, II. Cooley 
Green, and Others. Forticr Blanchard’.-! Sons 
of Concord, N. H., offer onoof their justly cele¬ 
brated churns a* a premium for best 20 or 25 
pounds of butter shown at this Convention. 
They do this to help raise the standard quali¬ 
ty of butter made, and to encourage an hon¬ 
orable competition among butter makers. 
The award will bo made by a committeo ap¬ 
pointed by the Convention. G. B. W eeks of 
Syracuse is Secretary, and Hon. Horatio 
Seymour of Utica, President of the Associa¬ 
tion. 
The Vermont Dairymen’s Association 
holds its fourth Winter meeting at St. Albans, 
Vt., on Jan. 23d, 23d and 2lth. The speak¬ 
ers announced are T. D. Douglas of Whiting; 
J. Stanton Gould of Hudson, N. Y.; X. A. 
Willard of the Rural New-Yorker; Har¬ 
ris Lewis of Herkimer; G. B. Weeks of 
Syracuse; T. S. Gold of Connecticut, and 
others. O. S, Bliss of Georgia, Vt., is Sec¬ 
retary of tho Association. 
The Onto Dairymen’s Association's annual 
meeting is announced to beheld in Cleveland, 
Ohio, Jan. 22d and 23d. The programme of the 
meeting and speakers has uot reached us yet. 
Col. S. D. Harris of Cleveland, is Secretary, 
and D. L. Pope of Grange, President of the 
Association. 
Several other conventions will be held in 
February, winch will be noticed as soon as 
we receive programmes of the meetings. 
-♦-«"*- 
AN ENGLISH MILK COOLER. 
We have referred from time to time in 
these columns to the importance of cooling 
milk at the farm, immediately after it is 
drawn, or before being hauled to the factory. 
There are quite a number of devices for this 
purpose, and some of them are very compli- ] 
cated, or difficult to bo cleaned, which must 1 
always be u serious objection to this class of 
dairy implements. Recently we hear of an 
English invention, which is said to be much 
liked In England, but, so far as we know, has 1 
not been introduced in America. It is called 
Lawrence &; Co’sCapilbary Refrigerator, and, 
as we understand, was originally intended 
for brewers in cooling beer, and has been 
much used by them for that purpose. But it 
has been found of very great value to farmers 
who sell their milk for consumption in towns, 
and in Summer may be used in the daily to 
cool the milk as it comes from the cow, or 
previous to its going into the can for the fac¬ 
tory. 
At the late trial of implements at Cardiff, 
under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England, this milk cooler was on 
exhibition, and is described and commended 
in the report as follows:—“In sending milk 
by rail or road it is of the utmost importance 
that it should be thoroughly cooled as soon a?, 
it leaves the Cow; this is sometimes done by 
immersing the milk vessels in a running 
stream; but where there is nosuitablestream 
at hand it has been a matter of considerable 
difficulty to cool the milk sufficiently with¬ 
out loss of time. In tliis apparatus a very 
small quantity of cold water, passing upward 
in a very thin stream between two corruga¬ 
ted sheets of metal, rapidly abstracts the heat 
from two very shallow streams of milk de¬ 
scending outxkle the metal sheets.” 
In the rccompanying illustration, Fig. 1, 
this device is represented. “ D is tho inlet and 
E the outlet of the water, which, being sup¬ 
plied from a higher level, flows through the 
refrigerator B, by the force of gravity. A tap 
in the milk receiver A regulates the flow of 
milk into a small trough at the top of tho re¬ 
frigerator, punctured with holes, through 
which the milk runs, and is spread into so 
flue a sheet that, instead of falling rapidly 
from step to step, it follows the corrugations 
of the surface. The attraction is thus not 
Figure 1. 
capillary, as tho name of the apparatus 
might lead us to suppose, but simply one of 
adhesion. In the enlarged section (Fig. 2) of 
a part of the refrigerator the descending ar¬ 
rows indicate the currents of milk gradually 
cooling as they descend; the current of water 
passing upward is warmed, so that when it 
passes out of the spout at E it is very nearly 
of tho same temperature as the milk in the 
receiver.” 
This device appeal's to be quite simple, and 
the milk being exposed to the atmosphere 
while cooling, objectionable odors have a 
chance to pass off. As this cooler is not gen- 
Fiotritis 2. 
orally known t o American dairymen, we have 
thought an illustration and description of the 
apparatus may bo of some interest, and, per¬ 
haps, suggestive to inventors in this class of 
useful devices. 
g\M (I’vojri. 
TRENCHING PRAIRIE FOR CORN. 
Some years ago, when the advantages of 
deep plowing were first preached, many prai¬ 
rie farmers tested it by trench-plowing land 
deeply in Spring and seeding with small grain. 
In some cases the land thus trench-plowed 
wits prairie sod, in others old land. In nearly 
every cose coming within our knowledge the 
small grain crops on land so treated, the first 
season, we.ro poor—much below tho average 
of those produced on Spring and shallow- 
plowed lands. Where the trench-plowing 
was done in the Fall tho results were better; 
but it was not until tlio second or third year 
that the benefit of trench-plowing began to 
bo realized to the maximum—especially when 
wheat was the crop, as was then generally 
the ease. When corn was planted the results 
showed, generally, less difference; for the 
natu re of the plant and its requirements are 
different. 
We are led to these remarks by a statement 
by a McDonough Co., Ill., farmer wo find 
in the Western Rural, who asserts that tho 
old way of breaking prairie sod in June and 
July, and lotting it rot the remainder of the 
season is a great loss. He adds:—“I would 
not exchange ordinary prairie six! land for 
the same amount of old foul land, for I ran 
take the new land in its rude state, in the 
Spring, and raise more corn with loss work, 
than on old foul land. In 1807 I purchased a 
quarter section, commenced breaking and 
trench plowing in October, breaking the sod 
about two inches and usod ordinary mellow 
ground plows for trenching. 1 then used 
pieces bolted on side of the beam three by 
four inches, so as to make the plow follow 
the furrow of the sod plow, (but I now use 
the Kalamazoo Clevis, which is better,) 
throwing out all the mellow dirt possible. 
We thus broke about eighty acres as soon as 
tho frost was out; the next Spring we broke 
the remainder in the same manner. Com¬ 
menced harrowing and planting about the 
10th of May. As soon as we finished plant¬ 
ing I started a cast iron roller to work. As 
soon as the corn was large enough I culti¬ 
vated t horoughly, plowing it twice through. 
In the Fall I sold one hundred acres to a cat¬ 
tle feeder for $K-> per acre, mid husked from 
the remainder 3,400 bushels of as sound and 
good corn as I ever raised. 1 sold that farm 
and commenced on another new on this sea¬ 
son, forty acres of it having been in cultiva¬ 
tion for several years. The best corn 1 raised 
this season was on stiff blue grass sod, broke 
and trenched in April and May. I am of the 
opinion if old foul land was trenched in the 
same way for eorn, that many Western fann¬ 
ers would find that their title extended more 
than four or five inches deep.” 
It should bo remembered that, this mode of 
preparing prairie soil has especial reference 
to com—not to small grain. It would bo in¬ 
teresting to know how tho crop produced by 
tho land trench-plowod in tho Fall, compared 
with that plowed in Spring. On this subject 
the correspondent is unfortunately silent. 
We have no doubt, however, that it will pay 
better to bo break most prairie soils and 
treat them with a crop of com, in tlio end, 
if not in immediate results, than the shallow 
plowing most practiced ; and it certainly 
does save a great deal of time and labor. Tes¬ 
timony of a similar character as to tho ad¬ 
vantage of deep breaking for com has re¬ 
peatedly conic to us from Kansas. Climate 
may have some influence cm results. Mc¬ 
Donough county lies abouh midway between 
the 40th and list paralols of latitude, consid¬ 
erably south of New York City, while simihi r 
experiments in Kansas have been made in 
the neighborhood of the 36th parallel. It 
would be interesting to know whether the 
same resblts obtain in Northern Illinois, Wis¬ 
consin, Iowa and Nebraska. Have any of 
our readers tested the matter there? 
a lie Seedsman, 
TEXAS COWS AS MILKERS. 
Here very few farmers have barns or 
even sheds for stock. Last September I 
reached this place (am a carpenter), and 
could get neither milk nor butter for family 
use. 1 accordingly bought li cow and calf, 
paying t herefor $15, gold. The calf was the 
cow’s second offspring. At the first milking 
tho cow gave me one. pint of milk. I gave 
her some corn shucks, which she ate ; but 
on offering her some com she would not 
touch it. I then bought some bran (at 10 
cents per bushel), mixed it with salt and 
water, but slio would not go near it; she 
would eat nothing but grass and eorn shucks. 
I mixed bran l'or her every day for three days 
before she would taste it. She then licked the 
salt from the top, of course getting some of 
tho bran. The next time she ate about a 
quart of it. Then I gave her some shelled 
corn and bran mixed, of which she finally 
ate heartily, and her milk increased iu one 
week’s time to two quarts per milking, or one 
gallon per day. 1 now feed her one bucket 
Of bran, seven ears of eorn, and two bundles 
of oats night and morning, and now get 
three quarts at a milking. 
Wo put the milk in a crock by the fire and 
Jet it set there over night; in the morning 
we pour the. morning's milk into what we 
Obtained the night before, and at flight churn 
the whole, and get from one to one-fourth 
pounds of butter from the two milkings. 
From my limited experience, 1 judge this 
cow to bo No. 1 for Texas. I have been told 
that it did uot pay to feed cows here in 
Winter. I And there are very few who do 
it. Lost week we had very cold weather, 
rain and sleet for two days. During that 
time there were from thirty to fifty head of 
cattle standing in an open lot near my house, 
and not a morsel of food did they get in that 
time, except the dried brier stalks iu tlio lot. 
0. L. Thompson. 
Waxabaohie, Texas. 
TENNESSEE COWS DYING IN GEORGIA. 
I WAS about starting a dairy, and as good 
milch cows are very scarce anu high here, 1 
had partially made a contract with parties 
in Knoxville, Team, to supply me with thorn. 
1 met an old friend of mine who has been in 
the butcher business here fol* the last twenty- 
five years, and has brought hundreds of cattle 
from Tennessee to Georgia. I was asking him 
for some information in regard to the Ten- 
nea^fe cows aud he told me that he had 
brought a good many fine cows to Georgia 
and that he has never had one to hvo longer 
than to the first of June. IIo has kept them 
on fine pastures, and even up in stalls, arid 
given them the best of attention, but could 
nave no success with them. 
If you can give me the cause of the cows 
dying and the remedy, if any, you will oblige 
me. I am told that if cattle aro moved more 
than sixty miles North or South they will not 
do well. Ts it so or not A Young Farmer, 
Macon , Ga. 
We have known Rtock to be removed from 
Kentucky to Minnesota (and intermediate 
points) and vice verxa, and never knew or 
heard of such t rouble as our correspondent 
describes, Stock has been taken from New 
York to Georgia, North Carolina and Ten¬ 
nessee without such trouble. The whole 
matter is entirely new to us, and wo have no 
theory about it. oven if the statement rela¬ 
tive to Tennessee cattle is true. 
FOR DRIVING STEERS. 
A subscriber asks :—“ Which is the best, a 
whip or a goad for driving steers or oxen ; 
also, will some one give directions for making 
and fitting a yoke.” We should prefer a whip; 
a goad is sim ply a brutal instrument of tor¬ 
ture, and, it cannot be used without indicting 
torture. A wlii p may, if tho driver is fit to drive 
steers or oxen, boused without inflicting pain; 
but both t he driver and oxen need to be well 
trained in such cases. 
©lie |3oultr» ijnrd. 
CONNECTICUT POULTRY FAIR. 
1 could not resist the temptation of at¬ 
tending, at, New Haven, the annual Fair of 
the Connecticut State Poultry Society, as 
our nutmeg brethren always get up things 
of this sort in a style worthy of tlio imitation 
of her sister Society iu New York State. 
This splendid exhibition was field in the Ma¬ 
sonic Temple; the fcigfit and ventilation of 
the. room was perfect, and the fowls showed 
to great advantage. The hall was crowded 
with visitors, and without a doubt tho Socie¬ 
ty was handsomely rewarded for its enter¬ 
prise in a pecuniary way. Everything seem¬ 
ed to work like dock-work, and the officers 
seemed to be attending more, to their respec¬ 
tive duties than looking after their own little 
matters. 
This show seemed to me to outstrip ail 
former exhibitions of this Society. There 
were about (100 coops of different varieties of 
fowls. The Asiatics, Brahmas, Leghorns and 
Games seemed to predominate. Messrs. E. B. 
Dibble, Chas. Ruckolett, Carpenter, I’. 
W i L liams showed some elegant Light Brah¬ 
mas; Lockwood and Board man Smith, Leg¬ 
horns; Messrs. Crossly, Bradley, Nettle- 
ton and a few others, whose names 1 did not 
learn, showed very fine Partridge Cochins 
and Dark Brahmas; of tlio latter there were 
some remarkably fine pullets and Ileus; but 
for the cocks of this variety I cannot speak 
80 favorably. Of Buff Cochins, Messrs, Ster¬ 
ling and Munson and Philander Williams 
showed sumo line birds. Mr. Bradley made 
a large display of lioudans, among which 
there were some very superior fowls. In 
Dominiques mid Plymouth Rocks Mr. Upton 
showed some magnificent birds. Our En¬ 
glish friends have written us about this class 
of fowls, and I think show tlieir good judg¬ 
ment iu wishing to introduce them to their 
fanners. They are a large and hardy bird, 
good layers, and carry a much larger propor¬ 
tion of meat i, ban bone, Messrs. Bestor, 
Hudson, and Hill Bros., of New Haven,show¬ 
ed some splendid Games. Mr. Bestor show¬ 
ed a coop of Derbya, and some very beauti 
ful White Games. This was a celebrated 
lighting stock some years ago, and were 
known as Thompson Whites; he never lost a 
main with them, and rarely a single tight. 
As I was admiring a Red Pile cock, which 
struck me as a fine stock bird, 1 was told 
that 1 gave that fowl the first premium in 
bSiU, (to tho astonishment of some people,) 
and that since then he had been sold for $100, 
and was game nil over him. 
My intention was particularly attracted to 
a CGOp of Black Reds, Brown Reds and Piles, 
owned by Mr Hudson, and I thought to 
myself, “ You don't often see such birds.” 
The Him, Bros. I supposed would carry off 
the Turf. Field and Farm medal. They are 
indifferent, about bre ding to feather, but 
aim to raise such a class of gome us will 
stand up to the work till death. These fowls 
told more points for a Pit. Standard than you 
will meet with on many a day. There was a 
Ginger-hay alone in a coop, that seemed to 
me would take the ginger out of some of the 
best, strains 1 have ever seen. His quick eye, 
restless disposition, and short, spiteful crow, 
was a sure thing for stamps, 1 purchased a 
Duck-wing of these gentlemen, that came 
out of a tight, against tlio Trojans victorious, 
and in Lend mating him to a largo gray hen 
who lie vi r disgraced her family escutcheon. 
All I can say is, that our Connecticut 
friends had a splendid show, and that it re¬ 
flected great credit on the officers and mana¬ 
gers. It would have done the New York 
Poultry Society no harm if they liad sent a 
delegation hero to study out some things ne¬ 
cessary to make a Poultry Show a success, 
and thus saved themselves the humiliation 
of calling upon the members of the Society 
to guarantee the officers against any loss in 
the event of a failure. 
Greenville, N. J. Isaac Van Winkle. 
