drink is enough, without water to swim in, 
for any breed of ducks. As my Rouen 
ducks are young, I have not procured any 
statistics as yet, when I do I shall let our 
friends hear from me. F. W. Babcock. 
January, 1870. 
can be employed successfully in pumping 
water for cheese factories should be general¬ 
ly known, since the location of factories is 
often out of the way, and inconvenient, sim¬ 
ply on account of securing a stream or spring 
of running w ater. 
aim feslmnbrp 
at&tmm 
X. A. •WILLARD, A. M., EDITOR, 
Ov Little Falls, IJlkkimek Coukty, Nt w You*. 
DISTEMPER, OR NASAL GLEET 
PIGEONS: 
White Crested Calcutta Fnntalla. 
This variety of pigeons is the finest speci¬ 
men of the Fantails in this country. These 
beautiful birds appear more like miniature 
swans in their graceful and proud carriage 
than like any of the pigeon species. They 
have been extensively bred by Mr. Samuel 
J. Bkstor, Hartford, Conn., who exhibited 
some coops of splendid Calcutta Swan Fan- 
tails at the late Connecticut State Poultry 
Show, which attracted great attention. They 
were admired both for the beauty of their 
plumage and for the style and dignity of 
their carriage. At our request, Mr. B. has 
furnished us a life-like draw ing of his birds, 
from which the engraving is made; also the 
following relative to their habits, his manner 
o( breeding, &c. He says: 
I had a mure troubled as your correspondent 
from Marshalltown, Iowa, describes (see Rural 
Jan. 1, page 11) his. I cured her with tobacco. 
Take one-fourth pound chewing tobacco, put it 
in an oven, dry, pulverizeaudthen divide it Into 
four or live doses and give it In meal to the ani¬ 
mal every third night until she gets well. 1 give 
it to my horses occasionally, and it does them 
good.—H. B„ Danbury, C(. 
Henry Hopper, Steuben county, N. Y., 
thinks the Iowa mare is troubled w ith nasal 
gleet, and is in danger from glanders. Says 
she discharges more H orn the nose in cold or 
stormy weather than in dry; that the sub¬ 
maxillary glands may swell and yet not he 
the glanders until the animal begius to dis¬ 
charge bloody matter. 
The following is recommended lor nasal 
gleet: —Give the following powder, night 
and morning, for a month: Of sulphate of 
copper, (blue vitriol,) half a drachm; pulver¬ 
ized gentian root, two drachms; pulverized 
ginger, one drachm; mix for one dose; or 
give night and morning, mixed in the feed, 
half drachm doses of powdered nux vomica 
(“ Quaker button.”) This preparation does 
not endanger the animal, provided water is 
not given for a half hour after; ami it sel¬ 
dom fails to cure. 
HOUDANS AS EGG PRODUCERS 
SKIMMED CHEESE MANUFAC 
TURE. 
COLORING BUTTER 
For several years past I have been testing 
different breeds of hens in order to find 
those combining most good qualities. I have 
kept the Bantams, Black Poland, Bolton 
Grays, Cochins, Dorkings, Silver Polands, 
Black Spanish, Golden Pheasants. Brahmas, 
Iloudans and others. I have now Ihc Hou- 
dans raised from premium stock of last sea¬ 
son’s importation, and the Brahmas. 
The two broods of pullets fare precisely 
alike in shelter, care, and feed, there being 
only a board partition between them, and 
also arc both of same age. My experience 
is that the Iloudans matured and com¬ 
menced laying one month at least before the 
Brahmas, and are to-day laying two eggs 
where the same number of Brahmas lay one, 
and much larger eggs. Among all of the 
different breeds of hens which 1 have ever 
kept, as curly aud good, Inyen I give the Ilou¬ 
dans a decided preference; and if their 
qualities for table are as good as others testi¬ 
fy (for I have never eaten them) they must 
eventually become the hens for the nation, 
being hardy, good size, great layers, and of 
very early maturity. F. W. Coe. 
Addison Co., Vt., Jan. 3,1870. 
1 would like to learn your views, through the 
Rural, on the propriety of coloring late fall 
and early spring butter with anuotto. 
W. it. Brewster. 
Andover, N. Y., Dee. 3,1869. 
One of the market requisites in butter is 
that it be of a rich yellow or golden color. 
The fact bat the best grass-butter always 
has a rich Srade without resorting to artifi¬ 
cial coloring, ;s sufficient raison on the part 
Of consumers Or suspecting that white but¬ 
ter must be of inferior quality. Late fall or 
spring butter made from the milk of cows 
fed upon hay is generally deficient in color, 
and unless some artificial means be employ¬ 
ed for giving it the desired shade iL will not 
command a price in market equal to butter 
of the same texture and quality that has been 
colored. 
Pure anuotto, when properly prepared, is 
very successfully used for imparting a good 
color to fall and winter butter. Anuotto ot 
course adds nothing to the flavor or quality 
of butter, but as the pure article when thus 
employed for coloring is quite harmless, 
there can be no serious objection lo its use. 
In coloring butter with anuotto it is impor¬ 
tant that a prime article be used, and to have 
it prepared so that it shall be free from sedi¬ 
ment. Nichols’ English liquid anuotto is 
the best that we have seeu for this purpose, 
as it gives a rich shade of color and is quite 
free of sediment and of any deleterious 
adulteration. 
Doubtless the best way of coloring butter 
late in fall and spring is to feed the cows 
upon early cut, bay, nicely cured, with the 
addition of a daily mess of carrots, oat and 
corn meal, Ac., as no artificial coloring will 
then be required, while the flavor and quality 
of the butter will approximate more nearly 
to that made when the cows arc at pasture. 
But as rtie kind of hay which wc have named 
may not. be at hand, something, of course, 
must needs be done to take away the tallowy 
look which winter and spring butter is apt 
to have. 
We have seen a rich yellow color imparted 
to butter by coloring with carrots. The car¬ 
rots should be thoroughly cleaned, then with 
a knife scrape off the yellow exterior only, 
aud soak it in boiling milk for ten or fifteen 
minutes. It is then strained through a fine 
cloth and the liquid added to the cream be¬ 
fore churning. It not only gives a nice 
color, but is thought by some to impart a 
sweetness or flavor to the butter somewhat 
resembling that obtained when the cows are 
feeding upon grass. When carrots are used 
for the purpose, as above indicated, only the 
outer or yellow portion of the root is em¬ 
ployed. 
We have heard it suggested that butter 
colored in this way with carrots is injured 
somewhat in its keeping qualities, but iu our 
own experience we have not found this to 
be the case. We mention the suggestion, 
however; and if any of our readers have 
any experience that goes to show that car¬ 
rots used in this way have any objectionable 
infiuc-uce on the keeping qualities of butter 
we should bo glad to hear from them and 
make record of the fact. 
Tn the use of anuotto it is understood, of 
course, that the coloring is to be added to 
the cream before churning. 
In some of your recent numbers you have 
debated the relative value of giving skim milk 
to bogs, or making skim-milk cheese, and have 
given the preference to the latter practice. Will 
you be so kind as to give a good recipe lor 
making the Cheese ? b. c. d. 
Baltimore, Dee., 1869. 
In making bkinuned-milk cheese wc do 
not advise that all the cream that will rise 
be taken from the milk. It is important in 
the realization of good profits to have a 
“ skim cheese” of fair quality that will meet 
with ready sale at a fair price. If all the 
cream that can be obtained from the milk 
be removed and the milk then turned into 
cheese jt will lack quality, and the loss iu 
price will be much more than the value of a 
little cream, which should go with the 
skimmed milk for the purpose of Improving 
the quality of tire cheese, and rendering it 
more palatable. 
If the milk is set in cans plunged in spring 
water, on the Orange county system, the 
morning’s mess may stand for cream, say, 
twenty-four hours or until next morning; 
and the night’s milk twelve hours. The two 
messes of milk may be then skimmed and 
the milk mingled together placed in the vat 
for cheese-making. 
The manufacture of “ skim-cheese ” does 
not differ materially from that of whole- 
milk cheese. The milk in the vat being 
raised to a temperature of 82“ a sufficiency 
of rennet is added to perfect coagulation in 
about fifty minutes or an hour. Then the 
mess is cut with the steel-bladed curd knives, 
the process of breaking effected as with 
whole-milk cheese. The curd now having 
been allowed to subside a gentle heat is be¬ 
gun to be applied, the moss is very gradually 
raised to a temperature of fiff, the curds, in 
the meanwhile, being stirred so as to keep 
from packing or clinging together. This is 
the highest heat to which it should he sub¬ 
jected under ordinary circumstances. 
The curds arc retained in the whey until 
properly matured. Or us dairymen usually 
express it, “scalded,” when the whey is 
drawn, the curds removed to the sink and 
manipulated as with whole-milk curds, ami 
then salted at the rate of three pounds of salt 
to one hundred of curd. 
Skimmed cheese is usually made iu small 
flat shapes, somewhat, similar to the single 
Gloucester of English manufacture. A very 
popular style is to press in fourteen-inch 
hoops, making the cheese four or five inches 
high. They may be pressed in smaller hoops 
if desired, ^ut very thick shapes Should be 
avoided, as they do not cure so evenly and 
are more liable to get out of flavor. 
We have here only given the general out¬ 
lines for making “skim-cheese”—all the 
little details rmiat he learned by experience, 
as they cannot well be described. The most 
difficult, part in manufacture is to know 
when the curds are properly matured, or 
scalded. This is only to be learned by prac¬ 
tice, or by handling curds. 
THE AILING COLTS, 
SEX OF GUINEA FOWLS 
In the Rural of December 18, page 808. 
I. II. says that his colt, after being turned 
out for half an hour in the barn-yard, will 
drag one hind leg aud then the other, and 
then go off without being lame at all. He 
does not say that his colt has been too long 
confined to a close stable. But this is prob¬ 
ably the difficulty. It is generally better to 
give to a colt the liberty of the yard, or 
fields, and have a warm aud dry shed or 
stable, well protected by a screen from the 
wind. 
If you want, to make a very large horse, 
shut him up and stuff him. If yon want a 
tough atul serviceable horse of fair size, let 
him be more exposed, uml give him coarser 
food, with enough of finer feed to keep him 
in good heart. John Man nose. 
Stockbrdgo, N. Y., January 1, 1870. 
The inquiry of H. N. IL, in the Rural, 
December 11, in regard to Guinea fowls, may 
be easily answered. During the rearing of 
the young, there is no perceptible difference 
as to male or female, and, in fact, they can 
only be distinguished by their utterances, dur¬ 
ing the laying season, at which time the fe¬ 
males are almost constantly calling “come 
back,” or, as many people Interpret the 
sound, “ pot-rack,” while the males are 
equally fluent in uttering the word “cliu,” 
“chu,” “ehu,” while the female is on or 
about her nest. There is another way they 
can be distinguished after they at tain the age 
of six months. The males are much larger, 
with an increase of comb or gills, with prom¬ 
inent ridge on the beak, just as it unites with 
the feathers. 
You will not ice that the females are much 
more delicate that) the males, in the appear¬ 
ance and shape of the head, and lienee the 
large gills of the males are easily distin¬ 
guished.— Mrs. J. C. F. 
Meadowvilie, Oregon, Dec., I860. 
“The Calcuttas are famed for their car¬ 
riage, purity of feather, crests and quiet de¬ 
meanor. Their points of excellence are im¬ 
proved by careful breeding. I have birds 
carrying from twenty-one to thirty-nine 
feathers in their tails—the latter being an 
extraordinary count. I have but one such. 
I have two v illi thirty-four feathers, and a 
dozen or more with from twenty-four to 
twenty-eight feathers. I prefer a less num¬ 
ber, however, if to sustain them the carriage 
and style of the bird is lost, which is some¬ 
times the case. 
“ I keep my funs confined iu a room in 
m.y barn the year round, and can easily rear 
100 pairs in a room 24x30 feet. Light and 
sun are essential to health. 1 have not lost 
a single specimen bywliseasc for three years. 
A good breeding pj^Uvill rear four families, 
of a pair each, per year. 1 allow none, 
however, to brood from January to April. 
I iced wheat, buckwheat and cracked corn 
on alternate days; keeping fresh water be¬ 
fore them for drinking purposes, and once a 
week allow them their bath tub, which they 
take readily to, especially on a bright sunny 
day. 
“ It. is quite amusing to see them sport 
like fairies in the water. I keep gravel and 
ground ovsler shell where they can help 
themselves to it. The floor is covered with 
clean sa ay -Oust weekly, anil thus their pure 
white feathers arc kept from getting soiled. 
Their manure is valuable, especially for cu¬ 
cumbers, citrons, melons, tomatoes, Ac., but 
must be diluted, and used in a fluid state; 
composted thoroughly with light loam it is 
valuable for potatoes and corn. The birds 
are easily made tame by handling, and will 
allow themselves to be carried on the hand, 
arm, or head, without flighting. 
“ The Calcuttas are home birds,—will sel¬ 
dom take long flights away, it' at large (un¬ 
less frightened by birds of prey), but they 
love a warm, dry barn-yard; aud a sunny 
roof is their delight. They cun he trained 
to come to the whistle-call for food if not 
constantly surfeited with grain. An essen¬ 
tial tiling to their health and sprightliness, 
is to allow them occasionally a codfish t* 
pick upon.” l. 
Horses Stifle Slipping. -1. if. asks what ails bis 
colt. He says that several mornings; during the 
latter part of last winter, on going to his barn, 
he found one of his colts had lost the use of one 
of his hind legs—that the leg appeared to ho too 
longund was dragged with tho hoof turned up, 
&o. I cun tell him what I think nils his coil, und 
a remedy. His stifle slips out of Joint, caused 
by weakness or relaxing of the cords and mus¬ 
cle:*. I own a mare that was troubled very much 
in the same wuy. several yean? ago, only her 
stifle would remain out of Joint, a day or two at 
a time. Site was troubled with It at intervals 
for Dearly u year. 1 tried a good many kinds of 
medicine without much ctToct until I tried oak 
hark, which l think effectually cured her. I 
took nearly h peek of hark, put it in a kettle 
with tenor twelve quarts of water and boiled it 
d«wu to a strong liquor and washed her leg with 
it two or three times a day, for several days.—N. 
C., Sachet t* Harbor, X. Y. 
Postage Stamp*) and Cracked Eggs.—A pigeon 
fancier at, Toulon lias found it novel use for the 
margins of postage stumps. When he finds a 
broken or cracked egg, and Is able to make out 
that tho fil ing epidermis is intact, he proceeds 
to mend the egg with tho gummed paper, und 
replaces it iu the nest to be hatched. Eight times 
out of ten, he says, he succeeds Iu getting u 
young bird hatched. He 1ms adopted the same 
practice with pheasants* eggs, which are very 
apt to get cracked: but they must be put at 
once under n sitting hen, as thflyvrUl not keep 
fresh so long as an egg that has not been cracked. 
Sometime?, he tells us, be makes a hole in uu 
egg to see whether the young bird is alive, and 
closes it again with gummed paper, and the egg 
is hatched Just as though it had not been inter¬ 
fered with. One precaution must be observed. 
The paper used must be as nearly as possible of 
tho same color as the egg, or it attracts tho 
notice of (1m hen, who makes an effort to pick it 
off when She turns the egg, and in so doing often 
effectually breaks it. Seeing tho variety of colors 
of the stamps, M. A q it ARON E finds uo difficulty 
iu matching any egg. 
Sole Bruise nnd Gravel. -A Massachusetts cor¬ 
respondent asks for the best treatment of this 
trouble in a horse’s foot. Every horse farrier 
ought to kuow, and when he shoes a horse lio 
ought to be able to detect whatever may bo 
wrong mid apply tho proper remedy. In case of a 
bruise if pus is secreted the farrier can discover 
it by tapping the hoof with his hammer, for tho 
horse will shrink with pain when the blow is 
over the point of secretion. Then he should 
cut the bool' through and let out the matter, 
and after it is out inject iuto the wound a drachm 
ol' sulphate of zinc in a pint of water. Care 
should be taken to keep gravel out of the wound 
and wash it often. 
WIND MILLS FOR CHEESE FAC 
TORIES. 
Will a wind-mill pump sufficient water to 
operate a cheese factory? What will one eost 
to drive a factory of five hundred cows.—S. D. 
Gardner, South llamrihal, X. Y. 
Wind-mills are now so perfected that 
they will clo all the work of pumping water 
for cheese factories, and very effectually. 
AYc have seen them in operation at factories 
where running water could not he had, and 
supply was obtained from wells. They gave 
good satisfaction, and, when properly ar¬ 
ranged, will keep up a sufficient quantity of 
water to run the factory from day today 
throughout the season. In this arrangement 
u large tank is constructed, which is elevated 
above the level of the vats, so that the Avater 
may he readily conducted to any part of the 
factory as desired. 
Tho pumps are kept in operation so long 
as there is wind to keep them in motion, and 
of course a considerable surplus of water is 
thus secured iu the tank to supply the re¬ 
quirements of the factory at times Avhen 
there is not sufficient wind to drive the 
pumps. 
They are very useful machines, and Ayell 
adapted to cheese factories, since, wherc- 
cver a good well can be secured, a factory 
may be located without regard to running 
water. Thu modern wind-mills are so con¬ 
structed that they regulate then’ own sails, 
thus obviating the necessity of close watch¬ 
ing. They arc sold at various prices, accord¬ 
ing to the power required. Probably one 
costing about $200 would be sufficient to do 
\ all the work needed for a factory of five 
9 *. hundred cows. Wo cannot give the names 
^ of parties manufacturing wind-mills, as this 
g information must be sought in our advertis- 
, ing columns; but the fact that wind-mills 
Imported Vow Is Fatality.—Mr. Gaa'IT, Secre¬ 
tary of tho Mow York State Poultry Society, 
makes, in his report of the lato Poultry Show in 
this city, the following important statement 
concerning the longevity of imported fowls in 
this country: 
Experience proves that fully one-third of all 
lbe fowls received from abroad die during the 
first six months after their arrival, regard less of 
the regime adopted for their care and treatment. 
In l.a Vleelioand Creve Ceeurs the ratio of mor¬ 
tality Iris been much greater than here stated, 
and in all varieties larger in males than females. 
Thus far we have been unable to secure any ex¬ 
planation ot lhe Immediate cause of their de¬ 
mise. Our casual observation is, Ibat tho indi¬ 
viduals remain, in appearance, iu their usual 
health and appetite, until about a day before 
their dissolution, when they wilt be reported to 
lie drooping by the attendant. On examination 
they are found to be reduced,or wasted away to 
scarcely anything but feathers, skin and bones. 
And. although we have tried every remedy 
within our scope, none are in the slightest, de¬ 
gree available. Death is sure to follow within 
twenty-four hours after the first drooping is 
disco \ erod. 
Product of a Bairy of Eight Cows.— Thinking 1 
would like to kuow what others have done with 
their cows the past, season, 1 give my doings. 
My account stands thus: 
Butter "from 8 cows sold, 1,350 lbs.$510 
" Used in family, 35(1 lbs.. WO 
Four calves, $30 each. 80 
Three calves, 810 each. . 39 
Rnrlc, ;I50 Urn...... 13 
Cretan uml milk used in lauilly. 35 
$817 
f fi d my cows some grain, about two quarts 
per day, before (hey came in; after they came 
in, slops und potatoes until grass furbished a 
goo*I bite; us soon ns grass began to fall, fed 
them sowed corn.—J. Clark, Aintuvcr. A. Y,, 
January, 1870. 
-- 
Dot** Dairying Pay.—A farmer in Bakersfield, 
Vt., during flic past dairy seasOU has made from 
fifteen cows, three thousand pounds of butter. 
He sold it for forty-five cents a pound, realizing 
one thousand throe hundred and fifty dollars. 
He also raised ton calves, now Avortli one hun¬ 
dred dollars, and one thousand pounds of pork, 
which ho sold for one hundred and thirty dol¬ 
lars— making ns the proper income of dairy, 
one thousand fli'G hundred and eighty dollars, 
besides supplying the family. 
Diphtheria In Horses.—P. E. YV„ Denmark, N. 
Y., writes, in answer to S. S. H., that he thinks 
the anirauls spoken of hud the symptoms of 
diphtheria, and he recommeuds the following 
treatment“To take Hie swelling out of the 
neck and glands bathe in kerosene oil twice a 
day till it nearly blisters, 'l ake strong sage tea, 
with u lump of alum iu it, aud swab the mouth 
out live or six times a day to remove the canker 
and soreness. Give the horses warm drinks 
and bran mashes, wet lip AVith smart weed tea; 
keep them from exposure to the cold. John 
Dewitt’s horse wants troutiug nearly the sauio 
Avay." 
MUSK AND COMMON DUCKS, 
Laying Qualities. Water 
necessary 
I am (to use the term,) a backer of all 
breeds of ducks, and am satisfied that the 
common domestic, as avcII as the rarer 
breeds, can be made more profitable than 
hens. In my yard 1 keep three breeds of 
ducks, namely:—Rouen, Muscovy* (properly 
Musk,) and the common breeds. The Musk 
jurI common ducks began laying on the 
14th day of February 1809. Three of these 
ducks, one Musk and two common ones, 
laid, in February, 7 eggs; in March, 22 
eggs; iu April, 55 eggs; in May, 29 eggs; 
in June, 57 eggs; in July, 25 eggs; in 
August, 38 eggs; and in September 20 eggs; 
making a sum total for eight months of 251 
eggs, or an average of 33 eggs and a fraction. 
Again, from the Musk duck 1 received 87 
eggs, and from the remaining two, together, 
104 eggs, making a total as before of 251 
eggs. 
The ducks that laid these eggs never go 
in the water at all. I live on a high hill one 
quarter of a mile or more from even a 
swamp or spring. I have proved thus that 
Curb on a Colt.— I Avould liko to ask what will 
cure a curb that has just appeared on a three- 
year‘s-old colt.— An Old Subscriber, James¬ 
town, X. Y. 
Veterinarians say cold water applications 
should be kept on the putts; cloths Avet with 
tlncturo of arnica—half a pint to a gallon of 
water—are useful. The following ointment is 
applied with successOne drachm dry iodine; 
one drachm iodldo of potassa; one ounce of 
lard. Mix avcII together aud apply ouce a day. 
Tht* Best Breeds of Polands. — A subscriber 
asks “Which is the best of the Poland variety 
Of fowls to breed?" Either color that suits the 
fancy. There is hardly any perceptible differ¬ 
ence. Some breeders prefer the Silver to any 
other color, white others think the Golden or 
Black White Top-knot preferable. Either of 
the varieties spoken of are good layers, aud lit¬ 
tle care is required to rear them. 
Churning for Breakfast.—Paris has a uew in¬ 
vention. It is a portable fresh butter churn, to 
be used at table each moul. IL is made of crys¬ 
tal, an<l mounted on silver feet. A silver rod 
revolves quickly in the cream and presents a 
pat. of butter every three minutes. 
Baulky Horses.—Various methods have been 
devised to cure baulky liorScs. The latest comes 
from Maine, as IoIIoavs: — “faff me inform 
humane men and hostlers, and all avIio hold the 
rein, that the way to cure baulky horses is to 
take them from the carriage and whirl them 
rapidly round till they are giddy. It requires 
two men to accomplish this, one at the horse's 
tail. Don't let him step out. Hold him to the 
smallest possible circle. One dose will often 
cure him; two doses are final with the Avorst 
horse that ever refused to stir." 
Eggs for Setting,—In send ing eggs for hatching 
purposes, great care should betaken in packing. 
Never use sawdust, especially pine,as the fumes 
from it will surely spoil them. Always paekthc 
eggs with the little end down. tTge bran for 
packing, and be sure to have the box Avell filled 
before uniting on the cover. 
Power for Churning.—Aluzi Jones asks J. W. 
McDowell to tell how that cheap power for 
churning he mentions iu the Rural December 
II, 1889, is constructed. 
Sheep Power for Churning.—Will J. W. Mc- 
Doavell please tell us through the Rural, Iioav 
he constructs his sheep power for churning?— E, 
E. P., Bloomington, TYi's, 
Don’t Crowd too many foAvls together. It is a 
great error, and is sure to breed vermin and 
disease. 
