707 
NOV. 26 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
room for another plume. Look at the two. 
The one looks like a tramp carrying as few 
clothes as can be hung about the limbs so 
that one may say they are not exactly bare, 
and the other is dressed out with all the ex¬ 
cess of one of the votaries of fashion. 
Then there are the gold-spotted Padua 
fowls of brilliant and graceful plumage and 
these too seem to be in a state of eruption 
about the head, and thus offer a striking con¬ 
trast to the Transylvanian tramps. 
The Transylvanian fowls are an example of 
modest merit. " Neat but not gaudy ” in 
style and with nothing in outward show 
to strike the fancy, yet they have the excel¬ 
lent points of easy and rapid fattening and 
prolific production of eggs. With this, as I 
have before said, they offer a bared neck to 
the executioner and so much work is saved to 
the dresser. Like the bare-backed young 
Brahmas, this bare-necked Transylvanian 
thrives well in the coldest weather, is a moder¬ 
ate eater and the hens are the best of mothers. 
What more can be desired of a fowl except it 
be feathers? And these we have in the Sultan. 
This bird is wholly white with a delicate, 
creamy shade. A few of these birds were 
shown at the Centennial where the owner as¬ 
sured me, with a most solemn countenance, 
that he had his birds direct from the Sultan’s 
harem, and that they were the only birds of 
the kind in America. This bird, like some 
other handsome creatures, is good for very 
little except good looks, is very tender, a very 
careless mother, and 1 must say that the speci¬ 
mens I saw at Philadelphia did not come up 
by any means to the style of the illustration 
given in the work from which it is borrowed. 
The Padua fowls have value as well as 
beauty. They bear confinement very well, 
andean be kept cooped up without trouble. 
They are a popular fancy fowl and are kept 
as ornamental pets; they lay moderately well 
and make fair table fowls. I do not know 
that there are any of these fowls in the 
country, and if there are not some of the 
fancy poultry farmers will thank me for call¬ 
ing attention to them. x. u. p. 
Pninj ijnsbaitDrn. 
PLAN FOB ICE-HOUSE AND CREAM¬ 
ERY. 
In considering the cooling effect of ice it 
must be remembered that the low tempera¬ 
ture is only gained by the expenditure of the 
ice and that, it is a question if it is better to 
make use of an ice-house constructed in the 
most economical manner, or to so use the ice 
as to procure a continuous low temperature 
with the certain largo waste of ice that would 
be inevitable. As a general principle waste 
8 a loss although the thing wasted is cheap. 
Ice may be procured, perhaps, by the expen¬ 
diture of some labor only, but no reasonable 
person desires to expend bis labor for that 
which profits not. But the ice-house costs 
money and to store ice which is to he w asted 
for no good purpose is by no means advisable. 
There may be some cases, however, in which 
the ease of operating a cooling apparatus may 
be more convenient, although it may consume 
more ice, than to handle blocks of ice in car¬ 
rying them from the ice house to the cream 
ery for use. Where ice is abundant tins view 
of the question may be reasonably considered. 
A point that bears strongly upon it is that 
the ice may be stored in the Winter w hen the 
labor may cost comparatively nothing, be¬ 
cause there is plenty of time and opportunity 
for the work, and iu Summer time is more 
valuable and business presses closely upon op¬ 
portunities, so that the handling of the ice in 
the Summer would, in l'uct, be more irksome 
and costly than the waste involved. For to 
open the ice-house, take out the blocks re¬ 
quired, carry them to the creamery, wash 
from them the sawdust or other packing and 
dispose of them as may be required, is, we 
know from experience, work w hich occupies 
considerable time, w hen time is scarcely to 
lie spared from other pressing duties. The 
good manager will aim to distribute his work 
so that it may be done in the easiest manner 
consistent with the best results, and as time is 
money, time gained when it is worth the most 
money, is equivalent to three or four times as 
much expended when it is very cheap. We 
will give a plan that will be suitable for each 
method, leaving those interested to choose be¬ 
tween them. 
A self-acting ice-house may lie constructed 
in the usual manner, but requires the addition 
of ventilating tubes through which cold air 
may bo brought into the cooling room; and i 
drainage pipes by which the water produced J 
by the necessary molting of the ice may be I 
drawn off from the bottom into a cold pool 
where it may be utilized to the best advan¬ 
tage. A horizontal section through an ice¬ 
house of this kind is given at Fig, 530. 
Here the ice-house adjoining the creamery is 
shown. Through the body of the ice are four 
zinc or galvanized iron pipes or tubes having 
a number of holes bored through the covering 
at the top to admit the air. The spiral gal¬ 
vanized water spouting for buildings serves 
excellently for this purpose. These pipes are 
brought along the bottom, as shown at Fig. 
531, which is an upright section, and open 
fig. 530. 
into the creamery on each side of the cold 
pool. The current of air which passes through 
these pipes, of course melts and uses up the 
ice and causes a quantity of cold water to be 
produced which must be drawn off, or the 
whole body of ice would rapidly waste. The 
floor of the ice-house is made to slope a little 
from each side to the center and the center 
fig. 531. 
slopes to the front just enough to cause the 
drainage to flow into a pipe provided to re¬ 
ceive it. This pipe is protected by a line wire- 
gauze covering to prevent the packing from 
being washed away. The pipe is carried 
down through the ground and made to dis¬ 
charge at the bottom of the pool. This is im¬ 
portant, for if it discharged into the top air 
would pass into the ice through it and waste 
it considerably. The outlet of the pipe being 
always covered with water prevents any 
access of air through it. At Fig. 532 is shown 
the front view of the wall of the creamery 
with the openings of the cold-air pipes and the 
tank between them. On one side may be 
made a refrigerating closet for keeping butter 
in, or one may be made 
on each side if desired. 
This may be made of 
sheet iron nailed on 
the inside and outside 
of the studding and 
also overhead, and 
painted outside with 
brown mineral paint 
an d white within. The 
roof of this closet 
should slope consider¬ 
ably to the rear (see 
Fig. 533), and a metal 
gutter should be pro¬ 
vided to catch the 
water of condensa¬ 
tion which will gather on the roof, and this 
should be carried off o itside through a pipe 
having an W trap in it to prevent air passing 
in. This arrangement provides in every way 
for economizing the ice and utilizing the 
water which wastes from it. It would be 
necessary to provide stoppers for the pipes, 
to regulate the flow of cold air and prevent a 
larger consumption of ice than is necessary; 
and also to use but one pipe at a time leaving 
the other for use when the ice which supplies 
one is exhausted. This would make it neces¬ 
sary to divide the ice-house so that one-half 
the ice could be kept intact for the latter part 
of the season when the other half has been 
used. This is better than having one large 
ice-house, and would be much more economi¬ 
cal of ice. The floor of the ice house is shown 
at Fig. 530. This is double. The outside is a 
tight-fitting door shutting upon wide jambs 
and fastened by keys or wedges in strong 
staples which come through the door (see Fig. 
534), so as to draw the door tightly up 
to the jumh. This makes the best 
fastening for a door of an ice-house. 
The inner door is sirnply pieces of 
board, placed across the door-way and 
held fast by the inside packing. The 
door of an ice-house should be made 
in sections, one over another, all the 
way from the sill to the plate; and one 
section maybe closed after another as the ice 
is put in, or opened as the ice is taken out. 
An ice-house for ordinary use is made in the 
manner above shown, but, of Course, without 
any of the pipes here described. The walls 
are double with a space of eight or ten inches 
between them and this is filled with sawdust, 
tan-bark, dry swamp muck, chaff, leaves from 
the woods or cut straw; these being preferable 
in the order in which they are named. If the 
inside is lined with close-fitting boards no in¬ 
side packing is required except at the bottom 
and the top. The upper part of an ice-house 
should have abundant ventilation so that the 
covering is kept dry at all times. Dry pack¬ 
ing is a perfect non-conductor; as soon as it 
becomes wet its effootivenes is reduced in pro¬ 
portion to the moisture it contains. 
iVUsccUancous. 
CATALOGUES, ETC. 
Texas and Her Capabilities. — This 
pamphlet of 00 pages is a paper read by 
Colonel W. W. I.ang before the Farmers’ 
Club of the American Institute. It con¬ 
tains a full and lucid account of the re¬ 
sources and capabilities of the youthful giant 
of the Southwest, together with a brief sum¬ 
mary of the advantages of the State as a 
field for immigration. With an area of 274,356 
miles or 175,587,840 acres, Texas offers a great 
diversity of soil and climate to those search¬ 
ing for suitable locations for any form of ag¬ 
ricultural industry. The enormous increase 
of immigration of late years, not only from 
Europe but from the North and even West, 
and, more than all, from some of the other 
Southern States, amply demonstrates the high 
opinion entertained of the State’s advantages. 
Between 1*70 and 1880, the population lias 
nearly doubled, having rim up from 818,570at 
the former date to 1,592,574 at the latter. In 
1850 the production of wheat was lass than 
50,000 bushels, mainly in the extreme northern 
counties, where alone it svas thought wheat 
culture could be successful. In 1878 the wheat 
crop amounted to 4,000,000 bushels, and its pro¬ 
duction was limited only by market facilities. 
In this little pamphlet is condensed a great 
deal of information ataiut the State, which 
must be of much use to intending immigrants, 
and of not a little interest to the general pub¬ 
lic. The work will be furnished ijmhs by the 
Southwestern Immigration Co., Austiu, Tex¬ 
as, or 240 Broadway, New York City ; and 
we certainly advise all our readers to send for 
a copy which will prove instructive winter 
reading. 
Some Points in the Law of interest and 
use to business men. This little pamphlet of 
80 pages contains answers to some simple ques¬ 
tions frequently put to lawyers by laymen. 
It is by Everett D. Barlow, Attorney and 
Counsellor, !20fi Broadway, N. Y., and is fur¬ 
nished, we believe, gratis. 
A treatise on the Insects Injurious to 
Fruit and Fruit Trees of the State of Cali¬ 
fornia, and Remedies recommended for their 
Extermination. By Matthew Cooke, Sacra¬ 
mento. 
Fall Flowing; —At the last meeting of 
the Elmira Farmers Club, the advantages 
or disadvantages of Fall plowing were dis 
cussed. J. F. Beecher said that he had 
tried in the same field, part plowed in Fall 
and the remainder in Spriug, to see which 
plan brought a better crop, and invariably 
the Fall plowed portion had exceeded in yield. 
In some cases he got twice as much grain 
from one acre of Fall plowed land as from an 
adjoining acre left to plow in Spring. Heavy- 
uplands, he thought, could not be worked 
early enough in Spring for oats or barley 
without Fall-plowing. In some years when 
left to plow in Spring the seed must be put in 
three or four weeks late, simply because the 
land does not get into condition to work soon 
enough. That is reason enough, by itself, for 
doing as much of the work in Fall as can be 
done. Secretary Armstrong remarked that, 
after all the advantages of Fall plowing 
visible in his practice, lie was aware that 
there are farmers who work land of similar 
composition who say that Fall plowing wastes 
fertility. Ho could uot say how, yet they say 
after trial that their lands run down under 
the treatment. C. H. Lewis stated that if 
Fall plowing makes lands poor his farm ought 
to be in a very low condition, for that had 
been his practice a great many years. But, 
instead of impoverishing his soil, it had con¬ 
stantly improved—its fertility increased. 
A letter received after adjournment gave 
the experience of a Michigan farmer. It was 
in the fore part of August that he began to 
turn over an old pasture lot for wheat. It is 
not necessary* to tell why this was done at so 
unseasonable a ti me. He had a strong team 
and went around the whole twelve acres, in¬ 
tending to re-seed it and have as few dead 
furrows as possible. The soil was the same as 
is found on all the burr-oak plains in Michi¬ 
gan—a dark sandy loam with gravelly sub¬ 
soil. He plowed one day, but the soil got so 
dry and hard that he was obliged to give up 
the job. He had then about two rods in 
width plowed all around the field. The next 
Spring he plowed the remainder and planted 
the whole to dent corn. When it came up 
the cut-worms began to take the young 
plants, and he began to take tbom between a 
pair of hickory pincers which he had made. 
He killed 5,000 and then stopped counting. 
But not one did ho find in the strip plowed in 
August. The com on this strip came quicker, 
grew faster, ripened earlier and the grain 
was brighter and heavier. He was pleased 
with his Fall plowing that year. 
- ♦ *■ «- 
Cane and Grape Sugar. —We find the fol¬ 
lowing in the Boston Journal of Chemistry; 
There is no body or substance which has a dis¬ 
tinct physical or chemical property which 
constitutes sweetness; or, in other words, 
sweetness as a thing does not exist. AU 
we know about it is that certain mole¬ 
cules of matter grouped in certain forms have 
the power of producing upon the moist sur 
faces of the mouth and tongue the agreeable 
sensation called sweet. . . . Analysis shows 
the structure of sweet bodies, but nothing 
more. So far as science is capable of explain 
ing things, it often fails at the most interest¬ 
ing stage of inquiry, and this is the case with 
sweets. It fails to show why a lump of sugar 
is sweet, and n drop of vinegar or acetic aoid 
is sour; the point where light ceases to fall on 
the pathway of the investigator is that where 
curiosity and interest most intensely center. 
Why bodies are sweet, sour, or bitter can 
never be known: the mystery telongs to that 
department of organic life not open to human 
research .... The statement that the degree 
of sweetness in bodies is due to apparently 
slight modifications of molecular constitution 
is illustrated in a comparison of the chemical 
structure of several allied substances. In a 
molecule of cane sugar we have this grouping: 
CiaHaOu; in one of glucose, CsHiaOe; and 
lactose, the sweet, principle in milk, has the 
same constitut ion. This affords a view of the 
molecular structure of the three principal 
sweets, as known and distinguished, the one 
from the other, by the distinctive degrees of 
sweetness each possesses. It will be observed 
that there is no difference whatever in the 
nature of the materials or atoms of which 
they are composed; each is made up of carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygeu, and nothing else. The dis¬ 
tinction is manifestly due to the grouping of the 
same elements in different proportions, or by 
different methods. "We have in cane sugar a 
larger molecule, so to speak, it having nearly 
double the number of atoms, as compared 
with grape sugar, and it holds a maximum of 
sweetness; but if we had the power of 
doubling the molecule of grape sugar, it 
would not give us cane sugar. . . . Cane 
sugar, the noblest and best, of all the sweets, 
is presented to us in the form of aggregated, 
well-defined crystals, permanent under all 
atmospheric changes, and elegant in luster 
and freedom from color when well refined. 
It is not only the sweetest of the sugars, but 
one of the indispensable gifts of a wise Intel¬ 
ligence to man. It is called cane sugar be¬ 
cause it is produced spontaneously and abund¬ 
antly in the cane grown in tropical climates, 
. . . While it is impossible, at the present 
stage of our knowledge, to make cane sugar 
artificially, it is quite easy to make grape 
sugar in vast quantities. We find it easy to 
make the sugar »\ e do not specially want, but 
not easy to make that we so much need; and 
this is not a little tantalizing. Grape sugar is 
what is known as glucose, and this delicate 
organic product, elaborated from the fine 
