THE RUBAI. IP8EW-YOBKIR, 
747 
are governed by certain rules and a knowledge 
of the business. 
There is one glorious thing about farming, 
inasmuch as every broken-down mechanic 
and every man who hasn’t brains enough to 
get on at the Professions or energy enough to 
succeed in business can fall back on the home¬ 
stead and expect to make a capital, first-class 
farmer. This is a big advantage. It will be 
well to study that point. 
Then let me touch upon the subject of early 
rising. There are some men who do not seem 
to have a true understanding of this thing. It 
is better to lie abed in the cool of the morning 
and then work late into the night. This 
course, I think, will prove to be better 
adapted to the requirements of a lazy man’s 
system. It is something like currying a horse. 
Many men prefer to use the currycomb and 
brush very sparingly because they are thought 
to be very wearing on a horse. 
In the matter of planning and laying out 
your work, never have auy arrangements at 
night for the work to be done on the morrow. 
Always wait until after breakfast before you 
let the hired help know what they are to do 
during the day. This plan possesses a double 
advantage—it avoids the necessity of think, 
ing very much; and one of the things you 
want to do on the farm is to use your brains 
as little as possible. Beecher says it is worry 
not work, that kills men. Then it leaves a 
pleasant surprise for the hired men. A kind 
Providence has wisely ordained that the veil 
should not be lifted from the future. If we 
knew beforehand what is going to happen all 
the time it would take away much of the 
spice and variety of life. 
On the same principle, never have any 
definite understanding with a man when you 
employ him in regard to just what he is to do 
or how early he is expected to get up in the 
morning. Of course, you want to let him get 
up as early as he will, and set him to work as 
soon as he gets up. This will encourage him 
to get up earlier next morning. You can lie 
abed yourself until the breakfast bell rings, 
as this will impress your men with the idea 
that you feel a deep interest in the business 
and that the “cares of office” are wearing on 
your mind, and you consequently require a 
great deal of rest. 
If you have an extra-good man never vol¬ 
untarily Taise his wages because this might 
encourage him to do still better. If you can¬ 
not keep him at the ordinary price let him 
go, and get a poorer man for the same money. 
What you want to do is to economize; so save 
money by gettiug a cheap man. No matter 
if he takes no interest in your business, and 
slams around, and bangs the cow over the 
head with the paiL He’s cheap, you know; 
and there’s a good deal of consolation in that. 
farm (Topics. 
THE PRACTICAL FARMER’S CLUB 
OXFORD OHIO. 
(Rural Special Report.) 
Our October meeting was held on Thursday 
the 12th at Mr. John Bevia’s. Topic: “What 
per cent can our farms be made to pay I” 
The first sub-topic, *• In estimating the in¬ 
come of the farm what items should be 
credited,” was opened by Mr. Brown. He 
said every farmer should keep accounts so as 
to be able to tell how he stood aud how his 
crops were paying him. His accounts should 
be kept with each field and the fields should be 
numbered and a separate value put on each 
so that they all would foot up just the value 
of the farm. On most farms there would 
be some fields worth twice as much per acre 
as others. Then credit each field with the 
entire produce at the market price—so many 
bushels of grain or so much stock pastured. 
The farm should also have a credit for house 
rent; the wood lot, for fuel, and the dairy 
and poultj-y yard for what they supplied to 
the table. He believed the reason why we so 
often met the statement that farms paid but 
a low per cent, was because the farm was not 
credited with what it should be credited with. 
Mr. Fry: “I think the pasture should be 
credited with what it makes. This year our 
pastures will carry twice as much stock as 
last and give a better gain besides, and our 
account should show this, and we must keep 
it with the stock and not so much an acre for 
thegrasB land. The question is, “What per cent 
can the farm be made to pay J” and if I can 
buy aud sell stock an 1 make more out of my 
pasture than what it would rent for, it is right 
to credit it. I have two farms that I am 
running with hired help; they furnish me all 
the family supplies and pay from six to ten 
per cent, net, and my lands are increasing in 
productiveness and this has been done largely 
by clovering.” 
Mr. Nichol: “I agree that the profits on 
cattle bought and sold should not be credited 
to the farm except so far as they are increased 
in value by being pastured or fed from the 
products of the farm.” 
Mr. Murphy: “The farm should be credited 
with the growth of stock.” 
Mr. Schultz : “ The value of pasture land 
is above what it would rent for, for we know 
that we are increasing its fertility. What 
shall we credit the farm for that ?” 
Mr. Brown: “ That will take care of itself. 
You will get the credit the next year when 
you grow the increased crop of grain on it. 
As Mr. Fry is pasturing cattle largely, I wish 
to ask how mu h stock an acre will pasture.’’ 
Mr. Fry: “ In good seasons I cau pasture one 
to each acre, but I change from one field to 
another, which is quite an advantage. I can 
rent a field for grain after it has been pas¬ 
tured with clover a year, for from $2 to $4 
per acre more than if it had been in grain 
the'previous year.” 
The second sub-topic, “What items should 
be charged to the farm ?” was opened by B. 
S. Miller who said: 
“ I would charge, first, interest on the in¬ 
vestment at six per cent, as that is now a fair 
interest for money; second, taxes; third, 
Fro. 410. 
ten per cent, on the value of teams, tools, 
harness and machinery for wear and tear or 
deterioration, six per cent having already 
been allowed on the investment; fourth, 
labor aud seed, and I would allow more 
than day wages to the farmer himself; fifth, 
household expenses should be charged. 
Mr. Murphy: “I hardly think ten per cent 
enough for wear and tear, and I do not think 
household expenses should be charged to the 
farm.” 
Mr. Nichol; “The family depends on the 
farm for support and the farm should be 
credited with all it furnishes for its support, 
and charged only with the labor. 
Fourth sub-topic, “ Should there be a credit 
for increased productiveness or the reverse?’ 
Mr. Schultz: “ There should undoubtedly be, 
but we have already discussed this pretty 
well and it has lieen shown that It is not nec¬ 
essary to keep a separate account for this, 
for the income of the farm will show it. If 
I improve my farm by draining I charge the 
farm with the expenses, but I do not credit it 
at so much an acre for increased value, but 
the farm does get this credit in the increased 
crops which the land produces.” 
This ended the discussion, aud I think all 
our members were agreed that if the farm 
was credited with all that it should be, it 
would ordinarily pay better than most legiti¬ 
mate investments. w. f. b. 
MARKETING BUTTER. 
HENRY STEWART. 
The manner of marketing butter depends 
considerably up jn the character of the article 
and the kind of purchasers to whom it is sent. 
The common grades of butter are chiefly 
shipped abroad or sold to the home grocery 
trade, and for these destinations the common 
oak firkin, holding 100 pounds, and the half 
tub, holding 30 pounds, are in common use. 
The better grades are sent to market in the 
50-pound “ Orange County” pail, which, how¬ 
ever, is not popular because it is expected to 
be returned, and there are trouble and vexa¬ 
tion in looking after the pails and getting them 
back again and the average commission agent 
does not like any trouble that he can avoid. 
Fancy butter, the so-called “gilt-edged,” 
which is of the best quality, rarely gets into 
the general market for it is sold to private 
customers whose wishes, in regard to the man¬ 
ner of packing are followed by the dairyman, 
urged thereto with more than usual force by 
virtue of the extra price paid him. And it 
must be confessed that this extra price is not 
all profit. For instance, let us consider what 
a gilt-edged dairyman did for his customers 
who paid him last Winter from 50 to 65 cents 
a pound for the butter. The cows, in the first 
place, are all pure-bred and worth from $150 
to $300 each, although this is well repaid by 
an average yield of 10 pounds of butter in the 
week from each. In the second place, to 
secure the desired quality of the product the 
cows are fed and watered on the best of hay 
and feed and upon pure water from a spring. 
They are curried and brushed as well as “a 
high mettled racer” is, and are bedded in clean 
sawdust frequently renewed. The udders 
are washed and wiped with a clean towel, and 
so are the milkers’ hands. The stable is kept 
clean and well swept, so that no dust can get 
into the milk; and the milk, as is comes from 
the barn to the dairy, although quite free from 
specks of dust and hairs, is strained twice be¬ 
fore it is set away. 11 is set in a milk-house or 
milk-room, where the temperature is kept 
even by a stove in the Winter and ice in the 
Summer, and no expense or labor is spared to 
keep all these arrangements precisely the same 
through all the changes of the weather. The 
cream is kept and churned and the butter is 
managed with every care by the hands of the 
proprietor himself; or, if by hired help, the 
skilled labor required is highly paid for. The 
butter is packed in small boxes or pails that 
cost from three to five cents a pound of but¬ 
ter, or it is molded in a press into cakes which 
are wrapped in parafine paper and then 
packed in a mat box at a cost of at least five 
cents a pound. Aud, lastly, it is sent to the 
customers at a cost of five cents a pound more 
for express charges. In 3bort, there iB but 
little reason for envying the gilt-edged butter- 
maker the high prices he gets for his product, 
because he either pays a considerable propor¬ 
tion of the price for expenses, or he works 
harder for it than any hired man does for his 
wages earned without care or anxiety. 
But yet there are many persons who are 
ambitious to be known as gilt-edged dairy¬ 
men, aud who are desirous of knowing how to 
market their butter in that way. 
In the first place, it is not the market that 
makes the price or value of the butter, but the 
butter which makes the market and the price. 
And it is not every dairyman who knows what 
choice butter is. To learn this, then, is the 
first part of the business of marketing butter. 
First quality butter has a perfectly sweet 
odor, a fragi’ance that Is somewhat aromatic; 
it has a delicately sweet taste with a peculiar 
spicy flavor, called by some “nutty”; but it is 
more like a suspicion of vanilla flavor than 
any similitude to the taste of any nut; the 
peculiar odor and fragrance of new hay, and 
especially of Sweet Vernal Grass, are more like 
the aroma both as to scent and flavor of the 
best butter. Moreover, the butter must be 
able to retain this odor and flavor and keep 
entirely free from any suspicion of sourne&s 
or rancidity until it is used. Such butter as 
this is easily marketed when put up in neat, 
clean and convenient packages, or in one- 
pound cakes shaped so that when cat into 
halvesat a mark stamped upon them,each half 
is a square piece that is convenient and shapely 
for use ou the table. These cakes are pressed 
in molds by means of a small lever press; the 
mold is carved with ornamental designs and 
usually has the name of the dairy cut into it. 
The carving is hollow on the mold, so that the 
design is raised on the cake of butter. These 
cakes are wrapped in paraffine paper or in 
muslin napkins dipped in brine, and are then 
packed in boxes for shipment. Butter so 
packed is always sent direct to the purchasers, 
who are fancy grocery storekeepers, who re- 
taint out to private families, t There is consid¬ 
erable mistake and some falsehood about the 
frequent reports of extraordinary prices for 
the butter of some much-talked-of dairies. 
When such butter is sold at a dollar or more 
per pound, there is usually a large discount— 
30 or 40 per cent—deducted. Such an arrange¬ 
ment as this is, of course, deceptive and mis¬ 
leads those who read such statements. If 
choice butter brings 25 cents a pound above 
the ordinary highest market price, the maker 
is doing very well. 
A frequent method of marketing butter is 
In five-pound pails, made of thin spruce veneer 
and provided with a cover and a tinned iron 
wire bail. These pails cost about a dollar a 
dozen, and are neat and convenient. They 
are packed, when filled, in a small crate hold¬ 
ing one dozen pails, or 60 pounds of butter. 
This method is in vogue among those dairy¬ 
men who supply the fancy grocery stores; 
but a large business is done in supplying pri¬ 
vate families direct from dairies near the large 
cities. As an instance of the demand for but¬ 
ter put up in this way, and, of course, of the 
best quality, it may be stated that one adver¬ 
tisement put last Winter in a popular evening 
paper, brought thirteen applications to one 
dairy for these five pound pails. There is a large 
demand, also, for what are known as Welsh 
pails, which are a very popular package. 
These are made of white spruce about % inch 
thick, with two hoops and a lid. These pails 
hold 20 pounds and cost about 13 cents each. 
They are not intended to be returned. The 
package, as is said, “sells itself”; because 
good butter packed in it brings enough more 
on the market, on account of the package, to 
pay for it. In packing butter in these pails it 
is better to fill them quite full, then cover with 
double paraffine paper, put on the lid and nail 
it down securely. The package is then closed 
air tight and the butter will keep a long time 
in fine order. 
To find a desirable market is not always 
easy. Location is of great importance in this 
respect, and the near-by dairyman can very 
well afford to farm land worth $200 an acre 
on account of enjoy ing the best markets in the 
country aud looking after them himself. It 
is a great advantage to have one’s butter in 
the hands of the customer within three hours 
of the time it is shipped. Distant dairymen 
must necessarily depend upon commission 
agents who will not take unusual packages 
excepting upon special orders for them, and 
knowing the quality of the butter. It is best, 
then, at first to pack choice butter in the Welsh 
pails, 20 pounds each, and, as it soon attracts 
notice, in course of time the purchasers will 
want to secure the butter regularly and offer 
more for it. To prevent disappointment 
through the commission agents—some of whom 
will sell the butter at extra price and return 
sales at the regular rates—it is well to stamp 
the name and address of the dairy on the 
inside of the pail with a branding iron, in two 
places, so that the purchaser may know who 
is the maker of the butter. The maker of fine 
butter will then soon be found out, but if the 
stamp is put on outside, the agent will always 
scrape it off, Lastly it is absolutely necessary 
to get the benefit of one’s skill in making 
choice butter, to select an honest commission 
agent. Such men are to be found, but they 
are like hen’s teeth, exceedingly scarce. 
HUNTING BEE-TREES. 
PROFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
I AM requested to give directions for finding 
the haunts of bees in the forests. I gladly do 
this, though unless one wishes to hunt bees for 
the pleasure, only, it is usually a non-paying 
business. The time spent in finding Che bees, 
the usual condition of the colony with crooked 
combs, and little honey, and the trouble to 
secure the bees, honey, and combs in such a 
state that^they will be of value, together with 
the fact that the owner of the tree doe6 not 
like to have his trees disturbed, even though 
he may give consent, make this business as a 
business anything but desirable. 
To understand bee-hunting, we have only to 
remember that bees like sweets, and are sure 
to find and sip them; and that the bee as soon 
as full will circle about, as if to mark the 
locality, aud then dart off straight toward the 
tree or hive where it is to store the nectar. 
In late Fall after bees have ceased to gather 
honey, we may soon attract them by burning 
a piece of old houey comb* At other times 
they may be taken from the flowers. To 
“line” bees one should have a small box with¬ 
out bottom, and with a movable glass top. 
This box should be six inches each wav, and 
on one side there should be a shelf within, 
three or tour inches wide on which a piece of 
comb may be laid. With this box and a 
bottle of water sweetened with honey, or 
sugar, one is prepared for operations. When 
a bee is discovered in the woods on a flower, 
the box is placed over it, and as soon as the 
bee commences to sip the sweet liquid which 
