782 
NOV. 27 
aim of America, first in peace, first in war, 
and first in all the arts and industries. 
A Western breeder states that hiB steers sired 
by a pure-bred Short-horn bull are now selling 
at $50 per head, while those sired by a grade 
bull are bringing $30 to $40. The difference is 
about the usual rale, and is sufficiently large 
to give a handsome profit every year on an in¬ 
vestment of $200 in a good pure-bred bull. 
This note is well worth noting by every farmer 
whom it may concern. 
It is difficult to discover any person who has 
made a single dollar out of Angora goats ex¬ 
cept the breeders. There are the breeders and 
their victims; the former make the money and 
the latter lose it. There are many persons to 
be found who have paid $50 for a pair of 
goats, or even more, and who have been glad 
to bestow them upon a friend after a year or 
two of experience with them, and the friend 
might well have said, “ an enemy hath done 
this, * 1 * as soon as he had discovered the hollow¬ 
ness of the goat delusion. Still one may read 
now and then of a new victim paying his $50 
for experience in this line of business, in which 
the profit fcs all on one side. 
What is the cost of so insignificant an insect 
as the cattle gad-fly : (Estrus bovis ? $250,000 
yearly is said to be the loss occasioned by the 
damage to the hides every year that are sold 
in the Chicago market alone, by reason of the 
perforations made by the grubs in the skin. 
A difference of two cents a pound is made on 
one-fourth of the 50,000,000 pounds of hides 
sold yearly in Chicago, on this account. The 
total Iosb in America may then easily be one 
million dollars annually, and yet this pest 
might be exterminated if owners of cattle 
would set about it. • 
Jpushukj), 
STARTING IN SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
I am glad to see a little more interest mani¬ 
fested through the Rural in that profitable 
animal, the sheep. I think that all farmers— 
dairymen not excepted—should keep at least a 
few sheep. But in starting one must not enter 
the business blindfolded ; for he has a number 
of things to take into consideration. Among 
these is his proximity to market. If near a 
good market, perhaps mutton sheep would be 
the best for him to select If not near a mar¬ 
ket, which is my own condition, he must make 
both wool and mutton his object. He must 
also consider the lay of his land, in order to 
determine what size sheep is best for him. If 
very rough and barren, choose the small and 
active kind, as they are the best foragers. If 
the land is only moderately rolling and of 
medium productiveness, the novice in Bheep- 
keeping must select animals of medium size ; 
but if his land is level and rich, producing ex¬ 
cellent pasture, he must take the large kinds of 
sheep—the larger the better. It will follow as 
a matter of fact that the small sheep will, or at 
least should, produce a fine, short, close fleeoe; 
the medium size, a fleece of medium leugth and 
quality, and (he large ones, a long, coarse fleece 
as a rule. Now the majority of farmers are so 
placed with regard to the character of their 
land and disiaucefrom market that they should 
keep medium-sized sheep and grow a medium 
quality of wool; and as a greater part of our 
clothing is made from this sort of wool, we are 
sure of a market. 
But I do not mean to say that start¬ 
ing right is all that is necessary to make 
sheep husbandry profitable — far from it. 
The man who keeps sheep must always strive 
to increase the profit derived from his flock ; 
and in 60 doSng he will improve its quality. 
He must stri ve to improve the hardiness and 
constitution, compactness and quality of fleece 
of his flock as well as their mutton qualities. 
He must he very careful in selecting his breed¬ 
ing ewes, and still more careful in choosing 
his rams; for in breeding from a poor ewe her. 
offspring alone suffers from her inferior qual¬ 
ity, whereas the qualities of a ram, be they 
good or bad, affect all his progeny ; hence a 
person should use his best judgment in select¬ 
ing his rams tor breeding. Do not breed from 
a ram that only cost five dollars, thinking that 
he is cheap>; for he is not, no person can raise 
a good breeding ram for five dollars. Better 
Lv far pay $35 for a good one, for there is such 
a thing as being “ penny wme and pouud fool¬ 
ish," and this saying is applicable to the far¬ 
mer who is not careful enough in selecting 
good males for breeding. I can breed up a 
flock of sheep that will suit me better and 
give more profit than a flock Of any estab¬ 
lished breed oi sheep inexistence. I think if a 
man tries, he can breed a flock of sheep that 
will snit his particular location better than 
this can be doue for him by any person in the 
Old Country or anywhere else. We want some 
flocks of thoroughbred sheep, of course, to get 
our breeding rams from, but we do not all 
want them, or at least that is my experience. 
Cortland County, N. Y. 8. B. m. 
lairg Unstjanttrp. 
THE DAIRY COW-NO 17. 
HENRT STEWART. 
Furniture for Dairies. 
The proper fnrnishiDg of a dairy has much 
to do with the convenience, economy and 
quality of the work done in it. Time and 
labor are saved, and cleanliness is seenred by 
an effective yet simple arrangement of the 
shelves for holding the pans. In family 
dairies the milk is kept, sometimes necessarily, 
in a room or a cellar. Where one or two 
: E 
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ip I 
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pi . 376. 
fig. 377. 
cows only are kept this cannot be avoided. 
In such cases a convenient arrangement is a 
milk closet protected by fine wire gauze 
(shown at fig. 376), or inclosed with glass. 
The latter method will permit the use of ice, 
by making an ice chest of the upper part and 
putting the top on hinges for a cover. The inter¬ 
ior arrangementof the closet is shown at fig. 378 
The shelves are fixed to a movable, upright 
shaft, so that they may be turned around to bring 
any pan that may be required to the front. 
An arrangement of shelves for a larger dairy, 
to be put up in a cellar, is shown at fig. 379 
PIG. 378. 
This consists of a strong post set on a pivot 
at the bottom, upon which it turns, and having 
the top fitted in an opening in the ceiling in 
which it may be moved around when desired. 
The advantage of this arrangement is, that a 
table or bench upon which the milk may be 
strained into the pans may be placed near the 
shelves and the shelves moved around so as to 
avoid the labor of carrying the pans of milk 
pig. 379. 
from place to place. So in skimming, the pans 
of milk are brought around to the table or 
bench and hundreds of steps are saved to the 
dairy-woman or man who does the work. 
Many modifications of these arrangements 
may be made so as to suit varied circum¬ 
stances, the principle of their construction 
remaining the same. 
A very useful refrigerating closet which may 
be kept anywhere in a kitchen, cellar, dairy- 
house @r even in a barn is shown at fig. 380. 
This is made on the principle of an ordinary 
refrigerator, having thick, non-conducting 
walls and a door lined with zinc. The lower 
space is intended for the milk pails and above 
these is an ice chamber, with a Bhelf made of 
slats or bars. The pails are covered and the 
dripping water from the melting ice fall6 upon 
the pails and helps to cool the milk within 
them. The water iB conducted away by means 
of a pipe, but it may be permitted to remain 
in the bottom to exercise its full cooling effect 
upon the milk, before it is drawn off. This 
closet was designed by Mr. L. 8. Hardin whose 
name is familiar as a frequent contributor to 
the Rural Nkw-Yobkee, and it possesses 
many conveniences and advantages for both 
small and large dairies. 
Milk Pans. 
The tin pans in common use for setting milk 
have one objectionable feature; this is, the 
seam around the bottom in which sour milk 
loill be concealed, unless great circumspection 
is used. The pressed pan, of which fig. 38L 
gives a section, has no such hiding place for 
the sour milk, which acts upon the fresh milk 
in the same manner as rennet,and will often cur¬ 
dle it in a few hours and before the cream has 
been able to rise to the surface. The pressed 
pans are therefore much easier to clean and 
much safer in use. It is also an improvement 
on the pans to have supports on the bottom at 
pig, 380. 
least half an inch thick to raise the bottom of 
the pan from the shelf. This permits the air 
to circulate under the pan and cools the milk 
more quickly than if it rested closely upon a 
solid shelf. The slatted shelves are intended 
to assist in this more rapid cooling. The deep 
pails which are preferred by so many dairy¬ 
men, are about 20 inches deep aud from eight 
to nine inches in diameter. A rim encircles 
the bottom, which raises it about an inch and 
which is perforated with several holes to 
admit air to circulate under the bottom. The 
shape of these pans is shown above, with the 
Hardin refrigerating closet, in which they are 
fig. 381. 
used. These pails may be used either in drj, 
ice or cold water setting, but cannot be used 
except with ice or cold water, the effect of 
which secures the low temperature by which 
only the cream can be raised rapidly enough 
through so great a depth of milk to prevent 
loss by premature aouriDg. 
IVauhliig Pan*. 
The furniture of a dairy is not complete 
without arrangements for washing, drying 
and airing the pans. A sink in the dairy room 
or the kitchen, with a small pump attached to 
it and connected with a well or cistern, will be 
necessary to save trouble and secure effect¬ 
iveness. In dairying, as in business, it is the 
economy of labor npon which the profitable 
results depend next after feeding and manag¬ 
ing the cows; and in many cases a well man¬ 
aged herd of cows has been rendered Icbb prof¬ 
itable than it might have been, by poor ar¬ 
rangements in the dairy. In family dairies 
every housekeeper will as easily recognize the 
utility of the best method of cleansing the 
apparatus and arranging the furniture in a 
systematic way, as a busluess dairyman whose 
living depends upon his success. Neverthe¬ 
less, I have been in dairies and creameries 
w here the system in operation wus totally de¬ 
void of the commonest means of insuring the 
necessary cleanliness; and in seeing this the 
natural consequence—a poor quality of pro¬ 
duct which unfortunately is the rule rather 
than the exception—is by no means surprising. 
Above the sink there may be a rack in which 
shallow pans may be kept upon their sides; or 
lath shelves upon which deep palls may be 
placed bottom upwards. Au out-door rack 
placed in a sunny exposure will be found very 
convenient. For Bhallow pans this may be 
provided on the porch of the milk house, or of 
the kitchen ; for deep pans a post set in the 
ground near the dairy, and furnished with a 
number of pins, as shown at fig. 377 will serve 
as a rack for airing them. 
A NEW CREAMING TANK. 
T. n. HO8KIN8, M.D. 
The Douglas family of Vermont, though it 
has furnished one eminent nublic man to the , 
country, is essentially a family of farmers, 
and they are men who do credit to the 
profession of agriculture. Francis D. Doug¬ 
las of Whiting, while a member of our 
State Board of Agriculture, did much to popu¬ 
larize the deep setting of milk for cream. His 
open creaming tanks, which he constructed 
and began to use some ten years ago, and still 
uses without further modification, were fully 
described by him before large audiences in all 
our chief dairy towns, as well as in New York, 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, where he was 
invited to address agricultural meetings. These 
addresses of Mr. Douglas and his high reputa¬ 
tion as an extensive and very successful butter 
dairyman did much to familiarize the miuds 
of our farmers with the practice of deep set¬ 
ting, and prepared them to accept easily the 
connected principle of cold setting which has 
revolutionized dairy practice throughout the 
country. Mr. Douglas is so well pleased with 
the results of deep setting in tanks where the 
water is not reduced in temperature below 50 
degrees, that he has Been no reason for using a 
lower temperature. His milk sours before 
skimming, aud is fed to calves and swine. His 
butter, mostly from Jersey grades, is of the 
first quality, and is all sold at a fancy price to 
private customers. He milks between 40 and 
50 cows. 
E. B. Douglas, of Shoreham, a brother of 
the gentleman above referred to, has consid¬ 
erably modified the tanks devised by the latter, 
and has adapted them to cold setting. Mr. D., 
in a recent tour of agricultural observation 
through the State, stopped a couple of days 
with the writer, who was so interested in an 
account of his improvements, that he exacted 
from him the promise of a description of them 
for publication in the Rural. This has been 
received, and is as follows :— 
" We have a tank two feet deep, six feet 
long and 27 inches wide, made of two thick¬ 
nesses of boards, with a thin air-space be¬ 
tween. This tank is lined wiili galvanized 
iron. Two coverB are used to save ice in hot 
weather. This is sufficient for 35 cows. The 
milk 16 strained into pails 20 inches deep and 
eight inches in diameter, with a narrow hoop 
on the bottom pierced for the circulation of 
water beneath the pail. The pails have no 
covers. They are set, when filled, In the wa¬ 
ter, which is tempered with ice, and if the 
temperature is kept below 45 degrees, we are 
sure to get all the cream in 12 hours. It makes 
no difference how cold the water is kept if the 
milk does not freeze. There is more bulk of 
cream than in warmer Betting. It is soured 
before churning, when it is brought to 60 de¬ 
grees in Summer aud 64 degrees in Wiuter. A 
barrel churn is used, and the salting is regula¬ 
ted according to the taste of the customer. No 
fire is kept iu the milk room in Winter, as 
the heat in the milk keeps the water from 
freezing. The box being furnished, it can be 
lined for $10 or $15 by any tin-worker. The 
pails cost from 60 cents to one dollar each. If 
you have spring water below 50 degrees, you 
may use this tank Winters without ice, and 
let the milk 6tuud 24 or 36 hours without harm 
before dipping the cream. The method of 
souring the cream is by warming a sufficient 
quantity in Winter and mixing it with the whole 
mass to have it sour the morning before it is 
to be churned. We have perfect control of 
the seasons and made 60 pounds of nice 
butter one day in Midsummer. The cream is 
perfect for sale or table use.” 
The above is Mr. Douglas’s description of his 
apparatus, upon which there is no patent, aud 
which he says he would not exchange for any 
of the more costly apparatus for sale, Any 
further particulars would no doubt be cheer¬ 
fully given by Mr. Douglass ou application by 
letter. I hope I may be pardoned for adding 
(whatmyowu experience suggests) that 6uch 
letters of inquiry should contain a stamped and 
addressed return envelop. Signatures are often 
deficient in legibility. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of July 31 
I notice that Col. Curtis says : "If writers 
would quote and readers would understand 
the statements made in regard to Jersey tuilk 
which we made several years since, which Dr. 
Hoskins in a recent article misquotes, there 
would be no grounds for so much display of 
rhetoric." As i never happened to see that 
article written “several years since,” 1 don’t 
Bee how I could misquote it. Referring to my 
file of the Rural (every reader ought to keep 
one), I find that in the article of mine to 
which he adverts (Rural, May 1, p. 280.) I 
quoted two lines and a half from Col. Curtis’s 
note in the Rural. April 8, p. 346, aud that 1 
had it verbatim, literatim etpunctuatim, exactly 
as there printed. This is, I feel sure, the only 
extract I ever made from the Colonel's wrilinge. 
If, however, I have anywhere else misquoted 
him, and he wiil tell me how, I will apologize 
handsomely. I regard purposed misquotation 
as an inexcusable offense, but I do not imagine 
