846 
©EC. 44 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
and are merely particles of curd or cheesy 
matter which are formed in the milk and ad¬ 
here to the cream and are carried up, aud 
mingled with it, and so go with it into the 
churn. In this case they are only partially 
retnoved by the most careful washing, and the 
butter is unavoidably injured by them. 
The best remedy for all these, troubles with 
the milk is to administer a free dose of salts, 
one pound of sulphate of soda (Glauber salts) 
or of sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts), 
being given dissolved in warm water, by means 
of a common drenching horn ; and after this 
has operated, a daily dose of one ounce of 
hyposulphite of soda may be given with bene¬ 
fit, for two weeks, bo as to effectually free the 
system from all acidity. This salt is a most 
viluahle medicine in the. dairy on account of 
its autiseptic and alterative properties, and a 
pound or two of it may be beneficially kept 
for use. It is readily taken when powered 
and sprinkled over a mess of scalded bran or 
some cut feed, and it will be found useful in 
all these cases of trouble wkh milk. The im¬ 
proper behavior of milk in the churn is dug 
altogether to the after management of the 
mil k and requires special consideration. 
ventilators in the eaves. For drainage I put 
an even layer of corn stalks, about two feet 
deep, on the bottom, and on this the ice is laid. 
The ice, when even only six inches thick, is 
ent as nearly as possible in square blocks of 
12 by 38 inches, and placed close to the inner 
boards, and any crevices are filled with small 
pieces. On every other layer clean water is 
poured through a fine rose, and the filling is 
continued in this manner up to about 38 inches 
from the top of the inner wall, making in a 
few days afterwards a solid block of ice. The 
upper doors are kept open after sunset until 
about eight a m. every cold day, and it is only 
after the chances of freezing weather are over 
that all doors are shut and about a foot of rye 
straw is placed on the top of the ice. 
something may be done to meet this urgent 
case before the coming Spr'i g, If everv dis¬ 
eased animal were summarily slaughtered and 
its carcass disposed of 'id a safe manner and 
this method kept in force for a few months, 
there would be an end to the danger. In this 
respect, the first cost would be the least. The 
reflection of what would happen were this 
disease to become prevalent on our vast West¬ 
ern pastures, is sufficiently appalling to stock¬ 
men—aud farmers, too—to cause an intense 
interest in checking it while check is possible. 
Let every one interested not wait for commit¬ 
tees to *' resolute," or inspectors to inspect, but 
let every one write to his representative in¬ 
sisting on immediate action by Congress, which 
has already three bills before It for considera¬ 
tion. Every dairyman, farmer and breeder, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Can¬ 
ada to the Gulf, is deeply Interested in averting 
this constant danger. 
By and-by there will be an outcry for more 
wool; “ much cry and little wool.” in fact lit¬ 
erally, of the long, fine, pure Merino kind ; 
and then those who have kept this grade of 
sheep will find their reward. But the shep¬ 
herd who really knows his business and will 
look ahead should buy none but this kind of 
Merino f. r crossing on his low-grade natives. 
And these are precisely the kind that are kept 
pure in France In the Rambouillet flock, from 
which the above-mentioned importation wa6 
made,__ 
Persistence i6 a valuable quality. In breed¬ 
ing it is all-important, and there is no more 
conspicuous and successful instance of persist¬ 
ence in a line of breeding than in this same 
Rimbouillet flock of Merinos. Begun in 1786. 
with about 300 sbeep, it was bred to improve 
in size and weight upon the Spanish Merino. 
In 1846 an importation was made into Connec¬ 
ticut of ewes weighing 150 to 200 pounds and 
rams from £03 to 300. Such sheep have both 
wool and mutton, precisely what we want; 
they have size, wool free from excessive yoik 
and grease, and that scours with less loss than 
that of the Spanish or Silesian Merinos; and 
the skin is more folded than wrinkled. While 
these may not be eO desirable for crossing on 
the dry, harsh, and coarse-wooled native sheep, 
yet they are precisely the type towards wh'ch 
our Merinos were approaching when the de¬ 
mand from breeders on the Western plains be¬ 
gan to bring about a fresh boom for excess¬ 
ively yolky and flne-wooled sbeep. But hav¬ 
ing found the treasure by this accident, let ns 
not spend all our energies in looking for more 
of the same kind, when others are lying around 
loose in other directions. 
deal about ‘‘the development of udder, milk 
veins, and apparatus for the conversion of 
food into milk," etc., etc, which tends to throw 
some suspicion upon it. Because, as regards 
milk, the cow’s yield is only equal to 10 quarts 
a day (22 lbs.), quite a moderate one. and sur¬ 
passed by thousauda of cows, and for it no 
wonderful development of udder, veins, etc. 
is necessary. But as regards the amount of 
butter in the milk, the report is amazing. This 
is over 10 per cent, or one pound to 9 67 pounds 
of milk. As two pounds of solid cream make 
but one pound of butter, this is equivalent to 
21 per cent, of solid cream, or, one inch in 
thickness upon 4} inches of milk. Before one 
should pay $1,500 for a ealf from a cow with 
such a phenomenal record, it would be at least 
safe to know that the record is geuuine and 
free, not only from fraud, but also from too 
enthusiastic figuring. s - 
FIG. 417. 
Should natural drainage not be practicable, 
make a clay or cement floor with a good fall to 
one corner; connect a small drain pipe about 2J 
inches, with this corner: lead it about 15 
feet, with fair descent from the house, into 
a suitable bole filled with coble-stones, and cov¬ 
er the pit two feet with soil. If corn-stalks 
are tot on hand, straw, hay (salt), or any sim¬ 
ilar tubstauce will answer. It is al6o very 
useful, before putting in a new crop of lee, to 
remove all old substance used for drainage. 
Keep all doors aud slides open, aud put the 
new drainage material in shortly before filling. 
Passaic Co., N. J. Wm. F. Heins. 
THE DAIEY COW-NO. 18 
AGRICULTURAL SUGGESTIONS 
HENRY STEWART 
RICHARD GOODMAN 
Trouble with Milk. 
Frequent trouble may occur in milking, 
from very insignificant causes. A dairy cow 
is a machine, and just as a machine of any 
kind may work smoothly and beautifully in 
the hands of an expert, while it may go wrong 
in the most contrary manner when run by an 
unskillful person, so a cow in the hands of a 
capable dairyman goes on day after day stead¬ 
ily without the least trouble; but under the 
care, or rather want of care, of one who iB not 
expert in managing her, she will always be 
ailing; her milk will sometimes fall off sud¬ 
denly; sometimes it maybe mixed with blood; 
sometimes it will be ropy ; it may yield bitter 
cream, or epeeky butter, and in other ways it 
may trouble and annoy the owner. The prin¬ 
cipal troubles with milk are. loss of quantity, 
ropinese, mixture with blood, a bitier flavor, 
foaming in the churn, difficulty of churning 
and white specks in the butter. Most of these 
come from without the cow and are avoidable. 
Ground Bone —I look upon this as the best 
substitute for barnyard manure for a grass 
farm, taking price as an essential part of the 
consideration. Twenty years ago 1 brought up 
a worn-out farm with it, using theu the raw 
hone, costing about $50 a ton, ground up in 
pieces varying from a quarter of an inch to 
almost dust. The latter showed good effects 
the first, season, and the other dissolved grad¬ 
ually and left an impression annually for five 
or six seasons. I now use for seeding down a 
pasture or meadow the bone dust of Peter 
Cooper's glue factory—coarser or second qual¬ 
ity-sowing it in the Spring, at the rate of 500 
pounds to the acre, and harrowing it in with 
the seed, and top-dressing lightly every Fall a 
few years thereafter—say 200 pounds to the 
acre. I pui chased through Mr. L J- Hand, 130 
Water Street, New York. At the New Jersey 
Experimental Station, where seven specimens 
were subjected to scientific analysis, the line 
bone-dust manufactured at Cooper’s glue fac¬ 
tory was estimated at $42 25 per ton for agri¬ 
cultural purposes, the actual cost beiog $28. 
I find the next lower grade, called “ coarser,” 
just as good for all purposes, and it costs about 
$3 a ton less. 
Ensilage for Butter-Makers.— There is 
probably no question of the utility aud econo¬ 
my of this preparation of food for beef cattle, 
and perhaps for cows whose product is solely 
to be used as milk, but how far It will be bene¬ 
ficial to those who convert the latter material 
into butter is questionable. Accounts of the 
opening of several silos recently, Bhow that on 
the surface of the mass there was quite a must 
or mold, and in some cases more fermentation 
than a good dairyman would like to have in 
the food his kine swallow. This ought not to 
ABOUT ICE-HOUSES 
Much has teen published about ice-houses 
for farm and family purposes, and a great dea 1 
of money has been expended in constructing 
them, without satisfactory results. Let me. 
therefore, give readers of the Roral a descrip¬ 
tion of mine and its management. Built at a 
moderate outlay, it has been in use 10 seasons 
daring which it has required only trifliug re¬ 
pairs, has kept the ice in excellcut condition 
from season to season, and is yet as good as ever 
be I ore. No “ filling" or “ packing " is nsed. 
In a place near the barnyant on a sandy loam 
with gravelly subsoil, I dug a space 14 feet 
square and three feet deep, leveling the bottom 
and throwing the soil outside. In this I placed 
a frame of the same size, of 3 by 6, scantling 
16 feet high, substantially braced aud tightly 
covered inside and out with ■$- nchtongued and 
grooved white pine of good quality. I then 
bauktd the soil all around it about two feet 
high. Around this casing, at a distance of 
about eight inches, I made another frame six 
inches higher than the inclosure, aud boarded 
it up also closely with good ‘tuff, beginning 
about one foot above the embankment. On 
this outside frame, strougly attached to the 
inner one without much obstructing the air 
chamber, reBts the BhiDgle roof with a steep 
acid and has sometimes showed, by the test of 
litmus paper, a high degree of acidity aqd has 
become very soon completely curdled ; the 
long, fibrous clots placed under the micro¬ 
scope, appear simply as curd foimed in the 
ducts aud molded by them Into the stringy 
pieces which pass through the teat into the 
milk. This ropy or stringy matter is easily 
dissolved in a solution of carbonate of soda or 
potash, and would therefore Beem to be caused 
by acidity. The white specks which often 
appear in the butter are due to a similar cause, 
A cow may be constitutionally delicate and 
more subject to ailments than another more 
robust, and if she is very defective in this re¬ 
spect, she is poor property and should be got 
rid of as soon as possible. There are some 
cows that are constitutionally scrofulous aud 
naturally subject to tuberculosis aud other 
similar diseases, such as softening of the bones 
aud suppuration of the milk glands. Cows so 
diseased are easily distinguished by their thin, 
white skin, the bloodless appearance of the 
membranes of the eyes, and the occurrence of 
