basket being about two feet in diameter with a 
12 inch opening on top and a depth of about 
ten inches. It is constructed in every par¬ 
ticular like a centrifugal hydroextractor, 
with the exception that instead of the 
cylinder being perforated, it is perfectly 
tight, with a top flange extending inward 
towards the center. In this cylindrical basket 
are ten floats or dams from top to bottom, 
for the purpose of compelling the fluid or milk 
to travel with the machine. This is substan¬ 
tially all, and it can be used for separating 
various fluids or solids of different specific 
gravities. Our first experiment was at 1.200 
revolutions a minute, running about twenty 
minutes, then stopping the machine slowly, 
and, when at rest, skimming off by hand the 
cream which lay on the surface iu large, thick 
patches, and of the consistency of clotted 
cream. At a subsequent trial we used a bent 
tube, and scooped off the cream while the 
machine was in motion. Now I have adopted 
a simple arrangement by which I catch the 
cream thrown over the flange already described, 
in a stationan pan, on top of the curb, which 
surronnde the basket, and lets off the skim- 
milk by valves in the perpendicular wall, 
which arc perfectly controlled, even when at 
full speed. This enables me to use it as a con¬ 
tinuous machine, and I now handle with it 
about two tonB of milk daily. Having in¬ 
creased the speed to 1,500 revolutions per 
minute, we run about eighty gallons per hour. 
The roost favorable results are obtained when 
the milk is warm from the cow ; it then throws 
off the thickest cream in the shortest space of 
time. Let me here state that the pressure 
exerted on the walls of this cylindrical basket 
is 200 pounds to the square Inch, or fifty 
pounds greater than a government inspector 
requires on a new high-pressure steam boiler, 
so that a machine must not only be constructed 
of the best material, but in the most thorough 
and workmanlike manner. Mr. Weston is still 
experimenting and hopes to improve on this 
simple method which I am now using; and 
lately I have seen one of his new continuous 
machines for delivering both the cream and 
skim-milk at the bottom. 
With this short description of the machine 
I will now give you a few results from my 
various experiments. On the 4th of last June, 
mixing thoroughly all my morning’s milk, 704 
pounds were run into the centrifuge and 
yielded 35 pounds, 8oz., or one pound of butter 
to 19.83 pounds of milk. This was churned in 
an old-fashioned barrel churn, after twenty- 
four hours, at a temperature of 50 c , and the 
butter came in exactly seventeen minutes. 
Of the same milk GG0 pounds, set tweny-four 
hours in deep pails immersed in water at 45 ® 
and skimmed very carefully by hand, yielded 
32 pounds 4 oz., or one pound of butter to 20,4(1 
pounds of milk. This was churned, after 
standing twenty-four hours, at 60 °, and it took 
fifty-three minutes to bring the butter. I wish 
to call your attention to the difference of tem¬ 
perature in the churning of the two different 
lots of cream, 10 ® in favor of the centrifuge ; 
and the length of time occupied with that 
cream was only seventeen minutes, against fifty- 
three with that from the pail6. About these 
game results, in favor of a slight gain for the 
machine, were obtained lrom many subsequent 
experiments, but a neighboring farmer and 
butter-maker, who had rather laughed at 
Burnett's new-fangled machine,” after a good 
deal of persuasion on my part, this winter 
divided his milk, setting one-half, or eighty 
quarts, in email pans twenty-four hours—his 
usual method—and placing these in a cold,damp 
cellar at a temperature of about 55°. The 
other half in ten or fifteen minutes was sepa¬ 
rated by my machine and yielded eight and 
three-fourthB poundB of butter against five and 
one-fourth in the pans. Making a second ex¬ 
periment at my suggestion and using a tank 
and some of my deep pail6 with the same 
quantity of milk (eighty quarts), he obtained 
6 J pounds of butter from the machine and 
six and oue-fourth pounds of butter from 
the pails. He also found, on churning, a great 
saving of time with the machine cream, which 
occupied only eleven minutes against one hour 
with the cream set in deep pails. I cannot 
vouch for the accuracy of this experiment, but 
will 6imply say that he is a very good farmer, 
and one that naturally would take great pains in 
doing it thoroughly. Wishing to try the effect 
of old milk, I took, July 1st, and set a portion of 
the morning’s milk thoroughly mixed in pails 
in a tank, the water at from 45 ® to 50 ®. The 
next morning, twenty-four hours afterward, 
165 pounds run through the machine, yielded 
eight pounds, or one pound of butter to 20.62 
pounds of milk; 126 pounds skimmed care¬ 
fully in the pails by hand, yielded six poundB, 
or one pound of butter to twenty-one pounds 
of milk. 
As you will observe, iu all my trials there is 
a slight gain in favor of the centrifugal ma¬ 
chine over the ordinary methods, and the Ger¬ 
mans, with their repeated experiments, have 
also invariably found a gaiu of from three to six 
per cent. The cream obtained by this method 
is remarkable for its peculiar, sweet flavor and 
smoothness. Running it off slowly, then cool¬ 
ing below 50 deg., it is even thick euough to 
cut with a knife. I have obtained a ready 
sale for it in Boston at an advanced price, 
and 6end it down every night in glass pint 
and quart fruit jars. The skim-milk is 
verj thin and blue, and has a hard pecu¬ 
liar flavor, although perfectly sweet and re¬ 
markable for its freshness, like the cream. 
After running off the last of the skim-milk 
we find a most offensive and greenish 6lime on 
I he rear walls of the centrifugal basket, from 
1-16 to £ of an inch thick. Of this the follow 
ing is an analysis: 
Water.., 
Fat. 
Aeli. 
Caseine, 
,67.38 
3.35 
3 88 
,35.49 
Decomposed products, etc.,.100 
Of it the analyzing chemist says:—“I do not 
know in what quantities you get this refuse, 
but the l>est use of it, I should think, would be 
for fertilizing purposes, as it is very rich in 
nitrogen and phosphate of lime.” Hence it 
appears that the rapid centrifugal motion 
cleanses the milk or cream far more, effectual¬ 
ly than the best made sieve could do, and it is 
only natural to suppose that butter obtained 
from such cream should be proportionately 
finer. 
Thinking, perhaps, that by the gieat force 
by which the cream is thrown off from the ma¬ 
chine a breaking of the globules might take 
place, which would, iu theory, account for the 
rapidity of churning, I asked my friend, Dr. 
E. L. Sturtevant, to come up with his micro¬ 
scope and spend the day at my dairy. His re¬ 
port says:—“The centrifugal cream has cer¬ 
tain peculiarities as examined under the mi¬ 
croscope. First—its absolute purity, each 
globule standing out distinct and round and no 
foreign material of any nature to be detected : 
second—contrary to my expectations there 
arc no ruptured globules : third—there was 
a noticeable uniformity between the sizes of 
the globules of each sample, the first cream 
taken from the machine having larger globules 
than the last cream. When, however, the ma¬ 
chine is rnn continuously this should become 
not so evident. The butter obtained from the 
centrifugal cream is like any other good butter* 
except that we have noticed a slight loss of 
color." 
An important fact lately developed by 
Dr, Sturtevant is Us melting point, 98®, being 
remarkably high. He found exactly the same 
result, however, from my own dairy as from that 
of my neighbor, which furnished two samples 
from the same milk treated by the machine, 
and by the ordinary process, the points beiDg 
98° and 94® respectively. During the past few 
months I have had constructed a perforated 
basket for extracting the butter-milk by centril- 
ugal force, and now treat all my butter by this 
method most successfully. After two or three 
riusiDgs iu brine, it is removed from the churn 
while in small pellets and placed in a cloth. It 
is then put in the basket of the machine, 
which, in less than a minute after full speed is 
obtained, is brought to a standstill The text¬ 
ure of the butter is fine and the grain uninjured 
and very solid. _ 
What is the Value of Gypsum to the Far¬ 
mer ? asks Geo. Geddss in the N. Y. Tribune. 
That eminent farmer, John Johnston, now 
nearly ninety years of age, crowned with the 
respect and love of all that know him, and 
surrrunded by a great circle of friends at bis 
home iu Geneva, N. Y., has said, more than 
once, that he would use gypsum on his farm if 
it should cost him $40 per ton. Some very 
carefully conducted experiments made at the 
Michigan Agricultural College showed that one 
bushel of gypsum sown on one acre of newly 
seeded clover and timothy, produced au in¬ 
creased yield of a ton of hay, in the two and a 
half years following, it having been mowed 
four times during that period. Supposing a ton 
equal to 25 measured bushels, and the gain to 
give $5 for this one bushel, we have $125 as 
the net gain from the use of a ton. Let pru¬ 
dent men cut down these figures till they think 
they are within proper limits, and then make 
some trials of this wonderful fertilizer. How 
does this mineral produce such wonderful re¬ 
sults i No man cau tell. The scientific man 
haB taken it apart and determined exactly what 
it is, but why it produces such wonderful 
effects he has no more knowledge than auy of 
us —and all he or we know on this point is 
what we have learned by trying experiments, 
marking results, and comparing notes with 
each other. The discovery of its power to 
make crops grow was an accident, and that 
discovery was made very recently. 
There are some very strange things about 
gypsum, of which we farmers have not been 
able to learn much. In some places no good 
results can be seen from its use. On drained, 
muck swamp the effect is not discernible by 
the eye, and in some years, though rarely, 
farmers who are consiant users of It say they 
see no good from it on any land. Farmers 
generally believe its great use is to mitigale the 
bad effects of a drought, After barley and 
oats have come up, and there is little or no 
rain, they sow their gypsum, and sometimes 
the effect is very marked. But if the season 
promises to be a wet one they do not often sow 
it on these crops. 
Remarkable Ytelb of Buttek of a Jer¬ 
sey Cow.—In a series of interesting articles on 
Jersey cows in the Country Gentleman, by Mr. 
Kellogg (Hark Comstock, we wish he would 
drop this latter homely fictitious name, and 
hereafter use his real one in bis writings), he 
speaks of one belonging to Mr. Sobier of Scitu- 
ate. Mass., which made the astonishing weight 
of 705 pounds of butter in a single year. We 
hope there was no mistake in keeping the 
record of this great yield ; but for fear of this, 
we think other trials should he made in the 
presence of at least two well educated and 
careful persons, from the milking to its strain¬ 
ing, where set away, to the skimming of the 
cream, its churning, and finally to the weigh¬ 
ing of the butter. The cows which excelled 
in various trials described by Mr. K., were 
of broken colors, generally of yellow, red, or 
fawn and white, as well as of solid colors. 
This shows the absurdity of trying for years 
past to make dark, solid colors, and black 
points, the criterion alone of the best-bred 
Jersey stock. It was an injurious, silly 
fashion, got up in England, and has tended 
to injure the breed in most cases whenever 
followed. __ 
Okra.— Mr. Hyde, in the N. Y. Times, says of 
this: “ It must not be sowed till the ground is 
warm, and the land should he so rich that it 
will push the growth rapidly. It makes a very 
rich soup, and is also boiled, as asparagus is, 
and makes a delicious and wholesome dish. 
After being boiled It may be served on toast, 
like asparagus, or dressed as a salad. The 
young seed-pods are the cdUIe part, and these 
may be ent into slices, strung on strings, and 
dried like apples for winter nse. Wc trust the 
time Is coming when okra will be considered a 
necessary in every farmer’s garden. Nutri¬ 
ment and health are found in this vegetable. 
The dwarf and prolific varieties are the best.” 
One and a quarter pound of oatmeal, says 
Dr. Parkes, will supply as much nitrogen, and 
almost as much fat to the body, a6 one pound 
of uncooked meat of ordinary quality. A man 
gets quite three times as much nourishment at 
the same cost in oatmeal as in meat, and the 
oatmeal is more cheaply cooked. Indian corn 
(maize) is even cheaper, and one and a half 
pound of maize is equal to one pound of un¬ 
cooked meat in nitrogen, and surpasses it in 
fat. 
A SIMPLE ADJUSTABLE MARKER. 
The accompanying drawing represents a 
very simple, home-made, adjustable marker, 
which can be so constructed that any width of 
rows, within the limits of the particular im¬ 
plement, can be marked out. It can be made 
of any dimensions desired according to the 
use to which it is to be put, whether band or 
horse, and with two, three, four or more 
teeth. 
It is only necessary to describe the method of 
its construction. Through the horizontal square 
stick of timber, A, a series of slots B, B, B, B are 
made the width of the diameters of the bolts 
to be used. The 6lots ruay be from six inches 
to one foot long. Through these the bolts are 
passed and also through the “markers" C, 0. 
C, C, their distance apart being regulated by 
eliding them to or fro m the slots. A notch, 
one inch in depth, and the width of the hori¬ 
zontal stick, should be cut across the face of 
the markers to keep them iu a perpendicular 
position. Bolts may be put through the timber 
near the ends of the slots, perpendicularly to 
resist aDy tendency to split. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. William R. Brooks. 
—-- ++-+ - 
Worms in Peach Trees.— When the leaves 
roll up and look yellow, you may be 6ure there 
are worms at the roots. Pour boiling water 
around the stems of the trees near the ground 
—if soap-suds all the better—until the roots 
are completely saturated; don’t be afraid of 
injuring the tree, and in a few days you will 
see the leaves unroll and turn green and the 
tree become thrifty again. I have tried this 
remedy for more than 23 years and never knew 
it to fall. 
THE END OF THE RILEY CONTROVERSY. 
Editor of the Rural New-Yorker: — Sir :—On 
account of the subscribers to your journal who 
have known me for a number of years, either 
personally or as a contributor to your columns, 
I call attention to the fact that Mr. Brisbin 
Walker stultifies himself in his letter in your 
issue for April 17th. He first asserts that my 
statements regarding him in my letter of Feb. 
2 d, are “absolutely untrue,” and then admits 
their truth by confessing that he was engaged 
as set forth by me. He neither denies that he 
was paid for the work he was engaged to do 
while in Washington, nor explains why the 
letter which I addressed to him as the editor of 
the Washington Republic and which I repro¬ 
duced, was never published. He content* him¬ 
self with Borne malicious opinions and asser¬ 
tions which, as I have already told him to his 
face that he deliberately falsified for a purpose, 
I care not to further notice. Respectfully, 
Washington, D. C., April 80. C. V. Riley. 
Inhstrml Implements. 
FARM GRIST MILLS. 
By the first, of July. Livingston & Co., 
Pittsburgh, Pa., expect to have ready one of 
the best cheap farm grist mills in the market. 
It will run from eight to ten bushels of feed 
per hour, and will be extremely simple and 
convenient. It. will deliver straight into the 
baer and thuB save much handling. It will 
shave the grain and leave the feed light, 
the peculiar construction of the grinding parts 
rendering its action on grain similar to that of 
the. best burr. It is guaranteed to give satis¬ 
faction, otherwise the money will be refunded 
—price $30. Of their present grist mill— 
which retails, delivered, for $15—over 1,500. 
they tell us, were sold the past season; and 
for Us price we know of none that surpasses it 
in merits. It cau be rnn by hand or power, 
and grinds all sorts of grain fine or coarse. 
The grinding parts are made of hard, chilled 
iron and are self-sharpening. All parts that 
are broken can be replied at small cost. Its 
capacity by power is from three to five bushels 
per hour, according to the speed at which it 
is run. Five or eighht-inch pulleys can be 
furnished with it, as desired. 
-» — - 
A Growing Indimtry. 
The market for evaporated fruit, and tho 
prices obtained, have been so profit able in 
the past as to merit attention, and the 
fact that a first-class article can be produced 
by the farmers themselves at a trifling cost 
for the necessary appliances, bids fair to soon 
revolutionize old methods. On a recent visit 
to Pa., one of our staff, as usual, personally 
examined the evaporator and its product, 
manufactured by the American Drier Co., of 
Chauibersburg, and wo 6trongly Indorse its 
claims As a cheap, portable evaporator for 
fanners’ use it is the best we are acquainted 
with. The evaporation of fruits, berries and 
vegetables by improved methods is essentially 
an American idea, and the product has already 
acquired respectable dimensions in our export 
trade. It would be difficult to make even an 
approximate estimate of the annual value of 
our fruits and berries. Were they as carefully 
utilized as are our other crops and the statis¬ 
tics relating to them as accurately tabulated, 
tho magnitude of the fruit business of the 
couutry would astonish even those who thiuk 
they are well acquainted with it. 
dmrpgm. 
NOTES FROM KANSAS. 
The month of April 18S0, will be one not 
readily forgotten by residents of Kansas. It 
gave to those who have been dwellers iu the 
State but a few years a faint idea of what tho 
early pioneers of 20 aud 25 years ago had to 
go through in making homes in Kausas, when 
it was then still “ in the wilderness.’’ Strong 
southerly winds, dry, and at times warm 
bringing with them clouds of dust, were re¬ 
peated every few days throughout the month. 
They were fortunately more disagreeable than 
hurtful, and did but little damage, except in a 
few localities where light clay soils were blown 
away from the roots of the grain. Farmers 
were beginning to wear anxious faces and 
watch with interest every indication of raiu. 
On April 28, their anxiety was relieved by a 
nice, soaking shower of several hours’ duration 
and extending over the entire eastern half of 
the State, and again on May 8, another rain 
spread over about the same territory. These 
fine rains have brought much-needed relief to 
the spring crops, aud were of great benefit to 
corn planting or coru already up ; but they 
came too late to save all the winter wheat. 
The dry, open winter, with some severe freez¬ 
ing iu the northern half of the State, followed 
by the dry winds of April, worked great dam- 
