THE RURAL" WEW-YORKER. 
7371 
tfreely, the heat in the oven falling below 103 
degrees. Then at the other end there is trouble. 
When the thermometer on the eggs indicates 
103 degrees the eggs are not so warm as they 
■will be at the end of six or 13 hours. There 
being a cool bottom to them lying In damp 
■ sand or over a pan of water, the eggs gradually 
increase their temperature during the whole 12 
hours. Then again, the outside temperature 
may greatly increase or decrease while you 
sleep. These causes of excess or deficiency of 
heat, combined or singly, will in the hands of 
a beginner be almost certain to prove fatal. 
Every time the thermometer on the eggs reaches 
108, if only for a few minutes, some of the 
.chicks will die. Low temperature can be bet¬ 
ter tolerated, but it weakens and injures the 
.chicks if it occurs often. Possessing, as I do, 
.considerable pluck, I cannot say that I would 
have the courage to try one of these incubat- 
.ors if it was given to me gratis. 
The incubators of the uext class—those I 
term intricate and risky—are far more reliable. 
They are automatic or self-regulating. They 
work either with the thermostatic bar or mer- 
■ cury gauge, and I believe in some instances 
with both. With the thermostatic bar I am 
not familiar, but it is on the same principle as 
the mercurial gauge. Both are worked with a 
battery which, crudely speaking, is thisa 
glass jar is filled with water. Iu this we pour two 
pounds of the sulphate of zinc and one handful of 
blue-stone. Sheets of copper are placed in the 
bottom and a bar of zinc on top of them. Wires 
run from the copper and the zinc through a 
magnet and through the mercury gauge. A 
movable bar placed near the magnet opens 
,aud shuts the damper that admits hot air from 
ithe furnace to the egg oven. When the battery 
iis working the magnet attracts the movable 
bar and closes the damper; when the latter is 
mot working a small spring, not strong enough 
.to overcome the magnet, opens the damper, 
admitting warm air to the oven. The mercury 
igauge starts and stops the battery. The battery 
man only work when there is a complete 
"circuit;” that is. when the wires connecting 
.the copper and the zinc in the battery are 
.connected. The mercury in the tube forms 
ipart of the wire or circuit. When the oven 
becomes hot, the mercury expanding moves 
.up the glass tube of the gauge until it touches 
a small wire which completes the circuit and 
startt the battery, causing the magnet to attract 
the movable bar and close the damper. As the 
oven cools off the mercury drops down the 
glass tube and breaks the circuit, stopping the 
battery and allowing the small spring to open 
the damper and allow more heat to enter the 
oven. This up-and-down movement is kept up 
. continuously. 
A great trouble I have experienced has been 
to get the mercury to run smoothly up and 
down this glass tube. If it would only run as 
smoothly as in ordinary thermometers there 
would be no trouble; but, unfortunately, my 
machine is not so nicely made. The tube is 
open at the top and infinitesimal particles of 
dust enter the tube, causing the mercury to 
stick to the sides of the glass, refusing some¬ 
times to go up and at other times to come 
■down. The only escape from accident—and I 
have had several of them—is to eleau out the 
tube with a broom straw once a week. This is 
-a tedious job, and the danger is that you do 
mot know when the mercury is going to stick. 
There are incubators that advertise two bat¬ 
teries, one, I suppose, to open and one to shut 
the damper; but I have found no trouble in 
getting my battery to work promptly and 
strongly, while the expense—a handful of blue- 
stone onee in two weeks—is only nominal. 
Then it is easy to tel I when the battery is getting 
•weak by the noise of the damper closing. The 
great risk with the second class of incubatore 
is that their perfect working for a week lulls 
■the owner to sleep, and, all of a suddeu, some¬ 
thing stops to the utter destructiou of the eggs 
and the probable inability of the untrained 
owner to know how to start it again. The 
makers of this Becond class of machines, like 
the makers of all other machines to work on 
the farm, charge from a third to a half more 
than a fair profit would warrant. 
It will thus be seen that well fed fowls have, 
on their own bodies, a partial means for keep¬ 
ing down rtAitfir coemies; but there is no doubt 
that they do ranch better if aided in this warfare 
by the skill of their owners. To accomplish this, 
many use keroseue or crude coal 
oil, or any kind of cheap oil to 
brush over the walls of the hen¬ 
house and particularly over the 
perches and about the nests. ? 
Oil, however, is a nasty thing ^ | |Lvwxr 
to have about, and while it ban- : 
ishes vermin it is very apt to 
disgust the operator, and, if a 
female, cause her to give up ^ / 
the whole business or, at best, 'V 
to put its use off until too late 
to be of the most service. After using oil. we 
abandoned it for the cause above stated, and 
lound a bett< r and far more agreeable remedy 
in road dust, dry ashes and whitewash. For 
the purpose of being handy, to clean and pu¬ 
rify, we made perches, shelves, nests and par¬ 
titions all movable, and as often as judgment 
dictated or necessity required, we removed 
everything and. gave the house a good and 
thorough wetting inside with whitewash. No 
fears of getting it too thick. Slosh it into all 
the cracks; but, over and above 
all, we always keep on hand a 
goodly supply of road dust, and T> 
sift all tike ashes on to the heap. 
This we spread one or two iueh- VC 
es deep over the floor of the hen- +y 
house. It instantly absorbs all a? 
droppings, keeping the air fresh _ 
and pure, and every time a hen r>& 
‘dies up or down to or from the - hxSZ 
nests or perches she raises a dust 
that settles on the perches, nests, fc fi - ~ i 
etc. This dust may not be imme¬ 
diate death to insects, but it ren¬ 
ders life so miserable to them that they imme¬ 
diately vacate the premises. It seems not only 
to hinder, but effectually to arrest their loco¬ 
motion, like a horse in a bed of quick-sand- 
The effect on the chickens is like magi'* so far 
as ridding them of lice is concerned. 
Now is the time to collect road dust, and 
with the assistance of the ashes, two or three 
barrels of the dust will last through the Winter. 
in the center ; or a bank or pool may be con¬ 
structed upon a spring which fills the reser¬ 
voir and flows off without wetting the ground. 
But as one of the important points about a 
spring house is evenness of temperature, a 
at the top. shown at B, leaving a deuth of 18 
inches of water in the pool. As the wnter rises 
suddenly when seveial 20 quart pails of milk 
are put into the pool, the outlet is made ot 
three Inch glazed drain tile, covered with Wire 
gauze as a protection. The drain discharges 
into a stream close behind the spring bouse. 
To cool 200 quarts of milk from 75 or 80 de¬ 
grees down to 55, requires either considerable 
time or a good flow of cold water. With a 
flow of two quarts per minute of water at a 
temperature of 55 degrees, and an air 
temperature of 80 degrees, four honrs are re¬ 
quired to reduce the milk to the temperature 
of '60 degrees, and the temperature of the 
milk cannot be reduced as low as that of the 
water unless the pool is protected by a cover¬ 
ing from the air. It may thus be found advisa¬ 
ble to provide falling doors to cover the tank 
when the water supply is not more than two 
quarts in a minute, which is equal to a flow, 
without pressure, of a quarter-inch stream of 
water. 
B E trcam. 
SPRING HOUSE—FIG. 357. 
solid, heat and cold-proof wall is desirable. 
Spring houses may be used for either shal¬ 
low or deep setting, bat the economy of the 
latter is too obvious to be disregarded. For 
instance, to set 400 quarts ot milk in shal¬ 
low panB holding eight quarts each, a 
trough of more than 96 square feet of sur¬ 
face would be required. The two arrange¬ 
ments are compared in the accompanying 
diagrams—figs. 355-356. Each pool has the same 
capacity, viz: for 400 quarts of milk or for 
PULLIAM’S PATENT BOLSTER SPRINGS. 
These springs are intended only for farm 
wagons, or such as have bolsters and standards, 
with cleats on the wagon bed to keep it from 
sliding backward or forward, and for drays, 
trucks, hacks, etc. They have been in practical 
use for over three years, and Lave given gen¬ 
eral satisfaction. Among the claims put forth 
in their behalf are—that they prevent a great 
deal of wear and tear in every part ot the 
wagon; that their use does away with the 
necessity for a spring seat; that they convert 
a common lumber wagon into a comfortable 
spring wagon, and that they adapt any wagon 
excellently for the conveyance of fruits, vege¬ 
tables, etc. The accompanying cut represente 
three springs as used for extra-heavy loads— 
usually only two springs are needed. The 
springs are attached to a cross-board notched 
at each end, so as to fit on each side of the 
bolster standard, and placed crosswise on the 
bolster. The wagon box is to rest on top of 
the cross board, but is not to be fastened. 
Cleats put on each side of the rear bolster 
standards keep it from sliding. We have fre¬ 
quently seen these springs in use, and can rec¬ 
ommend them to our readers. 
WATER 
WELL HOUSE 
'about 30 cows if the milk is sold; or for about 
U2 cows if butter is made. The compactness 
x»t the house, fig. 355 which has the pool in the 
center, is evident. Either of these plans is 
convenient for the system to which it is ap¬ 
plied and the construction of the tank and 
house is the same. In fig. 356, A. is the Inlet 
pipe, B. the outlet and C, shows the pool and 
the current of the stream. 
The house should be roomy. A brick or 
concrete floor is preferable to any other. The 
concrete is made of gravel or coal ashes, 
and mixed with a thin mortar of water lime 
and sand, in the propor- 
taon of one of lime to 
three of sand. The con- (alii 
Spreading Out.— Messrs. Skinner & Wood, 
of Erie, Pa., will occupy their new works, 
corner of Chestnut and 12th Streets, about 
HENRY STEWART 
■Spring Houses. 
The most desirable milk-house is one that 
POOL,FOR 20 
9 INCH PAILS, 
scales' tr. iroAtf/mctfr 
MILK HOUSE—FIG. 355. 
is supplied with a flowing stream of cold spring 
water. This secures the requisite evenness 
and lowness of temperature and an advan¬ 
tageous moisture and purity of atmosphere. 
The best materials for spring houses are, first, 
stone; then, concrete; and lastly, brick. Wood- 
P00L TOR 50 15 INCH PANS 
^ previous chapters, The roof should 
^ be divided from the lower apartment 
^ by a ceiling having two or three feet 
j of space above, by which the heat of 
^ £ the sun beating on the roof, is shut off. 
The cooler the house is kept, the drier 
,, it will be ; for the evaporation of the 
f watei will be less, and the less the 
, i J evaporation, the less condensation 
^ there will be upon the floor, the walls, 
; and the sides of the tank. A small 
£ frame spring house built, as a pre- 
^ liminary test, by the writer, and 
£ which had the pool sunk in the ground 
£ so as to utilizeja spring which existed 
^ on the spot, has been found very 
J useful. It cost less than §40 aud the 
pool was large enough to hold 300 
V-L,^cv quarts of milk. The plan is shown by 
the diagram fig. 357. in which a section 
across the house and pool is shown. 
This house is 12 feetsquare. The pool was sunk 
until a boiling spring was reached, and the 
bottom was paved with flat stones loosely 
placed, the water rising through the spaces be¬ 
tween the stones until it flowed out of a pipe 
AN EXPERIMENTAL DAIRY FARM AND 
A HUGE SILO. 
ROAD DUST IN THE HEN HOUSE 
The experiments of wealthy men in agricul¬ 
ture and kindred industries are of benefit to 
the whole farming community. In this way 
problems of interest to all, but the investi¬ 
gation of which would be too expensive for 
the ordinary farmer, are solved by the ample 
means of one His are the labor, the outlay, 
the skill and the honor, while the general pub¬ 
lic reaps most of the reward. 
Messrs. Whitman and Burrell, the well- 
known manufacturers of dairy implements, 
are the last to add their names to the roll of 
those who are trying to benefit the agricul- 
tutal public in this way. They have just 
started, near Little Falls, in this State, an 
experimental dairy farm, at which the various 
questions that are constantly arising in the 
dairy business will be carefully investigated. 
As the nucleus of the experiment station a 
model creamery and a supeib cattle barn are 
already nearly completed. 
The latter building is three stories high, 93 
The extreme aud long-continued heat, of this 
Summer, extending as it did late into the 
month of September, has been a prolific source 
■of the multiplication of all kinds of vermin 
■on fowls. Those who were either too indiffer¬ 
ent to adopt plans for the suppression of the 
pests, or who are not sufficiently versed in the 
little convenient tricks of the trade to know 
how, must suffer pecuniarily, while the poor 
chickens must bear the burdens upon their 
innocent oaeks. It is well known that oil in 
liberal quantities is 6ure death to all insects. 
This is due to the stopping up of the breathing 
openings along the sides of the insect, like the 
port holes of a man-of-war. Thus the oil 
causes doath by suffocation. Well fed animals 
produce oil euongh on their bodies, thus keep¬ 
ing the insects on them in moderate subjection, 
while ill-fed aud half-starved auimals are sure 
ultimately to fall a prey to these parasites. 
ec//L£ -err.ro an inch 
MILK HOUSE—FIG. 356. 
en spring houses may be acceptable under 
such circumstances as will avoid dampness; 
for instance, when 'vater is brought from a 
distant spring in a pipe laid underground, and 
made to discharge IA a tank excavated or built 
