KEEPING MILK AND CREAM CLEAN. 
"A Subscriber” Newark, Ohio. —In a late 
Rural Mr. H. Stewart says lie never strains 
his cream, because he keeps everything about 
his cows and milk-room so very clean. How 
does he manage? 
ANSWERED BY HENRY STEWART. 
I do not consider it necessary ever to strain 
cream when the milk has beeu properly strain¬ 
ed and is set iu covered or ventilated pails in 
deep pools in a clean milk-house, or in shallow 
pans in a milk-room that is free from dust. 
My cow barn has a standing-door four feet six 
inches Wide, which is wide enough for auy 
cow to stand on comfortably, A lai-ge Dutch 
cow has stood on this floor and had room 
enough. A Few inches more or less are enough 
to make all the difference between a clean 
floor and a filthy one. Some cows arc trou¬ 
blesome because they hunch up their backs, 
and bring tbeir hind feet forward, and foul 
the floor. But to prevent the floor from being 
wet, which is the worst trouble, it was made 
to slope two inches from front to rear to the 
gutter, so that the water ruus off quickly. 
The dirty cows are generally very restless, 
and are continually moving their feet about 
and trampling manure all over the floor, and 
so foul themselves aud their neighbors too. 
These cows 1 put by themselves, and make a 
partition about three feet long on each side, 
so that they cannot well stand sidewise and 
trespass on their neighbors’ floor, ftly cows 
are in the stable all night, and this Winter 
have not been out for weeks at a time, aud yet 
I keep them clean. 
My plan is as follows in detail: I have 15 
stalls iu my barn in one row; the floor is four 
feet six wide: the cows are fastened by a strap 
around the neck having a ring in it, which is 
hooked by a snap to a horizontal c hain, which 
slides up and down upon staples about a foot 
long iu each post of the stall at the feed trough. 
1 do not approvu of stanchions, and do not 
think cows can be kept so clean in them as 
with the above fastening, which I have had 
in use since 1864. The cows when standing 
will always get back as far as they can, and 
generally have their heels on the edge of the 
gutter, which I should say is 16 inches wide 
and eight inches deep, with a five-foot path¬ 
way on the other side of it. The feed trough 
is on the floor. IVhen the cow lies down she 
gets as far back as the gutter permits and the 
droppings fall into the gutter. The cows are 
bedded with sawdust, and all the waste of the 
feed troughs is thrown into the gutter; straw 
or coarse hay is also used to fill the gutter and 
keep the cows dry and clean. Iu the morning 
at live o’clock the tnun goes into the stable and 
gives the cows a bite of hay. While they are 
eating, if any have soiled themselves, the 
dung is scraped off them with a k^ife made of 
hoop iron, kept for the purpose, lie then 
scrapes the floor with a broad hoe made on 
purpose, having a 16-inch heavy blade, bring¬ 
ing the manure or any soiled litter into the 
gutter. There are two trap-doors in the gut¬ 
ter, and the manure is drawn or pushed 
through these into the cellar, when the doors 
are closed, and the floor and gutter well lit¬ 
tered with sawdust, about two bushels being 
used. All this takes about 15 minutes. The 
cows are then carded and brushed as clean as 
a carriage horse, their udders are well cleaned 
with cloths of bagging, aud, if necessary, they 
are washed clean with u cloth and water, and 
then wiped und dried with a dry cloth. This 
takes uot over 20 minutes, as it is rarely the 
case that more thau one cow needs much 
labor to clean her. 
The fodder, cut over-night in readiness, is 
wetted, and the proper ullowauee of meal, 
measured out the evening before, is mixed 
with it, and each cow gets a bushel basket of 
it. As soon ns this is distributed (which takes 
about 15 or 20 minutes more), the man fills up 
a largo busket holding the feed for the horses, 
and carries that to the horse stable close by. 
He thou feeds the calves and bull iu the same 
Wfty; these are in pens close by, and in an 
hour it is all done, so far. At six o’clock he 
goes to wash himself and get his breakfast; 
while he is away the milkiug is done. 
When living upon the farm, 1 milked half 
the cows and the hired man's wife or an assist¬ 
ant, milked the others. The milkers’ hands 
and clothes are dean, and each milker is fur¬ 
nished with a towel to wipe the cows’ teats 
and udders. As each cow is milked the milk 
is strained into a deep pail through two strain¬ 
ers, one in the milk pail and one iu a looso 
strainer, which fits the top of the deep pail. 
W hen this is full, the strainer is removed and 
the cover is': put on. Iu about an hour the 
cows are all milked, and the milk put away in 
the milk-house or the milk-room, when it is 
set in shallow pans, as is the case in the Win¬ 
ter. At seven the man has had his breakfast, 
and 1 go in to mine. The horses are then 
cleaned and harnessed; the bull is brnshed 
down, aud any other work is done, and the 
man goes to his farm work. In the Summer 
the cows are turned out into the pasture after 
having had a feed of green fodder with their 
meal; iu Winter they stay in the barn until 
noon, w hon they are watered in the yard at a 
trough filled with spring water, and are fed 
iu the yard, if the weather is fine, or in the 
barn, if it is foul. 
Rut here is the rub, and this is probably 
what troubles Mr. S—this routine was prac¬ 
ticed perfectly when I lived on my farm, and 
either did the work, helped to do it, or saw it 
done. I have had several men to whom I 
have paid as much as 835 a month, with the 
use of a house, flre-wood, milk, aud vegetables 
from the garden; but never could get this 
work done unless 1 was there. The best man 
I bad quit work at a minute’s notice because I 
ordered him to cleaxf a cow better than he had 
done, and when he refused, saying it was clean 
enough, I took the brush and card and did it 
myself, and took his pail and milked the cow 
myself. Fortunately his wide had some sense, 
and told him ho was a fool, aud made him 
apologize, and he did better afterwards. That 
year I sold my butter, which I always made 
myself, for 65 cents a pound not. While I 
have been at this place I have attended the 
cows wholly myself, and got the same price 
for my butter all along. But the farm butter, 
when I was not there, and did not make it 
myself, had to go to the market, and sold for 
30 cents, simply because I could never get a 
man or a woman to be clean about the milk¬ 
ing and bmter-maldng. I suppose there are 
men to be hired who cun do this, but I have 
not found one. The man who worked my 
farm dairy last year is now hired on a farm 
at 8400 a year aud his board, but I could not 
afford to pay that on butter that sold only for 
30 cents. 
My practice with my cows here, which I 
feed, e can. and milk myself, is precisely the 
same, and I should have no hesitation in drink¬ 
ing the milk as it comes from the cows with¬ 
out straining at all, even just now when the 
cows are shedding their coats. This makes it 
necessary to exercise more care iu carding 
aud bl ushing, aud especially in cleaning the 
card aud brush occasionally. I should also 
say that I keep a street-sweeper's broom in the 
stable, which is swept out daily. The same 
routine of feeding, etc., is begun at five o’clock, 
and at six I expect everything is done and the 
day’s work finished. 
PROTECTING PLANTS WITH SMOKE. —LOBSTER 
FERTILIZER.—PEACHES IN TUBS. 
G. O., Nova Scotia.— I. How can fires be 
made with coal tar so as to burn all night and 
dispel late frosts from a strawberry plantation 
in blossom? Would it be necessary to have 
enough fires to envelop in smoke the 
whole piece of several acres? 2. What would 
be the cash value per ton, as compared with 
superphosphate at 835 to $50 per ton, of a fer¬ 
tilizer made from the bodies and shells of lob¬ 
sters. The remains, after the removal of the 
flesh from the claws and tails, ire prepared by 
drying until all moisture has been expelled, 
and then ground to a fine powder. 3. Can 
paacb trees be successfully grown us dwarfs in 
tubs. In removing them for winter protec¬ 
tion. shouldthey be put in a frost proof cellar, 
or will any building afford sufficient protec¬ 
tion? 
Ans.— 1. Smoke protects from frost, not by 
the heat it contains so much as by radiating 
or reflecting back the heat passing upwards 
from the surface of the earth and plants; it 
acts pree’sely like low lying clouds in this re¬ 
spect. Iu order to protect the plat, it would 
be necessary to have a cloud of smoke cover¬ 
ing the whole. This can best lie produced by 
burning straw so dampened as to burn very 
slowly and with a large amount of smoke. 
Adding some coal tar might very materially 
assist, as iu burning it produces immense 
quantities of smoke. 2. We should thiuk it 
would make a fair fertilizer. Of course, the 
shells are mostly carbonate of liuie; the bodies 
would furnish the most valuable part, aud the 
value of the fertilizer would depeud very 
largely on the proportion of the substance of 
these the mixture contained. As to its actual 
or comparative value, that could be ascer- 
tainedonly by a careful analysis. S. Peaches 
can be very successfully grown in pots or 
tubs, under glass to a limited extent: and if 
the climate is hot enough and the season long 
enough, very likely they would mature iu the 
open air. Wo would suggest budding on the 
slowest, growing plum you have as a stock. Iu 
wintering, place them, if possible, where they 
will be covered with snow, as that is the best 
possible protection. If this is not practicable, 
they must be placed entirely out of the reach 
of suushiue ami where the temperature does 
not go below zero, and care must be taken 
that they be not encouraged to commence 
growth iu Spring until all danger of late 
frosts is over. 
FEED FOR A WORKING HORSE. 
J. W. M., Bar re Forge, Pa.—Is the table at 
top of page 831 in Read’s Farming for Profit, 
giving the quantity of hay or its equivalent, 
required per 100 pounds live weight for a 
working horse, reliable? I have been making 
some experiments on my horses, the results 
of which seem to conflict with the table. By 
comparing that with the next table, it will be 
seen that corn and oats have about the same 
relative value, aud these two tables would in¬ 
dicate that a 1,200 pound horse should have 
about 258 pounds of chop of the two grains 
per week without hay. In my experiment, 110 
pounds of ihis and 21 pounds of hay kept a 
horse in fine condition. 
Ans.—B y the first table we are told that a 
working horse should have 3 8 pounds of hay 
or its equivalent par lOu pounds of horse for 
each day. Now, a 1,200 pound horse would 
require 45,6 pounds per day, or 310 pounds per 
week, of hay. Iu the second table we find 
that 57 pounds of oats, or 59 pounds of corn, 
which would be 58 pounds of the chop you 
mention, are equivalent to 100 pounds of hay; 
substituting the chop 173 pounds for all the 
hay iu exeess of 21 pounds, we have a surplus 
of 63 pounds, which is quite a discrepanev: 
but we mistrust you gave the horse some straw 
or other coarse forage, as 21 pounds of hay 
per week would be only three pounds per day, 
a quantity hardly sufficient for healthy diges¬ 
tion. But had you read carefully just under 
the tables mentioned, you would have read: 
•‘The age, health, and conditions, and the care 
received, will greatly modify the effect of any 
kind of food.” This would easily account for 
the discrepancy. 
making grafting wax, etc. 
J. A. L , Eastmancille, Mich.—I, What 
will make the best grafting wax? 2. Is there 
any legal objection to my building a bee- 
house where I please? 3. Where can 1 obtain 
a mill for grinding horse-radish for market ? 
Ans.— 1. Resin, four pounds; tallow, two 
pounds, aud beeswax one pound; or you may 
use raw linseed oil one pound, resin six 
pounds, aud beeswax one pound; either of 
these formulas will make a good grafting 
wax. Melt all in an iron kettle, stirring thor¬ 
oughly so as bo completely mix the ingredi¬ 
ents together; the hotter you heatup to the 
burning point, the harder will the wax be 
when made. When well mixed, pour into a 
large dish, like a wash-tub or hair-barrel, 
half filled with cold water, the sides of which 
should first have been scalded with boiling 
water to prevent the wax from sticking to 
them. When cool enough to handle, work by 
pulling until it becomes smooth ami the color 
of molasses candy. Them form into sticks aud 
throw into cold water till cold and hard. 
Greasing the hands often will prevent its stick¬ 
ing to them while making anti when using. 2. 
The law is that you can bnihl anything you 
pleuse on your own premises, providing in so 
doing you do nothing to injure your neighbor 
or his property. For instance, supposing vour 
line ruus close by your neighbor’s house, you 
would have no right to erect a pig-pen or a 
bee house adjoining and fronting his house, 
even if wholly on your own land. 3. Of Pe¬ 
ter Henderson & Co.. 35 Cortland Street, N. 
Y. City. Prices, 87.50 and 810. 
BLACK-KNOT ON PLUM TREES, ETC. 
J. T., Van nog, W. F«.—1. What is a pre¬ 
ventive and remedy for black-knot on a plum 
tree, if this ailment affects the tree a diseased 
twig of which is inclosed? 2. If rye is sown in 
the Fall and kept pastured close the following 
Spring and Summer so that it does not form 
seed, will it continue to grow and furnish 
pasture another year? 
Ans.— 1 . It is the black-knot. The only 
remedy is to remove the twig or branch af¬ 
fected and bum it Nothing is more favor¬ 
able to the growth of the black fungus thau 
neglect. Trees growing in grass m some un¬ 
cultivated door-yards are transformed into a 
mere mass of black knots, while trees inneigh- 
boring gardens under good cultivation are 
entirely exempt. The plum tree prefers a 
heavy clay loam. In soils of a lighter tex¬ 
ture, particularly in such as are sandy, the 
fruit drops off before maturity, even when it 
is not attacked by the curculio. The trees 
should be set 12 feet apiart and cultivated the 
same as the apple until they begin to bear, 
when the surface about them should be kept 
as hard and compact as possible, by the tramp¬ 
ing of pigs and poultry or otherwise. Plums 
of the Chickasaw type, as the Wild Goose, 
while iuferior iu quality to such varieties as 
the Gage, etc., are less liable to be attacked 
by the curculio; iu the Southern States they 
are planted almost exclusively. 2. Common 
wiuter rye sowed thickly—say 2t& bushels per 
acre—and pastured sufficiently close, so that 
it will not throw up any seed-stalks, will make 
very good pasture even the second year. 
PARADISE STOCK FOR APPLES. 
M. II., Farmington, Mich .—What does T. 
T. Lyon think of the project of using Para¬ 
dise and other dwarfing stocks for apples 
here in Michigan? I intend setting out an 
orchard in a windy place, and would like a 
list of varieties well adapted to such .-toeks 
ANSWERED BY T. T. LYON. 
Paradise stocks are used only to secure early 
fruiting, or Tor the growing of fruit in the 
garden, where nothing larger than dwarfs can 
be tolerated. Doucain stocks are also used to 
secure a less dwarfish growth; but they re¬ 
quire much more space. They can hardly be 
said to be preferable to free stocks. Neither 
of the above should be given place in an 
orchard for either home use or market, where 
profitableness is the question. All varieties 
seem to be alike successful on dwarf stocks, 
hence lists are not needful, unless it be merely 
with reference to different habits of growth. 
If protection from severe winds is the obieefc 
sought, the result may be more satisfactorily 
attained by planting wind-breaks or screens 
along the exposed sides of the orchard, and by 
branching the trees quite low and pruning 
with the same purpose in view. To grow a 
screen rapidly, plant an outer row of Lom¬ 
bardy Pupfar, Willow, or any other rapid 
grower, and cut these away as soon as the per¬ 
manent screen of Norway Spruce or Scotch 
or Weymouth Pine, is sufficiently grow n for 
the purpose. 
HOLLOW-BELLY NOT HOLLOW T -HORN. 
J. H. S.. Middlebury, Ohio.— 1 . The cows of 
this section are more or less troubled with 
what the farmers call hollow-horn or wolf m- 
the-tail, aud people slit the cow’s tail and put in 
peppier and bint! up. Ihev also bore the horns 
and in bad cases pour into the holes a mixture 
of salt aud vinegar. What is the disease, and 
the proper remedy? 2. Will some of the plum 
growers of Ohio tell, through the Rural, 
what are the best soils for this fruit; the best 
red, yellow and green varieties, and also the 
best prunes, the best special manures, and 
generally the best mode of caring for them? 
Ans.— 1 . It is net hollow-horn that ails the 
cows at all; it is hollow-belly or, in other 
words, the early frost of last Faff injured not 
only the growing corn but the pastures as well, 
and the grass lacked substance. As a conse¬ 
quence, the cattle were allowed to fall off in 
flesh last Fall, and the winter feed being short 
and poor, they have remained stinted, and are 
really starving. A good warm stable, plenty 
of nutritious food, with an occasional feed of 
potatoes, mangels or other roots, will effec¬ 
tually drive the wolf from any cow's tail, and 
much more humauely than cutting it or bor¬ 
ing her horns. It is simply surprising how 
much ignorance there is on these subjects, as 
though the end of acow’s tail had any connec¬ 
tion with her horns being hollow. A signifi¬ 
cant fact to be remembered, is, that a good 
feeder never has such t rouble among his stock. 
PHOSPHORIC ACID AND NITRATE OF SODA. 
B. G., Shick Shinny, Pa.— 1. In what >bape 
or in what fertilizer can 1 get the most phos¬ 
phoric acid for the money, without having to 
buy so much plaster, earth and salt? 2. WRat 
is nitrate of soda, its price, and what is it worth 
as an application to wheat? 
Ans.— 1. You can undoubtedly get the most 
phosphoric acid for the money in South Caio- 
lma pbospbatie rock or in pure bone flour: but 
it would not be in as soluble a form as in a 
good brand of superphosphate and, of course, 
its assimilation by the plant would be much 
slower. We think there are many honest 
manufacturers of fertilizers, aud who they are, 
you can easily ascertain by consulting the re¬ 
ports of the various Agricultural Stations or 
our advertising columns. 2. Nitrate of soda 
is a substance largely found in South America 
and sold iu the market as Chilian saltpeter. It 
contains, on an average, about 15.73 per eeut. 
of nitrogen, equivalent to 19.29 per cent, of 
ammonia, making 385.8 piouuds of ammouia 
in a tou, worth, at 2o cents pier pound for am¬ 
monia, #77.16; its selling price is # 69 . It has 
a wonderfully stimulating effect on the growth 
'igor of wheat straw; but as it very rap¬ 
idly passes out of the soil in the drainage 
water, it should be used only sparingly, so that 
the growing crop may take it up iu a very 
short time. 
USE OF CRCDE PETROLEUM. 
11. 7. Burfortl, Out., Canada. —1. Is petro¬ 
leum as good as gas tar as au application to 
shingles, and how should it be appvlied? 2. 
W ould it be good as a fresh coat on a kitchen 
floor? 
Ans.— 1 . Petroleum is bet.er than gas tar, 
which contains an acid that rots the wood un¬ 
less it is neutralized by adding quick lime to 
the tar. To apply crude petroleum to the 
shingles proceed as follows: Take au empty 
kerosene oil barrel, bore a drainage hoi.- at 
the bottom, and set it on a sloping draiumg 
