4885 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
the cistern, or well, so that it can move in 
unison with the tilting motion of the platform, 
so as to keep in line, thus accommodating 
itself to the change of direction vertically of 
the plunger and its tubular piston rod. A 
railing surrounds the trough and that side of 
the platform, so that the cattle can only ap¬ 
proach it by coming upon the platform. It 
will be seen that the cattle pump the water for 
their own drinking, and a surplus for sheep, 
hogs, and the like. The platform settles very 
gradually, owing to the resistance of the 
water to be raised, and does not frighten the 
cattle. 
A very ingeniously devised, automatically 
operating cattle pump was constructed by 
Peter Fraer of West Spring, Pa., the patent 
for which expired a few years ago. I do not 
vouch for its being of great, practical utility, 
although it certainly looks as if it possessed 
the necessary qualifications which would in¬ 
sure its successful operation. There are no 
difficult parts to make. The tube and spout 
may be of gas-pipe. The valves may be of 
the ordinary leather clap trap pattern. 
The drawing (Fig. 83) represents the differ¬ 
ent parts, in sectional view. The cattle step¬ 
ping upon the platform, G, depress it, which 
acting upon the connecting levers H, between 
the platform und the piston D, in the pump- 
box B. causes the piston to rise. This forces 
the water into the box cylinder, B. up t hrough 
the valve and its spout iDto the trough F, out 
of which the cattle drink. After the cattle 
leave the platform, the spring, N, elevates it 
and forces the piston down again, the water 
passing through the valves in the piston. It 
is designed to have the piston ascend quite 
gradually, so that an animal will not be at all 
frightened while drinking, and the capacity 
of the pump should be such that a sufficiency 
of water will be raised at each descent of the 
platform for an animal to drink. 
The valve in the bottom of box B opens 
when the piston rises, and shuts when it des¬ 
cends. One of these pumps can be construc¬ 
ted by almost any good meehauie and in wells 
of moderate depth it will work finely. 
F. B. BROCK. 
A northern Kansas paper, so says the In¬ 
dicator of Kansas City, tells that recently a 
farmer brought to town and sold a wagon¬ 
load of corn and a pail of butter. The corn 
weighed about 2.000 pounds and netted $8 in 
cash, and the butter weighed a little upwards 
of 12 pounds and netted #3, and some odd 
cents. A bushel of corn fed to a good milch 
cow would produce about three pounds of 
butter, which would be equal to 75 cents for 
the corn. 
Thk American Cultivator says that the Po- 
land-China pigs are perhaps the very best to 
cross with the smaller breeds. The sows are 
always kind, have large litters, and rear them 
with less difficulty and loss than any other 
breed the writer has tried The Chester 
White and Jersey Red sows become cross and 
unmanageable after rearing one or two litters, 
aud it is at this age that a good sow should be 
worth more to the breeder than she is at any 
other. The Poland Chinas are of the large 
breeds, and are well adapted to furnish the 
sow in crosses with the smaller kinds. 
Economical Rations for a Cow.— The 
Maine Farmer says that experiments at the 
Maine State College Farm have satisfied the 
officers that the best results, taking all things 
into account, have been obtained when milch 
cows nr j given a ration of 20 pounds of hay, 
three pounds each of bran, cotton seed and 
Indian meal per day. With hay figured at 
$10 pertou. butter can be made at a cost of 15 
cents per pound. The butter could be made a 
little cheaper upon other grams, or rather, 
the same grains iu other proportion*, but it 
would be at the expense of the condition of 
the animal. With these figures as a guide, 
how eau farmers lu the northern tier of New 
England States afford to sell their hay at tho 
usual marker, prices in those localities? Far 
better to feed it out, sell butter at 80 cents, or 
$20 per tou for toe hay, and then have the 
manure left that is made from both hay aud 
meal. 
How to Obtain a Profit on Fruit.— 
Mr. Thomas remarks, iu the Country Gentle¬ 
man, that the man who raises fine fruit, care¬ 
fully assjrts. packs well, and murks his name 
on all his packages, will ultimately acquire a 
reputation among purchasers, by which he eau 
always obtain a ready and good market when 
the country is flooded with second rate pro¬ 
ducts. Ihe aim for success should therefore 
be to select the best varieties, give the trees 
the best cultivation, prune to prevent a mass 
of brush, destroy insects, gather carefully, 
assort the best, pack securely, and ship to 
intelligent and competent venders, who know 
the difference between the finest and only 
medium fruit, and who can take advantage of 
this difference in supplying purchasers. 
Remedy for Lice on Cattle.—A very 
common remedy prescribed for the purpose of 
getting rid of lice on cattle is pure kerosene. 
The Dairyman, of Chicago, has seen many 
shocking results from the reckless and igno¬ 
rant use of this oil on the backs of cows. 
_ 
R-N-y. I 
dans and journalists and others, because they 
do not know better, are encouraging silk cul¬ 
ture in California. The State has established 
a Silk Commission and made an appropriation 
to sapport it. Congress has given a handsome 
sum for the encourage ment of silk culture in 
the United States, Farmers and gardeners 
have been encouraged to plant mulberry trees; 
ladies of small means have been led to spend 
money and time on silk culture, and some, hear¬ 
ing of the profits of silk culture in California, 
have even gone thither from Missouri and other 
States expecting to make an easy income by 
raising silk. Several years ago, when that 
Fig. 32. 
While it may be true that some grades of 
kerosene are so diluted at the store that they 
may be harmless when applied to the cow, yet 
the chances are that the user will get hold of 
a grade of oil that is altogether too strong for 
the purpose, aud will raise a severe and lasting 
blister, if applied in quantity. To avoid such 
an accident, mix the kerosene with lard, or 
other grease, about half-and-half ; or a little 
more of the former, and then rub the mixture 
well into all parts of the hair, that can be 
found to be infested by the insects. They are 
not bard to drive off if a little persistency is 
used iu the treatment of them. Lice and 
grease cannot agree; it fills up the breathing 
apparatus of the little animals and smothers 
them; only keep up the application until all 
disease, flacherie, attacked the European 
worms, some little money was made by two 
or three persons in raising eggs for export to 
France and Italv, but there never has been a 
dollar made in California by raising cocoons 
for winding purposes. On the contrary, some 
money and every hour of the time spent on 
silk culture have been lost. If the fancy of 
rich ladies to raise silk worms did not lead 
them into advocating it as a profitable busi¬ 
ness for people who have to earn their living, 
we would have nothing to say: but a cruel, 
the cruellest of wrongs, is beiDg perpetrated 
on people who have not a dollar to waste, and 
whose time and labor are their only means of 
subsistence. 
If this is true, those people and those jour¬ 
nals who are urging people of small means 
and great needs, to invest their money in 
silk culture, are very culpable. We have con¬ 
stantly urged onr readers to be very careful 
in this matter, as we well remember the Mo¬ 
ras multicaulis craze of many years ago. It 
is well that wealtbvpeopleand the Government 
should experiment in these matters; but those 
whose daily bread depends much upon their 
daily labor would do well to be slow in risk¬ 
ing heavily in new things. 
The Student's Farm Journal, a wide¬ 
awake little monthly, published by the stu¬ 
dents of the Iowa Agricultural College, Ames. 
Iowa, should be taken and read in every 
farmer’s family in that State. Though edited 
by the boys and girls, it contains mauy solid 
and sensible things. Among others. it says the 
young man who spends his money for tobacco 
and drink as fast as he earns it, even if he be 
a good worker, will ever scratch a poor man’s 
Rural New-Yorker. 
the eggs are hatched, or a new crop will come 
on to take the place of the army you have 
already destroyed. 
The Faithful Goat.— The Dairyman says 
that there is no great admiration in America 
for the goat, and yet there is no animal con¬ 
nected with the dairy of greater antiquity, 
or to which the little stomachs of modern 
babies are more deeply indebted. The poor 
people wholive lu the suburbsof cities depend 
almost entirely upon the vagrant goats for 
their supply of the health-giving milk. These 
faithful animals subsist entirely upou the 
grass of the open commons, refuse in ash bar¬ 
rels, and what choice bits of fresh vegetables 
they can purloin from the front doors of 
grocery stores. All honor, then, to the faith¬ 
ful goat, that furuishes the staff of life, aud 
gets nothing in return for it, but ridicule! 
Fig. 33. 
Spreading Manure.— We hope that our 
readers do not need to be reminded of nenry 
Stewart’s advice uever to unload manure luto 
the Held in heaps to be spread afterwards. 
This is both a lossand an injury. One rain or 
a week’s delay in the spreading will cause the 
ground under the heaps to become saturated 
with the strongest part of the manure, while 
the rest of the field will be deprived of a just 
share of it. To leave these heaps in a field all 
the Winter for the purpose of spreading them 
in the Spring, is a still greater waste and loss 
and more serious damage. 
Tns Silk Culture Craze.— Is silk culture 
a delusiou and a snare? The San Francisco 
Herald of Trade says that many enthusiastic 
ladies, from philanthropy, a few of the gros¬ 
ser sex from baser motives, and some politi- 
head. It is the mau who can curb present 
desire, to prepare for an unseen future, that 
will make a success in life. Every one of the 
farmers who began life 20 years ago. with 
only their handsand good intentions, but who 
are now at the head of prosperous farms, will 
agree that young men, if they would succeed, 
must cultivate the habit of preparing for the 
future by curhing the desire for ease and 
present gratifloatiou. aud it might have added 
with equal truth, that they must spend a por¬ 
tion of their time iu learning the value of 
better methods of eultu-e and Che larger and 
more intelligent application of brain work 
to the processes of the farm. 
MULTUM IN PARVO. 
A writer in Column ’s Rural World says 
that there has not been a better time in many 
years than this is for going iDto the wool- 
growing business It is a truism scarcely 
necessary to remind you of, that the time to 
buy is when everybody wants to sell. No 
one need fear that wool-growing will go out 
of fashion in this country permanently, for 
it never will. 
It seems that the Messrs. Sutton, of London, 
have induced the Solanum Maglia to bear 
seeds, the male parent being one of their best 
disease-resisting roots.*. 
The Dorking is a long established English 
breed of superlative excellence as a table 
fowl. There are three recognized varieties, 
the Silver Gray, the Colored, and the White. 
They are more than medium sized, long¬ 
bodied. full-breasted, hardy fowls with white 
or flesh-colored shanks, skin and flesh, and 
good layers of large, white eggs, which are 
uusurpassed in quality So says Mr Bliss in 
the N. Y, Tribune. Our own observations 
corroborate all of it except a* to hardiness,,.. 
According to Prof. Taylor, of the Dep. 
of Ag., the simplest test of pure butter is sul¬ 
phuric acid. A few drops combined with the 
butter will turn it first a whitish yellow and, 
in 10 minute®, a brick-red. Oleomargarine 
treated in the same way, turns at first to a 
clear amber and, in 20 minutes, a deep crim¬ 
son. Use a glass rod in mixing the acid with 
the butter... 
The very low prices for wool that have 
prevailed during the last two years, have had 
the effect of turning the attention of many 
farmers from raising sheep exclusively for 
the wool clip to the possibility of combining a 
fair quality of salable wool with a high quali¬ 
ty of mutton in the carcass; aud for this 
double purpose it is doubtful, the Breeder’s 
Gazette thinks, if aDy breed is equal, and cer¬ 
tainly none are superior, to the Oxford Downs. 
The expense, trouble, and sometimes dan¬ 
ger, arising from the necessity of overhauling 
house drains, lead to a suggestion that a com¬ 
plete plan of the drains of a bouse should be 
preserved, where it may always be referred 
to by the plumbers when making repairs. 
This is the sensible suggestion of the Sanitary 
News....... 
It further says that it fs impossible for any- 
oue, who carefully examines the evidence, 
to hesitate for a moment in the conclusion 
that the fatality of epidemic diseases is almost 
invariably in precise proportion to the de¬ 
gree in which an impure atmosphere has 
beeu respired... 
Want of fresh air aggravates all diseases, 
increases the power of infection, retards 
con valescence and hastens the death of the sick. 
The Kansas City Live Stock Indicator says 
that ten Merino sheep mav be kept on what 
will sustain one cow weighing 1.000 pouads. 
The sheep will work up more straw into ma¬ 
nure, aud if they are mainly breeding ewes 
will probahly net as much, or more, income 
than the cow, and with much less tabor. 
The Michigan Farmer denounces the Wasepi 
Poultry Yards of Wasepi, St. Joseph Co., 
Mich., as quite unworthy of patronage. 
Give the poultry cabbage, for green food. 
Give them warm water every morning. Feed 
them liberally all sorts of food. Keep the 
house clean aud warm—then you will get eggs. 
The Dairyman says that it is simply annoy¬ 
ing to notice how much more milk one man 
can get from a herd of cows, than another. 
Good milkers, it thinks, are born, not made; 
and when you get one you had better keep him. 
Plant a few Beurrd Bose Fear trees next 
Spriog.if yon live in Massachusetts, New York 
or Texas These States are where it thrives 
best. But it thrives fairly in many others— 
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, In¬ 
diana, Kansas, for instance . 
Are your potatoes sprouting, your apples 
rotting? Better go over them. 
Only three out of 40 Senators, and only 20 
out of 240 representatives in the Massachusetts 
Legislature are farmers, says the New England 
Homestead... 
The Orange County Farmer reminds its 
readers that a cheap (machine-made) harness 
is dear at any price. 
Prof I. P. Roberts gives a few good 
hints to farmers in Science, Season fence- 
posts one year be'ore using, be says. Cut oak 
and cedar in February; chestnut and most 
other woods iu August. To give durability, 
he advises that wesoak the lower ends of posts 
in brine before settmg. 
To drive nails into very hard wood, dip 
their points in oil. He savsthat if we will try 
stauding aud lying on a plunk floor twenty- 
three consecutive hours,we will use the stanch¬ 
ions for kindlings and build a covered barn¬ 
yard. 
Prof. Roberts advises that we feed cattle 
but twice daily, always before milking, and 
that gwe also give^,water twice, at a tern- 
