DEC 47 
tendency among the farmers to be more care¬ 
ful about going into debt makes a very great 
difference. Farmers who a short time ago 
gave notes for *315 for a self-binder, are now 
paying notes and interest; ill some cases a total 
of *400 with 50-ceut wheat; other machinery 
proportionately. Such lessons are rather ex¬ 
pensive, aud it is to be hoped that farmers 
have well learned them and will eventually 
profit by their experience, a; that is about the 
only way they can realize any profit, f. a. 
A World of Dairy Wisdom,— In the 
Fourteenth Annual Report of the New Jersey 
Board of Agriculture is an address on “Our 
Dairy Interests,” by the Hon. Edward Bur¬ 
nett, of Mass., who owns a large farm and 
does a very large business besides. He has 
about 100 thoroughbreds, and he also takes 
the milk from the neighbors around him. He 
gets all the milk from five or six hundred cows 
a day.producing every day about four tons of 
milk. His farm is run by machinery—by the 
bell and whistle system, so to speak. He has 
a large creamery on his farm. He speaks of 
daily interests under three heads; 
1st, food; 2d. dairy stock; and, 3d, skill. 
Take the best cow in the world, without pro¬ 
per feed, and no one can make butter that is 
good for anything; or give the best of feed 
with a poor cow, and no one can make butter 
that is first-class. Mr. Burnett says that he 
feeds all the clover hay he can get; for there is 
no feed that can be given cows that is better 
for butter making. He knows it is now some¬ 
what out of fashion for farmers to raise clover 
hay, but be tells them there is notbiug like it 
for the butter dairyman. There is no need to 
tell the old dairyman this, for it was a well- 
established rule with him that he could give 
them nothing better for the purpose, for they 
fully realized the value of it. He does not 
know that it is so much the fault of the farmer 
that clover hay has grown out of fashion as 
the fault of our more modern machinery that 
has sort of shaken the clover out of our farms. 
In Mr. Burnett’s opinion, there is nothing 
like the old-fashioned corn-cob meal, for it fills 
all the requirements, and there is nothing like 
it to make good butter. He knows many 
people claim it will not give butter the fine 
color and quality that fine corn-mcnl will, but 
he thinks there is nothing like this porn-cob 
meal. It is a mistaken idea with many farm¬ 
ers that it is only those fancy farmers, so- 
called, who can afford to teed grain. He 
feeds his cows for about ten months out of 
the twelve, aud pretty much all of this feed 
in the way of grain is given in the shape of 
corn-cob meal. He feeds pretty regularly 
during almost the whole year, except during 
June and July, when they have good pasture, 
but the moment grass gets short or begins to 
dry up, pasture must be supplemented by 
giving them grain of some kind. He feeds all 
the way from four to six quarts of cob-meal 
per day to each cow. He supplements this 
grain by feeding the very best of hay. and 
thinks that if farmers have not a good quality 
of hay, corn fodder will make a better quality 
of butter than hay when it is over-ripe. In 
making fine butter it is not one little thing 
that tells, but a whole lot of things, little and 
big, struug together. Mr. Burnett refers to 
bis yearlings and two-year olds for the most 
conclusive proofs of the value of corn-stalks 
as a fodder, for they get but little else. He 
feeds but little grain to these young cows, aud 
they are the best evidence of the value of 
corn fodder. During the last few years, 
while silos have been receiving so much atten¬ 
tion, he has given this question of corn fodder 
a thorough investigation, aud be is more than 
ever convinced of its value as a food. Besides 
the hay aud fodder he feeds, and the grain, 
he raises large quantities of roots. He feeds 
5,000 bushels of roots a year. He manures 
heavily aud raises very large crops. He lias 
followed this plan for 15 years, aud would not 
like to dispense with these, for they are an im¬ 
portant factor on his farm. He feeds them 
more as a tonic than uuything else, for he 
must, as a stock raiser, look not only after the 
product from his cows, but also after the 
progeny. 
At half past five in the moruiug every man 
must be iu his place in the stable, lor that Ls 
the time they begin milking at Mr. Burnett’s. 
The herdsman has already given the cows a 
good foddering of hay. At a quarter past 
six the milking is done, and then the men go 
to breakfast, and the herdsman cleans out the 
stalls—he takes his breakfast at whatever time 
it suits him, for he has his duties to attend to, 
and goes when he best can. The herdsman 
then gives the stalls n good cleaning, brush¬ 
ing them out thoroughly, and then gives the 
cows their gram, each animal getting from 
two to four quarts of cob meal, those near 
calving and those cows that are dry getting 
little or no grain. After he has had bis break¬ 
fast the cows are watered, ami are given a 
good quantity of corn stalks. In the after¬ 
noon they begin feeding about ball' past two, 
rarely getting two meals, but quite a number 
of courses—that is his plan. They don't, get 
through eating their different courses until 
half past nine or ten in the morning, and then 
they begin again about half past t wo in the 
afternoon on their other feed. Then 
roots are given and grain again, and 
then comes hay, and then they milk at 
five. They milk at exactly the same time 
night and morning, dividing the time into two 
periods of about equal length. After they 
are milked they get another foddering of hay. 
He is an old-fashioned feeder, and divides his 
feed into two feeds a day, They are all al¬ 
lowed to run out. iu the afternoon, being 
turned out of the stables then. 
Mr. Burnett thinks that refrigeration in 
summer is as important as heating m winter, 
aud that no man can make good butter all the 
year round if he does not have a cold room 
for his cream in summer, or a supply of ice, or 
a spring, or whatever arrangement he may 
have for cooling the temperature of his cream. 
He caunot make decent butter the year 
round without he has one of these. It is the 
most important point that has been decided iu 
the last ten years, and it is a point which 
must be borne in mind by Eastern farmers if 
they would compete in the markets with their 
rivals iu butter making. 
The Hou. H. D. Bherman, of Iowa, uas for 
several years been lookiug into this subject— 
in fact, he has given the subject some of the 
best years of his life. He has for the last 25 
years been devoted to the work, and this man 
has talked clover aud has talked creamery, 
aud the methods of building creameries, aud 
the use of ice and refrigerators in summer, 
until to-day the Western butter that used to 
go to Chicago in 15 to 100-pound kegs, and was 
sold at the bottom price, now brings from 35 
to 40 cents per pound iu New York markets. 
It comes to New York and Sells by the car¬ 
load at the very top of the market. The time 
is certainly coming when something must he 
done, and in Massachusetts they are establish¬ 
ing creameries, and these have increased in 
that State during the last two years fully 
two-hundredfold, and they are getting good 
results from them. 
Many people do not realize the difference in 
the value of milk. Mr Burnett has had much 
experience in buying milk for his dairy aud 
weighing every cow’s milk iu his own herd 
night aud morning. He has in his herd prob¬ 
ably half-a-dozen cows giving 7,000 pounds of 
milk in a year, the average being about 10 
pounds per milking. His poorest cows give 
5,000 pounds per annum. What are the re¬ 
sults? It, takes 10 pounds of milk to make a 
pound of butter, when the milk comes from 
bis cows, while the milk he buys from his 
neighbors gives but one pound of butter to 22 
pounds of milk. Look at the relative values 
of the two in dollars and cents. Take 5,000 
pounds of milk per cow, and if it takes 22 
pounds to make a pound of butter, we get 227 
pounds, aud if it only takes 10 pounds of milk 
to a pound of butter we get 312 pounds of but¬ 
ter from the same weight of milk, or a differ¬ 
ence of 85 pounds iu favor of the best cow’s 
milk. 
Mr. Burnett makes his butter in a barrel 
churn, holding from 75 to UMJ pounds of but¬ 
ter. It takes about 40 minutes iu summer at 
the right temperature. He makes it a rule to 
have the cream at a temperature of 50 de¬ 
grees in summer, and 02 degrees iu winter. He 
thinks this of the utmost importance, and be¬ 
lieves a thermometer of just as much import¬ 
ance iu the dairy as the milking pail—every 
bit as important. He wants a low tempera¬ 
ture in summer aud a high temperature in 
winter, and if these are not, secured we cannot 
be successful butter makers. His butter room 
is kept at about the same temperature sum¬ 
mer and winter—in the summer by ventila¬ 
tors which open directly from the ice house to 
the room. In this ice house are some 25 tons 
of ice, aud by this means he is able to keep 
the temperature of the butter room within 
two or three degrees of 00 . In about 40 min¬ 
utes after he begins churning the butter comes 
in little particles, or little globules about the 
size of wheat, when the buttermilk is drawn 
off very carefully and allowed to drain for 1U 
or 15 minutes. Then he gives the butter ulxiut 
three washings with brine—sometimes only 
two washings and sometimes four, for he ul- 
ways wants the brine to Call away from the 
the butter clear —without any milk. Three 
washings will generally accomplish this re¬ 
sult, Then it is worked in the churn, where 
it is brought together into one lump or mass. 
Then it is taken out and placed on a tray 
iptydB of wood and this is placed on the table. 
The Amounts of Plant-food Extracted 
from the Soil by Crops of Mixed Hay and 
German Millet as Estimated by the New 
Jersey Ex. Station. —The following analyses 
give the percentages of nitrogeu, phosphoric 
acid and potash, both in mixed hay and dried 
millet. These have been calculated into abso¬ 
lute weights per ton of hay with the following 
results. For Comparison, the number of 
pouuds of each of these three elements of 
plant-food to be found in a ton of clover or 
lucern has also been added; 
Brand. 
55 
B 
o 
£ © 
CJ3 
50 £ 
x: * 
ac £ 
« — v 
o_ o 
~ jg 
^ o o 
ra w 
X d 
|® 
c _ e 
ex 
Pounds Pounds Pounds 
Hay from Hungarian Cross 19.8 fi.fi 26 2 
Timothy 11 ay mid Hover... 15 0 fi.fi 84.8 
Clover, average of two cuts 18 8 7.fi 59 fi 
Lucern, " " three •• 54 fi 8 0 42.0 
With a single exception,millet requires less ex- 
peusive plant-food than eitherof the other pro¬ 
ducts mentioned in this table. This exception 
is found in the case of nitrogen in mixed hay. 
When these results are calculated upon the 
crop returns per acre, the results are still more 
favorable for the millet, as the following 
table shows; 
Brand. 
c :*> 
CJ3 
•8 » 
B ~ 
JBO 
bed p. 
Cer 
s- £ C 
£oS 
»-• f- '*-* 
! § £ 
< r- O 
UCL 
too 
C«- £ 
•s ^ 
®*B.O 
: >> 
,x 
'§ I 
a o 
• a, 
is® 
: £ i 
Hnv from Hungarian Grass 
Timothy Hay and clover.... 
Clover “ . 
Lucern.. 
Pounds 
Pounds 
Pounds 
51 5 
17 l 
68.1 
54.0 
23.7 
125 8 
190 0 
36 1 
2U6 5 
2(11 fi 
39.fi 
208.5 
A crop of mixed clover and timothy takes 
from au acre of ground more nitrogen, more 
phosphoric acid and more potash by 50 per 
cent, than a crop of millet. A crop of clover 
extracts four times as much nitrogen and pot¬ 
ash aud twice as much phosphoric acid from 
an acre as a crop of millet. Lucern, iu some 
respects, uses even more plant-food than clo¬ 
ver. A more definite opinion of the relative 
amounts of expensive plant-food removed 
from the soil by the above-mentioned crops 
can be gained by computing the cost of re¬ 
turning to the soil equivalent amounts of 
equally available plant-food, used iu the form 
of commercial fertilizers. The estimates are 
as follows: 
Nitrate of Acid Muriate 
Brand. Soda- Phosphate, of Potash. 
Hungarian Grass, lbs Value lbs Value lbs Value 
and Hay. 82t) IS.UJ 130 *0.98 175 $8.50 $12.48 
Timothy Hay and 
Clover. 
... 335 
888 
180 
1.8S 
250 
5.00 
14 73 
Clover Hay ... 
. 1,190 
29.75 
800 
2.15 
580 
10.60 
42.00 
Lucern " ... 
. 1.625 
40 63 
300 
2.25 
410 
8.V0 
51 08 
The lightest demauds are made by Hungari¬ 
an Grass, for the cost of returning all of the 
expensive food removed by it from an acre of 
soil is *12.4$ only; still the Hungarian Grass is 
considered an exhaustive crop. The heaviest 
demands are made by clover and lucern. A 
good clover crop, for instance, takes $42.80 
worth of expensive plant-food from an acre, 
a ud $51 are ueeded to replace that extracted l>y 
au acre of lucern, yet both of these crops leave 
the surface-soil noticeably enriched by their 
growth. The question, therefore, depends up¬ 
on the location in the ground from which each 
crop extracts its food. Clover and lucern are 
well-known deep feeders; Timothy roots have 
also been followed two or three feet below the 
surface, but millet, on the othpr hand, is said 
to feed entirely iu the first three or four inch¬ 
es of soil. Admitting the truth of these state¬ 
ments, the difference between these crops 
consists solely in the fact that one class dial us 
the subsoil, and its effects arc noticed only 
after years of cultivation; the millet drains 
the surface-soil and its effect are at once appar 
ent. All are valuable servants to the farmer 
when their habits of growth are understood. 
Plea for Instruction in the Industrial 
Arts. —Professor John Hamilton’s address at 
the formal opening of the new Mechanic- 
Arts building at the State Agricultural Col¬ 
lege of Pennsylvania, is the most practical and 
at the same time most, eloquent plea for such 
Schools that has yet apjieared in print. The 
argument, flows like a full, steady onward 
stream and must be read iu the whole for just 
appreciation of its value. Here ore a few 
fragments chipped out of it: 
“Until lately the man who worked outside 
in the shop, and the student who worked in¬ 
side over Ins hooks were utterly divided, intel¬ 
lectually, socially aud practically; their lives 
led in two directions. . .There came a time 
within our own recollection when the indus¬ 
trial classes became urgent for educational 
aid and when men of learning and experience, 
familiar with college litn and training, and 
also with industrial life, realized its wants, 
. , . The good Samaritan who first ex¬ 
tended aid to wounded industries was Joseph 
Sheffield, the founder of the Sheffield Scien¬ 
tific School of Yale College. . . An idea 
had been started which could not be sup¬ 
pressed; the education, not of the industrial 
classes only, hut of all classes, in industrial 
art. . . Recently, like a new star, a new 
quality that lay open for all these centuries, 
right before men’s eyes, has been discovered. 
It is exhibited by the youngest child that plays 
on the floor of your home. It is the desire to 
construct. It is a legitimate craving of the 
human mind. This is the discovery of the 
age. It has overturned the old system of edu¬ 
cation all over this land and within 20 years. 
. . . The apprentice system is gone; the 
shop system only traius iu single specialties; 
the new system undertakes to turn out thor¬ 
oughly trained, educated art isans and to do it 
in the shortest possible time. . . The world 
wants trained men. . . Under this instruc¬ 
tion the studeut acquires mastery of the prin¬ 
ciples that, underlie all the mechanical arts, 
aud can soon acquire the specialties of any 
branch, and as he is at the same time gaining 
literary and mathematical knowledge, he be¬ 
comes fitted to direct the operations of others, 
and'to supervise work in the line of his partic¬ 
ular choice. 
Farm Laborers in Different Countries. 
—According to a French official report, 
the great drain upon the rural popu¬ 
lation of France for army service, the 
smallness of the families (averaging only 
three children to five iu Germany) and the 
tendency toward city life, which is general in 
these railroad days, has led to extensive in¬ 
quiry by the French government as to the 
causes of the scarcity of farm laborers, and 
reports have been sent in by Consuls stationed 
in different countries. In Germany the great 
extension of sugar beet culture, requiring 
much labor on the soil has caused a scarcity 
of bauds in some localities, and a rise of wages, 
but the prolific Poles aud other dwellers in the 
poor, sandy districts of Northern Germany, 
move southward iu the busy season ami sup- 
pi)' labor enough. While in Germany and 
France the governments act as guardians to 
the poorer classes, iu England they are 
scarcely interfered with but for interest of 
public health and general education. The 
family increase seems to keep up a sufficient 
supply of laborers, although so many emi¬ 
grate. In Russia the most that is done for 
them is an occasional holiday and distribution 
of brandy or other stupefying and enslaving 
drinks! These people and the Poles, whose 
lives are so hard, are attached to their native 
soil, and never leave it willingly, and the 
harder their lives the more they multiply. 
Like the French emigrants to the frozen shores 
of the Saint Lawrence, hardship seems to 
favor their increase and vigor. The report 
from Washington by M. Houston, Minister, 
recites the efforts of inventors to supply 
machinery when laborers were few, and the 
laws passed and others proposed in the Ameri¬ 
can Congress of late, to check the immigration 
of poor laborers now that there is excessive 
competition; also the efforts made to induce 
the surplus laboring population of the cities to 
go in colonies on to lands in the West aud 
South. 
Potatoes and the Irish. —The American 
Analyst disputes the statement of Dr. Nich¬ 
ols (see page 770) regarding the potato as an 
articleof food. "The peculiarity of the potato,” 
it says, “ is that, besides being at once one of 
the cheapest and most wholesome of foods, it 
has been conclusively shown by Adam Smith 
Loudon and McCulloch, to be so great in 
nutritive value and reproductive power that 
an acre sown with it will support twice the 
number of persons as an acre sown v ith 
wheat,” The Analyst then goes on to give its 
idea of the true reason of Irish poverty, to wit: 
‘‘a too-crowded population, caused by the ex¬ 
cellence of the potato as a common food.” 
The Boston Pilot calls this nonsense, “Irish 
disconteut,” it says—and it ought to know— 
“ is caused by foreign oppression, and Irish 
poverty by the land of the country being 
1 owned ’ by a few hundred aristocrats, most 
of whom live elsewhere, spending the enorm¬ 
ous rents racked from their tenants at the 
point of the bayonet. Besides this, there is no 
varied industry, no mining or manufacturing, 
no fishery labor—nothing but farming the 
lands the people cau never own.” 
BOILED DOWN AND SEASONED. 
Our esteemed contemporary, Ihe Kansas 
Farmer, says that farmers justly complain 
that 82 a ton for cane is not remunerative, 
and if they may expect a lower rate to rule, 
their interest In the sugar-making business 
would diminish as fast as the fact became 
known. Experience and observation both 
testify tiiut us a business expands prices of its 
products decrease, The general manufacture 
of sugar in Kaqsui, will reduce the price of 
sugar, aud for the Kama reason the generaj 
