AOS. 2 
book, iii which every cow has an account, 
showing what she milks during the season. 
‘•Here is the milk-house.” This was a build¬ 
ing about 12 feet square. In the center was a 
spring, which filled a pool about four feet 
square, and lined with clean red bricks laid in 
cement. A step around the pool enabled one 
to reach the deep cans set in it, which were 
submerged to within two iuches of the top. A 
cover of wire gauze protected the top of each 
pail from dust or Hies. A tier of shelves ran 
around the building, upon which skimmers, 
spare pails, etc., were ranged. A thermome¬ 
ter, hung in the pool, marked 50 degrees; the 
constant stream flowing out of the pool kept it 
at that low temperature. An ice-box and a 
Cooley creamery completed the furniture. A 
noble black-walnut tree shaded the milk- 
house and covered it with its sweeping 
branches. Within a few steps was the dairy- 
house. This was a building about 21 feet long 
and 16 feet wide. The door opened into a 
wash-room, in which were a pump, a sink and 
a table. 
“I don’t like to have any slopping in my 
dairy, and I do all my churning and washing 
of pans and pails here,” said Miss Martin. 
“Brother Tom helps me churn and our girl, 
Hannah, helps me wash the pans. Here is my 
butter-room.” 
We stepped down about four steps into an 
apartment with, a blue-flag floor. There was 
a stone bench around three sides, upon which 
stood a quantity of small stone-ware jars and 
small wooden pails filled with butter. A table 
in the middle was made of a large slab of blue- 
stone resting upon four brick pillars. Upon 
this slab was the last churning of butter still 
iu the bowl, awaiting the final mixing ; ajar 
of salt and a pair of scales were also upon 
the table. A thermometer hung upon the 
smoothly plastered wall, and marked 60 de¬ 
grees. 
“This is a uuique dairy,” I remarked. 
“I suppose it is,” replied vliss Martin." “I 
got the idea from a French work on dairying 
by Mona. Pouriau, and 1 persuaded father to 
let me have it it made in this way. M. Pour¬ 
iau tkinlcs that butter absorbs an odor from 
the floor when it rests upon it, and advises that 
it should be kept at least 18 inches above it 
on a stone bench. I like the arrangement 
very much. We have a drain in that corner, 
and, if we wish, we can put a hose on the 
pump in the wash room and wash the stone 
floor and benches with cold water from the 
spring. Tom generally does that on Saturday 
afternoon, aud the water ruus off aud the floor 
can he dried very quickly, by opening the 
window and the ventilator in the ceiling. The 
window is on the north side and we have a 
gauze screen iu it aud a tight shutter which 
can bo closed aud opened by this handle, 
without going outside or opeuing the window." 
“ Where do you send your butter for sale ?” 
I asked. 
“The butter is put up into small jars and 
white-oak pails, and is sent to New York in 
boxes once a week. Last week we sent 16, 
six-pound pails. I get 35 cents a pound for 
it.” 
“ Mary has a good thing in her dairy, I can 
tell you,” said Mr. Martin. “1 consider 25 
cents a pouud a fair price for butter wheu all 
these conveniences arc supplied, so we agreed 
that she should look after the dairy ; manage 
it her own way; and pay me 25 cents a pouud 
for all she makes, and pocket the difference. 
She gets 35 cents a pound aud sells all she eau . 
make and wants more cows ; so she clears $10 
a week for herself; she is satisfied, so am I, aud 
1 don’t know as anybody has any cause to 
grumble. She is a good manager and I don't 
see how she gets along with so little fuss, but 
she does, and I never yet heard her say she had 
no time for anything, aud never saw her in a 
hurry. Our cows are grade Jerseys; I make 
butter; you make milk; and your Ayrshires 
may suit you, but my grade Jerseys suit my 
purpose very well. If there is a cow that is 
the best for the butter dairy, I think it is a half- 
bred Jersey. A pure-bred may lie hotter, but 
It would'ut pay to give $250 or $300 for a 
cow. My whole 12 would not pay for two of 
them, and we average eight pounds of butter a 
week, and some will yield 12 when fresh." 
By this time we had returned to the ptneli 
or rather the old folks wero there, the young¬ 
er were lingering behind and taking their 
time. 
“Now" said Mr. Martin “what do you 
think of it? We read a great deal about work 
being disagreeable, but there are people who 
make work of their business, and others who 
don’t seem to find auy trouble about it. As 
to work being degrading, that is simply bosh. 
With some it is disagreeable, no doubt; but 
it seems to me that it is a necessity that all 
should do some work ; and those who don't 
work, simply live on those who do. Work is 
not antagonistic to the highest culture iu man 
or woman. Drudgery, I admit, is a hardship 
and may break the spirit of any person. But 
no educated person need be a drudge. The 
drudge cannot rise above his place”. He is 
field tfiere for want of intelligence and ability 
to ji«e aboy« It. There are some who make 1 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
drudgery of their work because they cannot 
ease it by intelligent management. Brains do 
more than the hands. I would have every girl 
and woman take her share of the world's 
work. We have good old authority for it. 
When Solomon described a woman endowed 
with all the virtues, he said: ‘ She worketh 
willingly with her hands; she also riseth earlv. 
axle turns in two stout pieces only the farther 
one is shown—framed out from A. At the 
back end of axle, and turning with it, is a 
wheel, W, 15 incheB in diameter, made out of 
two-inch plank, on face of which are a number 
of wooden pius four inches long. A lever. L, is 
passed loosely through such of these pins as 
will hold the lever In about the position shown 
A HOME-MADE 
and giveth meat to her v household; she layeth 
her hands to the spindle and her hands hold 
the distaff ; she is not afraid of the snow, for 
her household is clothed with scarlet; her 
clothing is silk and purple ; she looketh well 
to the ways of her household aud eateth uot 
the bread ol idleness.’ There is the whole 
subject in a nutshell. She worked indus¬ 
triously, dressed well and was happy.” 
In the mean time Fred had been put¬ 
ting many questions to Miss Martin and 
Torn about their ways of dairying, the 
pith of the replies being as follows: The 
milk having been taken in the deep pails 
to the pool, is there set for 36 hours, wheu 
it is skimmed and the cream is set to 
ripen iu the creamery for one day. It is then 
takuu to the dairy room and kept there one 
day, when it is churned. It is then at a tem¬ 
perature of 60 degrees. As soon as the butter 
comes, sufficient ice-cold water is thrown in 
to harden it, aud it is then washed thoroughly 
from the buttermilk, and weighed ; salt at the 
rate of one ounce to the pound is then worked 
in and the butter is set away iu the dairy-room 
for 24 hours, when it is reworked and packed 
in small jars or pails, as may lie required by 
the customers. Some like jars, aud some pre¬ 
fer pails. On the whole, the jars are better 
than the pails, as they do not shrink, and Tom 
is not called on to replace hoops occasionally. 
Some coloring is used to bring the shade to 
the proper tint. Jersey butter sometimes re¬ 
quires coloring as much as that of other cows. 
Fred remarked that they nearly all do it in the 
fauey dairies. Miss Martin was confident that 
the feed had considerable influence on the 
color and quality of butter, and preferred to 
have the cows supplied with wheat middlings, 
bran, aud corn meal. The butter came solid 
and hard aud of good flavor in the hottest 
weather. Fifty pouuds of ice daily will keep 
a three-eau Cooley creamery at 40 degrees; 
part of the milk is set in the creamery so as 
to tost the yield of butter. The cream rises 
completely in 24 hours and the milk is sweet 
for the calves. So far there has been no dif¬ 
ference to note in the quautity of butter from 
the pool or the creamery ; but the more rapid 
rising of the cream is a great convenience. 
Miss Martin was very sure that she would uot 
relinquish her dairy business for a good round 
sum of mouey. By-aud-by dairy matters 
were exhausted, and when the cou\ersation 
changed to subjects uot of general interest, I 
bade Mr. Martin good-bye aud returned home¬ 
wards. 
-♦- 
A HOME-MADE CHEESE PRESS. 
The above sketch represents a cheese press, 
all the materials for which cau be found upon 
the farm, aud which possesses some points of 
superiority over the best screw press. A, A, A, 
show the frame of the press which should be 
made strong aud heavy. It canuot well be 
made too strong, and the dimensions are left 
to the convenience of the builder. B, is the 
cheese hoop; C, the follower, or that which 
presses upon the same iu the hoop. Attached 
to C is an upright, four or live iuches square, 
sliding through holes iu the cross pieces of the 
frame. At the top it is rouuded, as shown. 
Bearing on this is the lever E, pivoted at F. 
At the other end Is very securely fasteued a 
stout strap of leather G—au old harness tug— 
the other end of the strap being fastened on 
the axle H, f°a r inches in diameter. This 
CHEESE PBESS. 
in the sketch, when the weight may be huug at 
the upper end as shown, and a great pressure 
bo brought to bear upon the cheese, and that 
too with very little manual labor. By using a 
pail aud stones for weight the pressure may be 
nicely regulated. It will be seen that the lever¬ 
age Is double and very great, but may be made 
as small as desirable. War. R. Brooks. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
«$arm (gronomg. 
SELF-RELIANCE IN FARMING. 
PROFESSOR E. W. STEWART. 
Probabi.y no class prides itself more upon 
practical knowledge than the farming class. 
They never cease to intimate that many ot the 
so-called improvements in agriculture are not 
founded upon a practical basis, but rest merely 
on plausible theory. Theorists are held in the 
same estimation ns vagurists. Farmers re¬ 
quire everything to be worked out. in practice 
before they place value upou it. And with a 
class claiming to be so intensely practical, 
ought we not to expect great independence of 
judgment—that they would work out every 
part of their business in the most self-reliant 
way—basing their conclusions upon all the cir¬ 
cumstances affecting the busiucss? This would 
be a most favorable conclusion for this great 
industry, if the farming class did really decide 
everything upon independent judgment. 
But when we study the commercial opera¬ 
tions of farmers, very little self-reliance is 
found. Take as an example their dealings in 
factory associations. Their ideas of handling 
dairy products are often very crude, and iikely 
to lead to losses from the want of prompt ac¬ 
tion. Some factory managers, lludiog it diffi¬ 
cult to manage the sales with so many dis¬ 
cordant advisers, seek to purchase the milk of 
their patrons so as to have the control of the 
the product. But they are seldom able to do 
this, although they offer a price higher thau 
the market is likely to warrant, thus risking a 
part of the price of manufacture, because the 
average dairy farmer does not study the mar¬ 
ket attentively enough to form a judgment 
upon the real value of milk. Iu other words, 
he does not attompt to form an independent 
judgment upon the value, of his own commod¬ 
ity, but thinks the owner of the factory has 
some superior knowledge which will enable 
him to speculate upon his imllc, and refuses 
the offer. I hear of a number of cases, in 
Erie and other counties of New York, where 
offers of 60 ceuts per 100 pouuds of milk wero 
freely made in early spring, but nearly all the 
patrons rejected the offer, preferring to take 
their chances of dividends. This offer was 
equal to au average of 74 cents for cheese 
during the w hole season, anile as high a price as 
auy of the best judges believed it would bring; 
and much higher thau now seems probable. 
Here the dairyman has all the means of form¬ 
ing a judgment upon the question, which any¬ 
body possesses. The reports of the dairy 
markets are all open to him, but he neglects to 
study them, so as to be able to estimate the 
probable value of milk. He leaves this mat¬ 
ter, so important to his own interest, to the 
party whom he thinks will determine it for his 
own advantage and not that of the dairyman. 
How far this is from any proper self-reliance, 
how far from such practical knowledge of his 
vocation as the farmer neede! How long would 
the mercantile class be successful with such 
indifference to its own business ? Would it be 
possible for the cotton manufacturer to suc¬ 
ceed without a closer estimate of all the ele¬ 
ments of his business? 
But if we examine his keeping of accounts 
with the factory, wc shall he still more sur¬ 
prised at his absolute dependence upon the 
factory manager. Three-fourths of all the 
patrons of factories do not even take the 
trouble to keep any account of the milk deliv¬ 
ered. Instead of studyiug all the elements 
required for a full understanding of the busi¬ 
ness of dairying, they keep no account of the 
separate yield of each cow, or of the whole 
yield of the herd; and if asked the average 
yield of their cows, not one in twenty can an¬ 
swer. If asked the product per acre of grain, 
or yveight of hay per acre, they are equally 
unable to give any accurate information on 
the subject. Is uot this a sufficient explana¬ 
tion of the comparatively sloyv progress of 
agriculture? The farmer, instead of study¬ 
ing practically such details of his business as 
will render him competent to judge of the 
commercial value of his products, leaves his 
interests almost yvholly in the hands of the 
middle-man, and then complains that farming- 
does not pay. What other business would pay 
under the same circumstances? 
I his is a plain statement of the manner in 
which the grcat.majority of farmers carry on 
their business. Does it not show that the 
farmer sadly needs a more practical education 
iu his business, and that self-reliance is one of 
the least of his virtues ? 
—- --. 
MONEY-MAKING MEN AND WOMEN. 
Merchants and manufacturers who have 
made money and become wealthy have done so 
by having something good to sell aDd by continu¬ 
ing to sell such articles as will give satisfaction. 
1 aimers can make money by adopting the 
same rule of always having something good to 
sell and by seUiug such things as will please 
the purchaser. The same necessity exists that 
a farmer should understand his business as 
that a merchant should understand his. and 
there is very little chance for a farmer to make 
money yvbo has to employ others to buy and 
sell for him and who has, all the time, to be 
asking advice of neighbors. How would it 
look for a manufacturer to be obliged to find 
out through others what to make, or for a 
iperchant to seek counsel of other merchants. 
A genuinely clever, business-like merchant 
ascertains what suits his customers, and pro¬ 
cures those styles of goods; and so it is with a 
money-making farmer—he studies the state of 
the market aud finds what kind of animals sell 
for the most money, when everything has been 
reckoned up and the costof food aud attendance 
has been deducted; and as some kiuds of farm¬ 
ing stock require but little attendance, and yel 
sell at a high figure, that is the sort auy shrewd, 
wide-awake farmer will breed. Now. a mer¬ 
chant or store-keeper should always deal in 
such goods as will not be left on his hands as 
so much dead stock. There are, however, 
some who every year have such a quantity 
unsold that at last the things have to be marked 
down to snch a low figure that the loss in¬ 
curred ou them is serious; and if readers of 
this will mentally cast their eyes around, they 
will readily see men who, in agriculture, are 
making the same mistake, for they have on 
their farms every year some kind of stock 
which cannot be sold at a price high enough to 
pay for the cost of producing it. Like the store¬ 
keeper who has gained by a portion of his 
stock and lost all the profits ou account of his 
unsalable wares, so these farmers, by keeping 
ou hand inferior animals, which have to be 
sold at u loss, lose more thau was gained by 
the best sales. 
Good judgment is lacking iu such cases, not 
only in buying and keeping second and third- 
rate stock, but in the management, of it. No¬ 
thing can be more absurd than for a man to 
buy up or breed it low-priced set of animals, 
and think because they are iu his hands they 
will bo worth mure than iu another man’s. It 
is perfectly ridiculous for any man to suppose 
his name alone will bo sufficient to cuhance the 
worth of what he has to sell; for his name, or 
any oue's, is of no use till he has distinguished 
himself by proving his judgment iu possessing 
choice animals. 
In all cases where a inau or woman makes 
mouey, a uniformly good system is udhered 
to; for there uever was any money made, and 
never will be, by any one who is all the while 
changing his stock, and having first one and 
then another man in charge of different parts 
ot his busiucss. Agriculture requires system, 
aud it will not do to be hot one day and cold 
another about anything. To use a common, 
homely expression—hum!tig cannot succeed 
wheu there is auy “fooling" about it. There 
must be a good system decided on, and then 
"stuck to, ’ under all common circumstances 
to secure success in faming as Well as in etU 
other kinds of business, o. a 
