THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4i9 
l'J03 
MANACINO A HAND SEPARATOR. 
How to Run and Care for It. 
After using a hand separator six months I have 
learned many thing in its use, trivial in themselves, 
perhaps, but which all contribute to the ease and 
quickness of its management. These little points 
were not in the directions that came with the ma¬ 
chine, but have been the result of experience, and an 
account of them may be of use to others. The ma¬ 
chine must of course be put up so that it will be firm 
and level, and if on a wooden bench it will be found 
most convenient to have the bench 24 inches wide 
and from 36 to 40 inches long. When nearly ready to 
separate, put the bowl together, then holding it in the 
left hand, take the oil can, which should be kept in 
a convenient place, and oil the worm spindle and the 
places on the machine that need oil. Then lower the 
bowl into place, put on the covers, with the fioat, 
and the tank, and if the machine is to be started in 
a few minutes open the oil cup. Have the air of the 
room pure during the separating; the cream and milk 
run in small streams, and if the air is foul they can¬ 
not help absorbing some bad flavors. 
The thickness of the cream can be quite nearly 
regulated by the cream screw, so that the specified 
number of turns of the crank will bring cream of the 
right thickness. But milk varies, and sometimes it 
will be thinner than at others. The appearance of 
the stream will show the thickness. In our case, sell¬ 
ing cream in bottles, the cream should drop straight 
down from the spout in a smooth stream. When it 
fiows faster and twists, it is too thin, and the speed 
should be i n - 
creased a little. 
It is better to 
have it too thick 
than too thin, as 
then it can be 
thinned a little' 
with milk. When 
the milk has all 
run out of the 
tank, pour i n 
about six quarts 
of the skimmed 
milk and con¬ 
tinue turning the 
crank for about 
20 turns. Then 
shut off the oil; 
1 have this for a 
signal for the 
one who turns 
to stop, and so 
never forget and 
leave the oil run¬ 
ning. Have a 
quart pitcher 
handy and when 
t h e skim-milk 
begins to come 
throng h the 
cream spout—it 
usually makes a 
hissing sound 
first—take away 
the cream dish and substitute the pitcher. Let the 
milk run through the cream spout, putting more 
skim-milk in the tank if necessary, till there is a full 
quart, then, when the pitcher is nearly full, shut off 
the flow. In this way, unless the cream has been 
coming too thick, there will be no cream left in the 
bowl, and there will be a quart of good milk to use. 
1 have found it easiest to wash the parts as soon 
as we are through separating, though if one cannot 
do this they may be put in the tank and left to soak 
in clear w'ater. Plenty of hot water is necessary. I 
have a teakettleful boiling, some in the tank of the. 
stove, and a galvanized water pail nearly full that 
has been set on the stove long enough to get quite 
warm. This pail is placed on the bench next the 
separator, and the dishpan next to that. I take off 
the tank first and rinse out the foam, then wash it 
out with hot water and washing powder, scalding it 
after that and wiping it dry. This suds and scalding 
water is put in the dishpan. As I take the covers 
off, they are first dropped in the clear w’ater in the 
paii, then washed in the suds, then placed in a five- 
quart milkpan which is nearly full of boiling water. 
Each piece goes through this process, and after scald¬ 
ing is wiped dry on a clean towel. The use of the 
first bath of clear water will be seen if one ever gets 
any “separator slime” in soapy water, for even a 
little of it makes the most disgusting mess, and the 
water will have to be turned away and a new start 
made. Clear water, especially if it is quite warm, 
will take it all off nicely, though the brushes should 
be used at least once a day. The pieces, after wash¬ 
ing, are put into the tank an4 set away where they 
will be in the fresh air and out of the dust. 
If one has not a great quantity of cream, and 
it is to be bottled, a large pitcher, one that is not 
greasy or cracked, is excellent to catch the cream in. 
It is handy to pour from. As soon as the separating 
is over the pitcher should be set in a pail of cold 
water. As soon as the cream is cold it should be 
bottled and the caps put on. In hot weather we put 
the bottles down the well in large pails, and when it 
is taken to town the pails are not drawn up from the 
well till the very last minute, and when in the wagon 
are tightly covered with a thick blanket. All jars 
have the date of separating on the cap, and then there 
is never any mistake about the age of the cream. We 
managed our cream this way without ice all Summer, 
and had no trouble from souring. 
It is much easier to have two run the machine, one 
to turn, and the other to attend to pouring in milk, 
changing cans, etc., but when necessary one can run 
the milk through alone. Have all cans and pitchers 
handy, then when the skim-milk can is full, shut off 
the flow of milk from the tank, drop the crank, and 
as quickly as possible change the cans and pour more 
milk in the tank. Then take the handie again and 
catch up with the machine, and start the flow again. 
When all through, do the same way to flush the bowl. 
SUSAX BROWN ROBBINS. 
MAPES, THE HEN MAN. 
PEDIGREED PIGS.—Here is a chance for the Berk¬ 
shire man (page 714, preceding volume) to try conclu¬ 
sions between his pedigree pigs, and one owned by a 
man who places more reliance on liberal and intelli¬ 
gent feeding than on pedigree. I am not going to say 
a word against purebred stock. Good ancestry is 
without doubt a valuable heritage either in man or 
beast. The advantage thus gained, however, I believe 
is often destroyed by injudicious feeding. On the 
other hand, an animal without the best advantages of 
birth and heritage can often be pushed to the front 
ranks of excellence by wise and liberal feeding. Billy 
G. 2nd was three weeks old May 18, on which date he 
weighed 19 pounds, having gained just seven pounds 
during the preceding week. Now if the Berkshire 
man will take one of his purebi-ed pigs, and weigh it 
occasionally during the season until seven months 
old, as I expect to do with Billy G. 2nd, I am sure 
readers will watch the progress of the two pigs with 
interest. I expect to use nothing but whole corn and 
skim-milk from the day he is weaned, which will 
probably be at six weeks of age. I shall keep it be¬ 
fore him all the time, so that he can balance his own 
i-ation, unless I see signs of his making a “gormand” 
of himself to his injury. 
BUILDING PORK OR PLANTS.—A neighbor 
stopped in passing one day, to see, as he said, what 
made the pigs in our field outgrow his. He said he 
failed to get his to put on that “porky” appearance 
which he thought he saw in ours. Probably his pigs 
lack nourishment at some essential point. The same 
principles hold good in feeding vegetable life that ap¬ 
ply to all animal life. Each individual plant must be 
given the best conditions, or it cannot gather to itself 
the elements of matter needed to develop into the 
beet spepimeh possible. There is an analogy, I tbinH. 
between a "porky pig” and a well-fed corn plant. 
Corn plays an important part in making the porky 
pig, and soluble nitrogen an important part in making 
a good corn plant. But, you say, it is not nitrogen, 
but carbon, which composes the great bulk of the 
corn plant. How do you explain that? It is a well- 
known fact that the effect of soluble nitrogen is to 
promote an abundant leaf growth. It is equally well- 
known that plants take in the carbon which goes to 
make up the great bulk of their substance, through 
their foliage, from the atmosphere. The supply of car¬ 
bon in the air about the foliage is inexhaustible, and 
the Summer breezes carry it within reach of all plants 
as fast as it can possibly be used. Not so with the 
soluble nitrogen, which must enter most plants 
through the roots. The roots can only go to a limited 
distance, and no Summer breezes play about them 
with an inexhaustible supply of food in the form of 
nitrogen. Even the Summer showers, which carry 
food for the plant with them to a limited extent, are 
wofully lacking just now. It is consequently plain 
that if an abundant supply of soluble nitrogen is 
placed within reach of the roots, inducing a luxuriant 
growth of foliage, the plant is able to secure an abun¬ 
dance of carbon, and put on that “porky” look, which 
we all admire in a corn crop, a grass crop, or a pig. 
BROODER RUNS.—The low wire-covered runs for 
brooder chicks which 1 described about a year ago, 
are just the thing, as proved by another season’s use. 
They are simply frames made by nailing boards 12 
inches wide together at the corners, with poultry net¬ 
ting stretched over the top of the frame. A narrow 
strip of board is then laid flat on the ground all 
around the out¬ 
side of the frame 
to prevent the 
chicks from bur¬ 
rowing under the 
narrow edge of 
the frame, as it 
rests on the 
ground. With 
such a yard at¬ 
tached to your 
brooder you may 
expect to take 
out as many 
chicks, either 
dead or alive, as 
you put in. It is 
very annoying to 
hatch out a lot of 
chicks to be de¬ 
voured by hun¬ 
gry crows, hawks 
or cats, etc. Our 
first run of this 
kind was covered 
with netting of 
two-inch mesh. 
This was too 
open, and many 
jhicks will learn 
to jump up and 
out through it. 
Wire with one- 
inch mesh is all 
right. We recently attempted to use the yard with 
two-inch netting again, and almost every day one or 
more chicks would jump out, and either make a meal 
for a greedy cat or cause annoyance in catching it. 
COLONY FEEDING.—I have spoken before of the 
difficulty of feeding a number of flocks of hens uni¬ 
formly, when kept on the colony plan, on account of 
the hens running from colony to colony to meet the 
feeder. For this reason I have often kept different 
kinds of feed lying before them, allowing them to bal¬ 
ance their own ration. Here is another plan which 
woi’ks very satisfactorily, and could be used as suc¬ 
cessfully with 10,000 hens as with 50 hens. The doors 
are closed at night, after the hens are on their perches. 
The same hens roost in each house every night, so 
that when the morning feed is given, the feeder can 
know every time he opens a door and steps inside a 
house just how many hens are to be fed in that house, 
and can gauge the amount of feed so that each flock 
will eat it up and quit a little hungry. This sends 
them out on the range eager to look for whatever can 
be found, and insures good exercise. At night the lid 
is raised to a covered box containing more grain than 
can be eaten by any number of hens likely to congre¬ 
gate in each house. This insures every hen a full 
meal once a day, and sends her to her perch with a 
full crop, which is considered good practice by most 
poultrymen. We have been feeding an anti-corn mash 
in the morning and corn at night in this way for sev¬ 
eral months, with satisfactory results. The lid to the 
long corn box is closed again later. 
THE DROUGHT.—As milk producers, we are anxi¬ 
ously watching our drought-stricken pastures and 
meadows in a helpless fashion. As egg producers we 
watch the market quotations of grain grown perhaps 
a thousand miles away, where rain is abundant. 
Meanwhile, the hens have gone right on turning $4 
worth of purchased grain into $12 to $15 worth of eggs 
a day, rain or shine. This is one of the advantages 
which a hen dairy has over a cow dairy. 
0. W. MATES, 
