736 
November 7 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
The bacteriologist of the station has failed to find 
any of the germs of consumption in the milk from 
these cows, but in order to make doubly sure, this 
milk is all Pasteurized before using it. It is Pasteur¬ 
ized in the Star cooler. This cooler is a fluted, hol¬ 
low metal case, something the shape of a double 
washboard. The milk is permitted to run or trickle 
down over the outside flutes or ridges, while inside 
flows a stream of cold water. In this way, a thin 
sheet of milk flows along with nothing but a thin 
metal between it and a body of nearly ice-cold water. 
To turn this into a Pasteurizer, they shut off the cold 
water, put on another pipe or hose, and turn in hot 
water at a temperature of 170 degrees. The milk, as 
soon as it comes from the cows, is run over this hot 
metal, and is thus raised to about 154 degrees, at 
which temperature the germs of consumption are de¬ 
stroyed. As soon as possible after this, the cold 
water is again turned into the cooler, and the 
“ Pasteurized '’ milk run over it. Thus treated, it is 
perfectly safe to use. If put at once into bottles and 
kept on ice or in cold water, it will keep sweet for 
days, and will not have the unpleasant taste noticed 
in milk that is boiled or heated to 212 degrees. 
We have had many questions about “Pasteurizing” 
and how it may be done. In a few words, it means 
heating the milk to a temperature between 150 and 
156 degrees, and at once cooling it. This plan of using 
the Star cooler as arranged by Prof. Voorhees, is the 
simplest plan of Pasteurizing of which I have ever 
heard. 
Prof. Voorhees will, doubtless, give all the details 
of this interesting experiment in a forthcoming bul¬ 
letin. One needs but to look at those strong and 
hearty “consumptives,” to realize what an injury 
may be done to a farmer by killing every cow that 
responds to the tuberculin test, without any regard 
to any physical examination. These seven cows 
might all have been killed when they were first 
tested ; yet here they are, several of them 
better than they were then. It is, probably, 
a wise thing to test all our cows with tuber¬ 
culin, but not every cow that responds should 
be killed. A large proportion of those that 
have been killed might have given healthful 
milk, and died of old age if they had simply 
been taken out of the herd and treated as 
these cows at New Brunswick have been 
cared for. h. w. c. 
The machine is made of aluminium, and weighs 
about 15% pounds. It is held on the cow by means 
of a harness or strap running over her back. The 
axis, when turned, works the arms, shown in the pic¬ 
ture, up and down, and also gives a squeeze or pressure 
when desired. You will notice at the top of each 
arm two pieces of rubber. As the machine works, 
these pieces push up against the udder, and then 
close around the upper part of the teat. Then two 
rollers that nearly meet around the teat close up and 
move down, squeezing the milk out. It is about like 
a man milking with both hands on one teat. With 
his left hand, he holds tightly around the upper part 
of the teat while, with his right hand, he squeezes 
the milk out. The machine is worked from a shaft 
that runs over the heads of the cows connecting by 
cord or belt with each machine. An engine of two- 
horse power provides the force for milking 10 cows. 
The power on this Swedish farm is provided by 
electricity. 
Prof. Woll says that the “ lactator ” brings out the 
milk at the rate of about a quart per minute—which 
is very slow milking. Ten machines are used for 100 
cows, and two men attend to the milking. As the 
milk is squeezed out, it runs into a small bowl, the 
bottom of which is closed by a rubber ball. As the 
bowl fills, of course, this ball rises, and the milk runs 
into a tube through which it is sucked or pumped 
through rubber tubes to cans which hang above and 
in front of the cows. 
None of the machines has been sold yet. The in¬ 
ventor, DeLaval, is still working to perfect it, and it 
will not be given to the trade until it has been fully 
tested. It is, evidently, a very complicated machine, 
yet its work is very simple, and after seeing it in 
operation, Prof. Woll is hopeful that, with slight 
modifications and improvements, the machine will 
adapt itself to ordinary farm operations. There is 
nothing about the work of the machine that can in¬ 
A MILKING MACHINE AT LAST? 
THE HUMAN HAND IN METAL. 
Have a look at your own hand. It is the 
best milking machine ever heard of. Any 
other milking machine, to be a success, must 
strive to imitate the work of the hand. This 
imitation can only hope to have two points 
of superiority. It will not get tired, and the 
power back of it will not be troubled with 
the laze that sometimes gets into the bones of the 
hired man. 
Notice what you do when you milk ! You slightly 
open your fingers and raise the hand against the 
udder. As the teat fills with milk, you squeeze it out 
with a downward stroke of the hand and a pressure 
of all the fingers and the thumb. Unconsciously, 
your fingers play a little as you squeeze so that the 
pressure rolls along the teat something like a roller. 
This principle of squeezing and then letting go for a 
grip higher up, is the true principle of milking, and 
a milking machine, to succeed, must imitate it as 
closely as joints and rods of metal can be made to do. 
Most of the milking machines thus far introduced, 
have taken a calf as their model, and tried to take 
the milk out of the udder by suction. These machines 
have failed. They took a poor model, for the calf is 
the worst milker that can be put on a cow. The 
machine that comes nearest to the human hand is the 
“ lactator” which is shown at Fig. 240. Prof. F. W. 
Woll, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, visited a 
dairy in Sweden where this machine is used. He 
describes the farm in Hoard’s Dairyman, and cur pic¬ 
ture is reengraved from an illustration in that paper. 
It is a very complicated machine, and Prof. Woll 
was told that it comprised 1,000 different parts. Back 
on page 500, we had an account of the working of this 
machine, and we may repeat it here : 
“The milking is done by two special ‘organs’, or a 
pair of cylindrical rubber rollers, that catch the teat 
at the root; thus shutting off the milk therein. The 
rollers then move downwards to the lower part of the 
teat, whence the milk is squeezed out by two 
plates moving parallel with each other. The function 
of the rollers is rendered possible by a hold above— 
the so-called roof that is regularly moved against the 
udder, whereby a slight thrust is given the udder, 
something like knocks that the calf gives when suck¬ 
ing, which facilitates the descending of the milk in 
the teats as well as the secretion of the milk in the 
vesicles of the udder.” 
neighboring farms with which we both were familiar, 
and the facts seemed to sustain his claims. Since then, 
my own observation ten ds to confirm his view. 
If clover flourishes after bone, and not after acid 
rock, it would seem that it must be the acid that 
acted to prevent its growth, yet how, I confess that 
I am not able to understand, as sulphate of lime 
(land plaster) as I understand the residue of an acid 
rock to be, has always been considered a promoter of 
clover growth, unless there be an excess of acid. In 
a recent visit to a section where lime is practically the 
only extra fertilizer used, I found the field much bet¬ 
ter set with clover than at home, where we use phos¬ 
phates in great variety—but no lime. 
If there be anything in this acid theory, it may ex¬ 
plain, in some measure, why the floats in which the 
phosphoric acid was not quite so readily available, yet 
made a good growth, though later. It would be in¬ 
teresting, if the experiment were continued through 
another season, to determine this point. One fact is 
certain, that we do not here now raise as heavy crops 
of clover as were raised when I was a boy, when lime 
and barnyard manure were the fertilizers used. Our 
hay crops are, usually, fully up to, if not above, those 
I remember ; but there is not the same proportion of 
clover. One question I would like answered in The 
R. N.-Y , is. Would an application of lime upon, or 
soon after, a dressing of ground bone, act to render 
the phosphoric acid therein contained available ? 
Chester County, Pa. t. sharpless. 
R. N.-Y.—Last year, on page 770, we began a series 
of articles on the use of lime at the Rhode Island Ex¬ 
periment Station, which we think answer these ques¬ 
tions. On sour or acid soils, it is found that clover 
does not thrive. On the Rhode Island farm, it was 
impossible to grow clover until enough air-slaked lime 
was used to neutralize the acid. When this was done, 
excellent crops of clover were produced. The use of 
lime, with bone, would not render the phosphoric 
acid insoluble. We will try to explain why in 
the next few weeks. 
“THE LACTATOR”. Fig. 240. 
THE MOST PRACTICAL MILKING MACHINE YET DEVISED. 
jure a cow. Machines that work by wind suction 
might do so, but in this operation, we have really the 
same effect as that produced by hand milking. 
In closing his article, Prof. Woll makes this state¬ 
ment : “ Whether the lactator will do what it prom¬ 
ises to, and will prove the boon to the dairyman that 
its friends believe, it is, of course, yet too early to 
say. With all the skepticism which I could muster 
during my visit, I could not discover any vitally im¬ 
portant objection or criticism concerning the machine. 
Still the problem has, seemingly, been solved before, 
without the expected resultshaving materialized, and 
so it is well to withhold judgment, as to the lactator, 
until it has been tried under the varied conditions of 
a number of dairy farms. Such trials will be made in 
the near future, and the outcome will be watched 
with intense interest by dairymen in all parts of the 
world.” __ 
PHOSPHORIC ACID AND LIME FOR CLOVER. 
I have read, with much interest, the articles upon 
the use of fertilizers, and especially, the one on Octo¬ 
ber 17 has been of more than usual interest to me. I 
have, for a number of years, been trying experiments 
to decide on what kinds of fertilizers, when, how, and 
where to apply them, and their profitableness for my 
own soil, and use. Some of these have proved rather 
costly, and the experience gained reminds one of the old 
proverb, “ but fools will learn,” etc. This is a neigh¬ 
borhood where large quantities of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers are used, and my especial interest in the 
October 17 article upon growing clover with phos¬ 
phoric acid, arises from a belief quite prevalent among 
us here that clover does not do well after an appli¬ 
cation of acid phosphate. About eight or ten years 
ago, my attention was called by a neighbor, a good 
farmer and close observer, to what he claimed was 
the case, that clover did not flourish on those farms 
where acid phosphates were used most liberally, but 
would, and did grow and do well following applica¬ 
tions of ground bone. Together we cited over the 
THE NEW H0RSESH0ERS’ LAW. 
The evident purpose of the new law requir¬ 
ing horseshoers to be licensed in cities of 
this State, of over 50,000 inhabitants, is to 
prevent incompetent men from shoeing horses 
in the larger cities. It is a well-known fact 
that a large percentage of the lamenesses of 
horses, especially in the cities, is due wholly 
or in part to the mutilation of the hoof and 
improper shoeing by incompetent black- 
H smiths. Even at the best, every shoeing is 
an injury to the horse’s foot, so that the bet¬ 
ter the operation the less the injury. 
Horseshoers, as a class, are wedded to a 
number of traditional practices long handed 
down from generation to generation, that 
are directly opposed to the preservation of 
the foot in its natural, healthy condition. They do 
not consider the shoeing complete and workman¬ 
like unless they have sliced away the greater por¬ 
tion of the frog ; carved out the sole until it will 
readily yield to the pressure of the thumb ; “ opened 
up the heels,” and rasped off the protecting covering 
from the lower half or two-thirds of the wall by 
cutting the hoof down to fit their idea of a shoe, 
instead of making a shoe to fit the foot. The re¬ 
sult is that, instead of leaving the feet as nearly as 
possible in the condition in which Nature made them 
to withstand the wearand tear of use, they are robbed 
of their natural cushion and protecting covering, and 
so weakened as to be subject to concussion, bruises 
and contraction. 
The more ignorant the blacksmith, the more tenac¬ 
iously he adheres to his traditional creed, and the 
less amenable is he to any suggestions as to a more 
rational and less destructive method of shoeing. I 
would not be understood as saying that all black¬ 
smiths are of the class described. There is, occasion¬ 
ally, a progressive horseshoer who is endeavoring to 
improve his profession, and is studying to improve 
the methods of shoeing. 
The application of the law was, probably, confined 
to the cities because it is there that improper shoeing 
works the greater injury. The hard, unyielding city 
pavements, and the more rapid pace at which the city 
horse is driven, require a strong foot, properly shod, 
to withstand the concussion. From 50 to 70 per cent 
of the horses in our cities are lame in one or more of 
their feet. A large percentage of these lamenesses 
could be prevented, and will be avoided as soon as 
only competent workmen, who understand the proper 
methods of shoeing, are allowed to shoe our horses. 
Every horseman realizes the force of the old aphor¬ 
ism. “no foot, no horse.” Is it not time, then, that 
some step should be taken to correct the many evils 
of poor shoeing, in order not only to increase the use¬ 
fulness of the horse, but to relieve him of much un¬ 
necessary suffering ? I believe that the law is a move 
