190 . 8 . 
677 
HOW TO HANDLE WOOL. 
While'most of the flocks are shorn 
at this writing, there are still some to 
be clipped; and suggestions as to time of 
shearing and handling the fleece may be 
helpful to those new to the business. 
With wool much lower than for sev¬ 
eral years, and buyers scarce, there is 
always a tendency with some to exer¬ 
cise little effort in caring for the wool. 
A great mistake, at any time; when 
goods are high, and sought after any¬ 
thing goes, but when the market is dull, 
that is the time above all others, to 
exercise the greatest care in putting out 
a fine attractive product, and to keep 
poor stuff at home. 
Ordinarily it does not pay to wash 
wool. In fact few buyers expect any¬ 
thing these days but unwashed. The 
difference in price will not pay for the 
shrinkage and exposure. If a little care 
is exercised in Winter to keep the 
fodder off their backs at feeding time, 
and any that show dirty wool about 
the hind parts are tagged there will be 
little that is objectionable in the way 
of dirt about the wool. No real shep¬ 
herd will allow his sheep to get their 
wool full of burrs. 
I prefer to shear before the sheep 
go to pasture; they can then be pro¬ 
tected and suffer less from the change 
than when they have to wear their 
omiEjyi 
hot fleece when the mercury is at 90 de¬ 
grees in the shade, and perhaps the day 
after shearing down to 40 degrees and 
wet. The grass is apt to loosen their 
bowels and with the wool on a good 
bit of it is soiled and made worthless. 
Some of the older sheep are inclined 
to lose their wool, another total loss. 
1 he lambs will nurse with much more 
comfort if they are not obliged to stick 
their heads into a lot of greasy wool, 
from which cause trouble with the eyes 
will often follow. 
When there are many sheep to shear, 
and an expert shearer is not at hand, I 
would advise the machine. It does a 
nice job, is easily handled, and leaves 
the sheep smooth. I do not take any 
stock in the claim that with them one 
will get much more wool. Good hand¬ 
shearing means close cutting, and no 
machine can get more wool than the 
sheep produces. The shearing should 
be done on a clean board floor. The 
sheep should be set on its rump, with 
it< body supported against the left knee 
of the shearer. Then begin to cut 
about the face and neck, and let the 
wool fall away from the sheep, shear¬ 
ing the brisket and shoulders and down 
the belly, then turn the sheep and shear 
first one side and then the other. A 
little practice will show how to do this, 
with greatest ease to both man and 
sheep and least damage to the wool. In 
lact the “knack” of shearing with 
either shears or machine is in properly 
holding the sheep. The fleece can be 
torn , anc i pulled apart, as well with a. 
machine as by hand, if the sheep is 
allowed to struggle and tear the wool. 
1 ^ ,s n °t kept compact it is im¬ 
possible to put it up so it will look 
' , • Ml soiled locks should be cut off, 
, - v a dishonest man will tuck them in 
t ie centre of the fleece. No buyer wants 
t0 pay 20 or 30 cents a pound for 
manure After the fleece is taken off 
u should at once be placed on a table, 
THE RUKAb NKW-VOKKER 
a' door laid on a couple of barrels 
serves very well. Place the side that 
comes next the sheep down, then shove 
the wool as tight together as possible, 
fold the sides and ends in, then roll 
together and tie. which leaves the white 
side out. I like to use a box, made 
three feet square when it is opened flat, 
as shown in the cut. The sides are 
hinged to piece in the centre a foot 
square with pieces a foot square hinged 
to either side. Across- this lay 1 the 
strings in grooves cut for this purpose, 
enough longer than the box to tie 
readily. After the fleece is wrapped as 
above it is laid on this open box. The 
sides and ends are brought up, form¬ 
ing a box, in the centre, clamps are 
slipped over the ends to hold it in 
place. The wool is pressed down with 
the hands and the strings tied as shown 
in figure. The clamps are then re¬ 
leased, and a square white bale of wool 
stands attractively before the buyer. It 
is little more trouble to do it this way, 
after we have the box, which will last a 
lifetime. One should never use any 
but soft wool twine made for the pur¬ 
pose. Binder twine and others made 
of harsh material has a fiber in it, 
which gets, in the wool and injures it 
for manufacture. Most buyers refuse 
wool so tied, or discount it from one 
to two cents a pound, e. van alstyne. 
EQUIPMENT OF A DAIRY FARM. 
Among the average farm dairymen 
there seems to prevail an opinion that 
the equipment of a farm dairy for first- 
class work is so expensive that the or¬ 
dinary dairyman cannot afford to fit his 
farm for up-to-date work. This is a 
great mistake. I know of nothing I 
need to add to my dairy to enable me to 
compete with the best butter-makers 
who ship butter to the markets of any 
of the cities. There are a few things 
the dairy must have to start with, but 
they are within reach of the humblest 
farmer who has a half dozen or more 
cows. His barn must be such that his 
cows can be warm, have good air and 
plenty of sunlight. He must be able to 
make his cows comfortable and keep 
them clean, or he would better sell what 
cows he has and go to digging ditch. 
Cold running spring water, or a suffi¬ 
cient supply of ice is indispensable in 
the production of good butter. With 
these the balance is easy. I will at¬ 
tempt to describe my own dairy and its 
equipments aside from the barn and 
cow stable. 
The cellar to my house extends under 
the whole structure. The root cellar is 
divided from the dairy rooms by an air¬ 
tight partition, and with doors kept 
closed by spring hinges. The dairy side 
has been well pointed inside and is 
nearly eight feet between joints. It is 
not ceiled overhead, for the reason that 
a ceiling would make a convenient place 
for rats, mice and other objectionable 
inhabitants. The walls are kept well 
coated with whitewash, put on twice a 
year. In short, the cellar is kept clean. 
The entrance is on the north side and 
is entered by a level passageway, so that 
the bottom of the cellar is a little above 
the level of the ground on the outside. 
Were it otherwise 1 should have my 
milkroom in a separate building above 
the level of the ground. The cellar has 
a bottom made of a covering of cement 
an inch deep and then flagstones dropped 
into the cement and propely fitted to¬ 
gether. Thin cement was then run in 
the cracks between the flagstones, so 
that the whole practically forms one 
stone covering the whole cellar bottom, 
the whole sloping toward one side where 
there is a properly constructed drain 
where all the water in the cellar slopes 
and empties. This drain is frequently 
cleaned by use of concentrated lye. 
I do not like a cement bottom for the 
reason that salt is used in the cellar 
and the salt and brine soon affects and 
ruins the cement. For this reason I use 
flag, and the cement is used simply to 
keep the flag in place and make the 
whole solid and easily cleaned. I have 
water running in the dairy room from 
a spring on the side hill some 50 rods 
away, and the water in the cellar is at 
about 55 degrees in Summer. There is 
a large vat in the cellar with two apart¬ 
ments large enough to accommodate 
Cooley cans which when first filled are 
put in the side where the spring water 
is, then after about an hour and a half 
are put in the other part that contains 
ice water at 45 degrees or below. This 
double setting raises all the cream to 
the surface, so that not over eight 
ounces of butter fat to the 1,000 pounds 
milk are lost. Last Winter the ice crop 
was short, and I was compelled to pur¬ 
chase a separator, to use until I can 
again get a supply of ice. This vat cost 
me $10, the cans cost me $1.25 apiece. 
I have to have about one can per cow, 
or at this time about 25. This means 
about $30. My butter worker cost $8; 
my churn $25; cream ripener $15; Bab¬ 
cock test $8; print $4; table in cellar $3; 
merchandise items $8, or a total of $101. 
Of these items there is not over $28 
equipment more than is a necessity in 
order to operate a dairy of that size at 
all. The ripener, Babcock test and a 
few of the items that come under the 
head of “miscellaneous” is all I have 
more than is found in the ordinary 
dairy. As the result of the use of these 
additions I am able to produce a uni¬ 
form quality of butter at all times of 
the year that sells for prices from five 
to eight cents above the quoted market 
prices the whole year around. These 
appliances pay for themselves every 
month; in other words, are an invest¬ 
ment that pays 1,200 per cent. The use 
of the ripener alone makes full one-half 
this difference. Without its use it would 
be impossible for me to produce a per¬ 
fectly uniform quality of butter at all 
times. Painstaking is the only other 
added quality not found in the average 
dairy. My senarator cost $100 and has 
a capacity of 700 pounds per hour. 
Where the dairyman cannot command 
running spring water as cold as 55 to 60 
degrees, a separator is almost a neces¬ 
sity, certainly an economy. The aqua¬ 
tic separator is in use in some sections, 
but if after all the exposures that have 
been made of that humbug for the last 
five years the non-reading farmer per¬ 
sists in using them, there is little use 
trying to spend the time to try to reform 
him. He may as well be left to con¬ 
tinue his experiments in trying to raise 
prohibition calves. 
I am doing nothing in my dairy not 
easily reached by the ordinary dairyman 
who sells his dairy products in the mar¬ 
ket at a price 20 per cent below mine. 
In that 20 per cent lies the bulk of the 
profits. Why lose it? The old-fash¬ 
ioned dash churn loses full 10 per cent 
of the fat that the concussion churn can 
save. If you doubt it test your butter¬ 
milk with the Babcock test, or use the 
dash churn with one week’s milking, 
weigh milk and the next week use a 
good concussion churn, weighing milk 
as before, and note the difference. I 
did this, and after repeating the exper¬ 
iment threw away my dash churn. I 
found 12 per cent difference. 
Pennsylvania. c. L. peck. 
Young Stock. — The young stock 
shown at Fig. 256 belongs to J. E. Van 
Alstyne, of Columbia Co., N. Y. The 
R. I. Red youngsters come of good 
stock, and so does the little human, who 
has begun early to study the feeding 
problem. Nothing could be better than 
to have such little fellows grow up to¬ 
gether. 
When you write advertisers mention Ton 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square- deal.” See guarantee 
EXCLUSIVE 
LOW SUPPLY TANK 
Last week we told vou of the 
light, simrle Tubular Bowl- 
how it was different from compli¬ 
cated bucket bowls—how it was an 
exclusive Tubular feature—not found 
in other makes. 
This week we offer you Feature 
No. 2. The Low 
Supply Tank. 
Don’t over¬ 
look this point 
in buying a sep- 
arator. You. 
know a milk pail 
full of milk is 
quite heavy and 
when you have 
to lift several a 
day to fill a sep¬ 
arator tank that^ 
is shoulder-to-i 
head-high, it 
means back- 
breaking work , 
that is needless, for the Supply Tank 
on the Tubular is scarcely waist high 
2 Good UfUy 
Reasons *»•»■ 
the Tubular is the separator for you. 
The Tubular is in a class by itself 
—so much ahead of others that when 
compared or tested in actual work 
the difference is at once apparent in 
its favor. Let us send you Catalog 
153 it’s full of interesting proof. 
The SHARPLES SEPARATOR CO.. 
West Chester, Penna. 
Toronto, Can., San Francisco, Cali!., Chicago, Ill. 
HORSES 
Going Blind, Bary Co., 
Iowa City, la. Can Cure. 
83 PACKAGE ^ 
will cure any case or 
money refunded. 
$1 PACKACE 
cures ordinary cases. 
Postpaid on receipt of 
price. Agents Wanted. 
Write for descriptive booklet. 
MINERAL. 
k tiEAVE 
REMEDY 
NEGLECT 
Will Ruin 
YourHorse 1 
Send today for 
only 
PERMANENT 
SAFE 
CERTAIN' 
Mineral Heave Remedy Co.. 461 fourth Avenue. Pittsburg, Pa, 
GET ABOARD! 
1908 SEASON OF 
DE LAVAL 
CREAM SEPARATOR 
PROSPERITY 
I)e Laval Cream Separators and farm prosperity 
almost invariably go hand-in-hand. The farming out¬ 
look was never before so promising as now. First and 
always best as they have been for thirty years the 
l)e Laval Cream Separators were never before so good as 
are the new and improved 11)08 machines. 
Midsummer, the most profitable separator season, is 
now nearly at hand. There never was a better time to 
make this most profitable of all farm implement pur¬ 
chases. It’s high time to get aboard. 
Why not see the nearest De Laval agent and order 
NOW % ' _ 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
*12 K. Madison Strkkt 
CHICAGO 
1213 «fc 1215 Filbkkt Strkkt 
PHILADELPHIA 
Dkum.m J* Sacramento Sts. 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
General Offices: 
165-167 Broadway, 
NEW YORK. 
173-177 William Strkkt 
MONTREAL 
14 <fc 16 Princess Street 
WINNIPEG 
107 First Strkkt 
PORTLAND, OREC. 
