Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
84 
seed. It is not uncommon to find a farmer who 
boasts of never selling a ton of hay, and finding the 
same man with a two years’ accumulation of manure 
out behind his barn. Improper care and wastage 
of manure are big leaks in New England farming. 
This is one of the fundamental things that needs to 
and can easily bo corrected. More general rotation 
of crops is not so easy to carry out, even though 
advice thereon is easy to give. It will have to come 
eventually, however. Ilay will some day have to be 
grown as one of a series of crops, rather than as a 
bit of bounty supplied by God and a wot season. 
BETTER LIVESTOCK.—The average production 
of milk per cow over New England will not exceed 
4.700 lbs. a year. The present American milk mai** 
kets are mojg or less adjusted to the 5,000-lb. cow. 
In other words, the average return per cow from 
milk is not making the average farmer rich. It is 
not actually paying him decent wages for his labor. 
Three tilings are essential to the improvement of 
dairy herds: better care, better feeding, better bulls. 
None of these will be overdone. Good housing, sani¬ 
tary surroundings, good water; disease control; bet¬ 
ter understanding of balanced rations, more skillful 
use of concentrated feeds; all must come. 
BETTER SIRES.—But above all must come the 
better bull. It is astounding to note the persistent 
use of inferior, scrub males in a large proportion of 
the smaller herds. Many men with 10 cows or less 
cannot afford to keep a bull. They therefore depend 
on neighbors for breeding service. It seems as 
though nine out of 10 of these men simply look to 
the nearest animal of male sex, regardless of his 
size, shape, breed or blood. There are also endless 
numbers of so-called purebred bulls in use which 
had outlived their usefulness the moment they passed 
beyoud veal age. If an animal carries “the papers” 
he is forthwith destined to a long life of ease and 
productivity—even though his get may not make 
decent beef. The scrub purebred is a by-product of 
the registration system which only time and educa 
tion can eradicate. The time is coming—has come, 
in fact—when a good hull of proved breeding is 
available to every dairyman who has the intelligence 
to know what good stock means in terms of income. 
Eventually the scrub dairyman will be eliminated 
along with the scrub bull. This matter of better 
sires is just as important in respect to beef cattle, 
sheep, hogs, horses and poultry as it is to dairy cows. 
New England happens to be most immediately con¬ 
cerned with the latter. , 
MARKETING.—The system of distribution in New 
England is about on a par with other sections of the 
country. Its machinery operates only in one direc¬ 
tion: to move all things pell-mell to Boston. All 
Summer you will find the resorts of Vermont, New 
Hampshire and Maine eating vegetables, cream, 
poultry, eggs and so on, that may have been pro¬ 
duced right in those States, but which were first 
shipped to Boston and then reshipped to the resorts 
mentioned. More or less, this happens to all the 
large towns all the year round. It adds to the cost 
of food to the consumers, and it places the New 
England producer in nearly direct competition with 
farmers all over tin* East and Middle South. The 
system of marketing milk became so atrocious that 
dairymen were forced to organize in self-defense. 
For many years railroad rebates, leased-car systems 
and other features took the self-respect almost out 
of milk producers. Now, however, the New England 
Milk Producers’ Association bids fair to get tlio 
country end of the milk situation well in hand. 
There should be a strong marketing department in 
each State, given money and power sufficient to work 
out some coherent machinery to guide the distribu¬ 
tion of the more important products. 
PASTURES.—Huge as is the area of untillablo 
land, pastures are nevertheless a problem. The land 
used for pastures is mainly hilly, rough, rocky and 
very thin of soil. Great handicaps are the thin soil 
and the overrunning by small conifers and spreading 
shrubs. There is small use in talking pasture im¬ 
provement for this section, which involves cither 
tillage or fertilizers. Three things are practical, 
however. One involves greater care in use of pas¬ 
tures; divided pastures used alternately, and care 
in turning stock out at certain times in the Spring. 
A second consists in burning off the shrubs oftener 
and more trimming out. A third is the use of Wliito 
or Alsike clover and Blue-grass seed every Spring. 
Five or 10 dollars’ worth of grass seed (especially 
small clover) will be an excellent investment for 
every farmer to put into his pasture every Spring. 
Pastures are so important in New England farming, 
and good pastures are so rare that this question may 
well have some consideration. 
RURAL SCHOOLS.—Except for Massachusetts, 
the rural schools of New England are not up to par. 
They have not even been getting better—except in 
point of a gradual realization which is probably 
destined to bear fruit some day. New Hampshire 
has Ijftely struggled over and passed a new educa¬ 
tion law which may help all down the line. It should 
be said to the credit of the Grange and agricultural 
interests that they boosted with this law. Education 
is a State function strictly. If the farm boy and 
girl cannot have their chance provided for elementary 
and high schooling more and more parents are bound 
Tee Piled with Covering of Straw and Boards. Fig. 22 
to forsake farming when their children become of 
school age. It. is not impossible to have good elemen¬ 
tary schools in the country. Neither is it impossible 
to have high schools reasonably available to farm 
boys and girls. This is not only desirable for better 
agriculture—this is vital. a. b. g. 
New Ideas in Ice Packing 
ULLETIN No. 185, from South Dakota (Brook¬ 
ings I’. O.) gives an interesting account of 
some farm ice experiments. The bulletin has pic¬ 
tures showing a good farm icehouse, but a novel 
feature is the account of attempts to keep ice in 
pits or in piles above ground. 
Fig. 22 shows how ice was piled in blocks on top 
of the ground and covered with straw. Snow was 
Icc Buried in Pit. Fig. 28 
used to fill the chinks between the ice cakes. At 
least two feet of straw was piled over the ice and 
rough boards were put on top. About 15 tons of ice 
were put in each pile, but the ice did not keep well. 
The top of the straw dried rapidly, and the air 
worked into the ice. The supply gave out by May 5, 
and only about 10 per cent of the ice was saved. We 
think sawdust or a layer of dirt under part of the 
straw would have kept the ice better. 
Other experiments were tried in burying ice in a 
pit, one such pit as shown at Fig. 23, after being 
filled and covered. Ice stored in this pit lasted 
Icc Storage Pit with Cheap Roof. Fig. 2' f 
until August 4, and gave 30 per cent of the total 
amount stored. In another case square holes five 
feet deep and 12x12 feet were dug in the ground. 
There was a foot deep of straw at the bottom and 
also one foot thick of straw all around the hole, 
with the ice inside. The ice was in blocks weigh¬ 
ing 400 to 600 lbs. It was covered with flax straw 
and dirt, with a roof such as is shown at Fig. 24 
over it. Out of 15 tons of ice stored in this way, 
10,881 pounds were recovered—lasting until Sep¬ 
tember 2!). This means 36 per cent. When kept 
January 17, 1020 
in a good icehouse about 40 per cent is recovered, 
the remainder melting during the season. The 
largest per cent of recovery was 47 per cent. An 
effort was made to fill a hole 12x12 ft. and five feet 
deep with a solid block of ice, but this failed, as the 
ice at the bottom of the hole would not freeze. 
Every year we have questions from readers who 
want to make ice and yet are not near enough to 
ponds to enable them to cut it cheaply. Can ice 
be made in cans or frames? This bulletin ogives con¬ 
siderable space to this side of the matter and tells 
how to make freezing cans or frames of galvanized 
iron. These cans are 12 inches deep by 18x28. They 
freeze a cake 10 inches thick, weighing about 200 
pounds. 
When ready to freeze the cans are placed on the 
north side of the building handy to water. The cans 
should be placed on a bench made of slats. Two string¬ 
ers of 2x4 are suitable. If the cans are placed directly 
on the ground the freezing of the water in the cans is 
retarded. By placing the cans on a bench, such as 
described above, the cold air circulates all around the 
can of water. The cans are then filled with water to 
within about two inches of the edge. Allow them to 
stand until frozen through. The length of time required 
to thus freeze will depend chiefly on the temperature of 
the air. When the temperature is below zero the can 
of water will freeze through over night. Such a cake of 
ice frozen in this manner will be bulged at. the center 
on the top. and there will be several big cracks radiat¬ 
ing from the highest point of the bulge. This, how¬ 
ever, will not seriously injure the block of ice. How¬ 
ever, the bulge and the cracks have objections. In the 
first place, if these cakes are not put into the ice house 
for storage at once, some mild days or rain will cause 
moisture to collect in these cracks. When freezing 
again occurs expansion takes place. During these ex¬ 
periments much ice was frozen and piled up. It was 
not an uncommon thing to find many of these cakes 
of ice split into many pieces, due to the thawing and 
freezing of water in these cracks. This, however, may 
be prevented by turning the bulged part of the cake 
down or by storing and packing the ice cakes away 
at once, and thus preventing the water from seeping 
into the cracks. 
The cans are emptied by turning them over and 
pouring a little hot water on the bottom. The cake 
then slips out. 
Several ways have been tried with the view of over¬ 
coming the bulging and expansion of the ice during 
freezing. Porous substances of various kinds were in¬ 
serted in the water, with the lower end reaching to the 
center of the can and the other end above the water. 
There is an old saying that a broom handle inserted 
into a barrel of water will prevent the barrel from 
bursting. No substance was found which would ade¬ 
quately take care of the expansion on this principle. 
Airtight waterproof inflated rubber bags were placed 
in the center of the can of water. The end of this in¬ 
flated rubber reached above the surface of the water. 
This contrivance replaced sufficient water to take care 
of the expansion during freezing. From the above de¬ 
scription it will be seen that a block of ice freezes from 
the outside first. leaving unfrozen water in the center to 
freeze last. When this finally freezes it expands. This 
expansion is equal on all sides. On the bottom and 
sides the can furnishes a resistance. There is no re¬ 
sistance from the top, and therefore the ice expands 
upward. 
The inflated rubber bladder of an ordinary football is 
of sufficient size to take care of this expansion, and it 
responds as the expansion of the water occurs during 
the freezing. The air in the bladder is pushed up. and 
when the cake is completely frozen the air has all been 
pushed out of the bladder in the water into the part 
of the bladder that is above the surface of the water. 
This method leaves the cake of ice entirely smooth on 
the surface. 
The one great objection to this method is that these 
rubber bladders are too expensive to use. It is not prac¬ 
tical to remove the rubber bag from each cake of ice. 
Cheaper substances are used, such as the round 
carton used for packing oatmeal and other cereals. 
They are painted on the outside with melted paraffin 
and the covers left on. Then the cartons are pushed 
down into the water and held in place l>y a string 
tied to the bottom of the can. As the water freezes 
the carton is pushed Tip above the water level. Of 
course it is not expected that any farmer will aban¬ 
don his pond and icehouse for a can and a pit, but 
we are all interested in knowing how the other fel¬ 
low does it. 
Canadian Farmers in Government 
T HE picture on page 85 shows the members of 
the new “government” of Ontario, Canada— 
put in office by the recent election in which the 
Canadian Farmers’ Union was successful. These 
men are all farmers, or have been educated at agri¬ 
cultural schools. This is no group of “hayseeds,” 
but a company of well-dressed men, determined and 
strong, and with a clear understanding of what they 
want and how they are going to get it. These men 
will not be bluffed, frightened or flattered into a be¬ 
trayal of the people who put them in office. Before 
the election every farmer candidate signed an agree¬ 
ment that if elected lie would resign if his constitu¬ 
ents were not satisfied with his record and expressed 
themselves fully. Here we have the men who are 
to try out a great experiment in democracy. Agri¬ 
culture is the dominant industry of Canada. Here 
are men who fully believe that, and who will try 
to put agriculture into a leading and commanding 
place—fairly and without injustice to other indus¬ 
tries. We think they will do it, and prove the right 
of the man on the farm to steer the ship. 
