204 
JOURNAL  CF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  31,  1899. 
giving  each  other  unintentional  butts  and  shoves,  to  the  possible 
detriment  of  the  in-calvers.  There  is  nothing  like  hurry  for  spoiling 
the  flow  of  milk  or  making  it  deteriorate  in  quality. 
We  know  quite  well  the  ill  results  that  may  come  from  improper 
feeding,  but  there  are  quite  as  many  ill  results  from  injudicious 
management,  and  the  worst  of  it  is  these  causes  are  not  suspected. 
We  knew  a  case  this  summer  where  the  cowman  was  laid  aside  for  a 
week,  his  place  being  taken  by  a  lad,  no  onG  else  beirg  available. 
Tne  food  was  identically  the  same,  but  the  churn  showed  a  deficiency 
of  over  12  lbs.  of  butter,  and  this  was  only  in  a  small  dairy.  The 
cows  never  caught  that  lost  ground  up  again,  and  that  cowman’s 
illness  was  a  dear  one  to  his  master. 
Now,  as  to  the  actual  milking.  Remember  the  orifice  of  the  teat  is 
n  it  big,  and  only  a  certain  volume  of  milk  can  come  at  once.  Do 
not  by  hurrying,  try  to  force  a  qui  ker  flow — it  only  causes  the  poor 
animal  pain,  and  she  will  probably  try  to  get  rid  of  her  tormenter  by  a 
judiciously  planted  kick.  We  do  not  blame  her,  but  she  gets  the 
reputation  of  a  kicker,  and  is  punished  accordingly.  Of  course  the 
milking  may  be  too  slow  as  well  as  too  fast,  but  it  is  best  to  err 
on  the  side  of  slowness. 
Remember,  too,  the  last  drops  are  the  richest,  but  do  not  drain 
and  drain  till  the  cow  is  fidgetted  beyond  endurance.  The  milking 
wants  to  go  at  an  even  pace,  and  women  invariably  are  better  thau 
men.  They,  or  ra’her  their  hands,  have  a  more  coaxing  way  with  the 
teats.  Sometimes  when  a  cow  is  a  bit  queer  tempered  she  can  be 
humoured.  Try  the  effect  of  the  lollipop  business;  give  her  a 
li",  of  dainty  food;  she  will  be  so  taken  up  with  that,  that  she 
will  forget  to  be  ill-natured;  coaxing  is  always  better  than  scratch¬ 
ing.  You  see  it  is  necessary  to  be  a  bit  of  a  diplomatist.  Your 
end  is  a  full  milk  pail,  and  if  it  cannot  be  attained  by  one  means,  it 
c  .n  by  another. 
We  come  now  to  a  point  that  ought  not  to  need  mention,  but  alas  ! 
such  is  human  nature.  Cleanliness  should  be  written  in  large  letters 
over  every  cow  house  and  milking  shed.  Milk  is  the  most  easily 
contaminated  of  all  feeding  stuffs,  and  it  is  a  horrid  thing  to  think 
that  the  milk  we  use  for  every  meal  in  some  shape  or  other  maybe,  has 
been  full  of  foreign  matter  of  a  most  unpleasant  nature.  Cows  want  as 
careful  grooming  as  hunters.  Do  they  get  it  ?  Our  readers  shall 
answer  that  question  themselves.  We  know  some  con-cieuces  will 
prick  if  they  are  not  too  callous.  Is  the  udder  ever  e’eaned  ?  What 
about  the  teats  ?  If  we  all  could  be  imbued  with  a  true  horror  of 
dirt,  the  difficulties  of  our  sanitary  workers  would  be  reduced  to  a 
fraction.  Then  about  the  hands  of  the  manipulator.  Whoever  saw  a 
labouring  man  with  properly  cleansed  hands  ?  In  fact,  he  cannot  do  it, 
the  cracks  and  the  fissures  are  generally  s  a  great,  the  nails  kept  in  such 
bad  condition,  that  nothing  but  scalding  and  scraping  would  make 
them  tolerably  decent. 
Now,  with  a  woman  it  is  different ;  her  hands  are  so  much  in  soap 
and  water.  She  is  for  ever  scrubbing  and  rubbing,  that  her  hands  are 
clean.  There,  you  see,  she  has  the  pull  of  the  men  milkers.  Clean 
dry  hands  are  what  we  should  aim  at.  A  clean  person,  wholesome 
print  frock  and  large  over-all  apron,  hair  neatly  confined  out  of  the 
way,  pails  that  shine  like  silver,  a  clean  milking  stool,  plenty  of  air 
and  light.  A  tidy  head  may  sound  laughable,  but  be  it  known  that 
one  of  the  fiist  lessons  taught  to  school  children  in  the  cooking 
classes  is  to  get  their  hair  well  out  of  sight  and  mind. 
It  is  a  pleasant  idea  milking  in  the  fields,  and  where  the  fields  are 
not  far  from  the  homestead  the  practice  is  commendable;  but  a  dewy 
meadow  is  not  pleasant  for  a  milkmaid’s  feet  or  skirts,  and  she  ought 
to  be  there  before  the  dew  is  absorbed. 
Milk  is  not  improved  by  being  jolted  along  in  a  barrel  on  wheels 
before  the  operations  of  straining,  setting,  or  separating.  We  are 
almost  of  opinion  that  an  hour  or  two  in  the  cow  house  is  not  a  bad 
rest  and  change  for  the  cows  on  a  hot  summer  day.  Some  pastures, 
through  lack  of  trees,  are  so  very  bare  of  shelter ;  and  irritating 
flies  do  not,  or  ought  not  to  be  found  in  a  properly  managed  cow 
house. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
The  rain  after  all  was  only  temporary,  and  barel)  sufficient  to  revive 
the  flagging  Turnip*;,  the  harvest  was  hardly  hindered  for  a  moment, 
and  capital  progress  has  been  made.  Practically  all  is  cut  and  half  is  in 
the  stackyard.  Another  week  will  see  nearly  all  complete. 
The  thre-hing  machine  is  already  hard  at  work,  and  reliable  reports 
are  not  very  rmourrgng.  Wheat  is  not  yielding  the  weight  of  grain 
exp’Cted.  though  the  qua  ity  is  good  and  there  j9  not  much  small. 
Barle}',  ju riging  from  very  meagre  iep<>rts,  is  of  good  colour  but  lacks 
quality,  and  there  is  a  large  proportion  of  thin  corn.  Oats  we  have 
spoken  of  before. 
Binders  have  been  invaluable,  and  have  worked  marvellously  well 
No  doubt  farmers  and  their  men  are  beginning  to  master  their  pecu¬ 
liarities,  and  so  make  better  work  ;  but  this  season’s  crops  havejbeera 
more  favourable  to  the  binder  than  those  of  the  last  year  or  two.  Still 
the  self-binding  problem  appears  to  he  satis'actorily  solved.  Thatlthe 
binder  will  ever  be  able  to  cut  and  tie  wet  corn  is  not  to  be  hoped,  much 
less  wished  for.  Nothing  is  gained  by  reaping  when  the  straw  is  damp, 
especially  in  tho  case  <  f  BarLy,  and  it  is  a  positive  advantage  to  the 
farmer  that  his  binder  refuses  to  do  its  work  amongst  a  wet  crop. 
Stacks  must  be  thatched  ns  soon  as  possib'e,  the  finer  and  hotter  the 
weather  is  now  the  more  likely  are  we  to  have  a  deluge  when  rain-does 
come,  and  there  have  f  een  several  cases  of  serious  damage  to  grain  in  the 
stack  after  an  easy  and  favourable  harvest  time.  Thatch  the  Barley  first, 
and  begin  with  the  best.  I)o  not  use  more  pegs  than  necessary,  but  see 
that  the  lower  row  has  good  ones  and  securely  fastened.  Use  good  string. 
Reaper  string  is  as  good  as  anything,  and  it  comes  in  handy  afterwards 
for  other  purposes.  Do  not  cut  the  eaves  too  short  and  then  have  to 
shave  several  inches  off  the  stack  side  to  make  it  drop-dry. 
Lambs  are  doirg  fairly  well  and  keep  healthy,  as  they  usually  do  in  a 
dry  time.  They  are  now  quite  unsaleable,  for  no  one  knows  whether 
there  will  be  any  Turnips  or  not.  Possibly  when  the  grub  plague  has 
spent  itself,  the  plants  which  are  still  alive  may  improve  into  half  a  crop, 
but  that  is  all  we  can  hope  for.  There  is  a  goed  deal  of  weeding  to  do  as- 
soon  as  we  can  get  away  from  the  harvest. 
IIlGH  Prices. — A  friend  reminds  us  that  last  year  Mr.  Henry 
Dudding  made  1000  guineas  of  a  ram.  That  was  nice  for  him,  buE 
would  do  little  to  comfort  the  scores  of  ram  breeders  who  could  nut 
manage  to  procure  a  poor  7  guineas  a  piece.  There  are  always  “kings  ,r 
at  the  head  of  every  profession  or  calling,  and  Mr.  Dudding  is  crowned 
king  among  ram  breeders. 
A  Danish  Preservative.— It  is  recorded  that  Mr.  N.  P.  Jensen 
has  succeeded  in  preserving  milk,  so  as  to  retain  its  fresh  and  pure  taste 
for  a  long  period.  A  test  with  seventy  bottles  of  milk  exposed  to  varying 
temperatures  for  a  long  time  (how  long  is  not  yet  stated)  gave  a  most 
satisfactory  result.  The  contents  of  only  two  of  the  bottles  experimented 
with  showed  a  slight  change  in  quality,  and  this  was  traceable  to  want  of 
the  required  care  in  the  preparation. 
Hornbeam  Hedges.  —  Hornbeam  is  not,  says  a  contemporary, 
so  largely  employed  as  a  hedge  plant  as  it  might  be.  Mixed  in  equal 
proportions  with  ordinary  Quicks  the  Hornbeam  makes  a  very  effective 
fence,  and  it  is  specially  adapted  for  being  planted  on  high  elevations, 
where  other  hedge  plants  would  not  succeed.  It  bears  pruning  veiy  well, 
and  in  a  very  few  years  grows  to  a  size  which  enables  it  to  resist  the 
inroads  of  stock,  and  at  the  same  time  to  afford  considerable  shelter. 
Hay  Crop. — In  a  summary  of  a  number  of  reports  which  it  has 
received  regarding  the  hay  crop  in  Great  Britain,  the  “Times”  estimates- 
the  yield  this  year  at  23J  cwts.  per  acre  over  Great  Biitain.  These 
figures  bear  very  unfavourable  comparison  with  the  corresponding 
estimate  last  year,  when  the  yield  as  similarly  calculated  was  34  cwt.  In 
1897  the  yield  was  estimated  at  29i  cwt..  but  in  1 89G  it  only  amounted  to 
21  cwt.  From  some  of  the  southern  counties  the  reports  regarding  crops 
return  it  as  averagipg  only  from  10  to  12  cwt.  per  acre,  but  as  against 
this  there  are  others,  such  as  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland,  which 
give  the  crop  as  having  yielded  50  to  55  cwt.  per  acre. — (“  Rural  World.”)- 
The  Murrain  Worm.— In  the  autumn  of  1898  Miss  Ormerod 
received  an  account  of  an  insect  which  was  believed  to  cause  a  sort  of 
murrain  in  cattle,  owing  to  its  being  swallow  ed  bj  them  when  they  were 
feeding  along  ditches  or  other  watery  places.  According  to  Mr.  Wade, 
a  cow  thus  affected  is  feverish,  with  tongue  swollen,  and  difficulty  of 
breathing.  The  complaint  usually  yields  to  remedies,  and  in  several  cases, 
an  insect  was  taken  from  the  mouth  which  turned  out  to  be  the  curiously 
formed  and  handsome  caterpillar  of  the  elephant  hawk  moth.  As  far  back, 
as  1887  it  appear:-  instances  were  recorded  of  this  caterpillar  being  lickeu 
up  or  swallowed  by  cows,  with  mischievous  results,  and  such  belief  is- 
said  to  be  common  through  Munster.  It  is  quite  presumable  that  a  cater¬ 
pillar  of  this  moth  might  be  occasionally  taken  up  with  a  mouthful  ct 
herbage,  but  extremely  unlikely  that  it  should  do  any  harm,  and  Miss 
Ormerod  considers  the  injury  received  is  attributable  to  browsing  on  scm& 
of  the  marsh  umbelliferous  plants. — Entomologist. 
