The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-08-28

y
son, first; E. F. Wiggin, Meredith, Sec
cOnd.
UP TO DATE FARMING.
Modern Dairy Machinery-How Blue
berries are busted and Potatoes Planted
by Machinery.
In these days of horse trots and faklrs,
it is good thing to remember that this
is an agricultural fair. If You make
trip through the exhibits of farming ma
chinery you realize, however, that this is
farmers club. In the days Of old, farm
work was harder than it is today, when
it is still probably hard enough. The in
yentors have been at work in behalf Of
| the farmer and the farmers wife, and IT
the grandmothers and grandfathers who
worked the old dasher churns and ran the
cider mill of 50 years ago could visit the
| big tent, filled with the wares of Kendall
& Whitney, they would open their eyes
| in great surprise. There are the Suod--
dard churns, which are simply hard WOOD
kegs mounted on standards so that the
key may be turned upside down and right
side up by the movement Of a crank. And
there, too, are churns of the world
familiar to the business of half century
ago. The Blanchard churn retains one
Of the features of that Of the olden days,
for it has a dasher, but the dasher is
worked by crank instead of the old UP
and down broom handle continuance.
We are remainded of the churns again
| by the Stoddard creamery, which looks
| like refrigerator, and contains big cans
for setting the milk, SO arranged that the
milk may be drawn off from the bottom
| iv,rr fhn c1OaJ r.
cream may be taken off by top SKIM
ming device, leaving the milk in the can
| The farmers wife smay thus take her
choice of the two methods. Then there
are number of the wooden butter car
riers manufactured by Kendall q Whit
ney, in which the butter may be packed
in trays one above another, and safely
carried in cart or car.
! If the grandmothers who worked the
| buttermilk out and the salt into the but
ter by hand could see the contrivances of
| these days for doing the work, they
would scarcely Ebelieye their eyes. 1t is
very simple, this Waters butter worker,
| but, like many simple contrivances it is
good one. 1t consists of wooden
pan in which the butter is placed, a roll
| Ter with futed surfaces being run back
and forth over it by the movement OF q
crank working the salt in while the but
termilk runs off.
of these modern devices to save strength
of the farmers wife. The machine is con-
structed to run by hand or power For
the benefit of city folks it may be stated
that separator does in twinkling what
used to be accomplished by the slow
process of setting the milk and waiting
for the cream to come to the top The
milk runs into bowl, which is revolved
at the rate of 5000 revolutions minute,
the effect being to send the cream out
through one aperture and the skim milk
through another. A little separator made
by the De Laval concern is known as the
| Alpha Humming bird, from the peculiar
sound it makes 1t has the same revolv-
| ing bowl, but instead Of being turned by
| crank it is run by pulling string out
as the boy sets his top spinning. Then
the machine winds the string up again,
and so the hand travels back and forth,
and the bowl makes the 600, revolutions
| minute. This is the first of these hum
ming birds ever exhibited in Maine. 1t
will work from $50 to 200 pounds of milk
| in an hour The Worcester dairy salt is
piled up in bags near the dairy machines,
and attracts the notice of the farmers,
| for it is extensively used in dairying.
All tho improvements are not in the
dairy line, for here is a little wagon on
which the farmer may sit and drive
around his field, while by the mechanism
| in the body of the vehicle potatoes are
planted and fertilizers are distributed at
| the same time. The machine also covers
up the freshly planted potatoes and all
that the farmer has to do is to drive the
horse and keep the cart filled with pota-
toes. 1t is called the Robbins potato
planter.
Next the planter is the Hoover potato
digger, which with its sharp steel point
digs the potatoes, carries them up under
| the drivers seat on an endless chain, and
finally leaves them lying between the
hills on the ground. Here again the
farmer drives the horse and the machine
does the rest.
The Whitman threshing machine is an
other continuance which shows the pro-
gress of farm methods. 1t is rum by horse
power applied through tread mill of the
kind familiar to people who have seen
the horses patiently saving wood with
one. The machine will thresh all kinds
of grain. Next comes the wood saw
which naturally goes with the tread mill
Then there is fan mill for tanning dust
from the newly threshed grain. This
new tangled contrivanoe has blower
worked by crank which does the dust
ing. Farmers nowadays evidently see that
the products OF their land are clean, for
here we have a machine for cleaning
blueberries, another combination of fan
and big wooden receptacle for the blue :
berries Then there comes lot of lever
hay.and ensilage cutters And here too,
are all sorts of labor saving devices too
numerous to mention. but very interest
ing to the farmer and Ills worthy wife.
One new appliance is the Chamberlain
force pump which pumps up stout
liquid and then throws it out to deal
death to potato bugs pand caterpiliars by
the Use of COMPRESSED air