The Mena star., 1898-07-06
THE MILKING STOOL.
An Article of the Most Widespread Common Use That Is Not Made in
 Factories, and Why.

A man who had seen in pictures milking stools occupied by milkmaids engaged in milking cows that stood placidly switching off a fly now and then and looking drowsily out upon a lovely summer landscape, thought to himself that, taking into account the numerous number of cows in this coun- try that were daily milked, there must be an enormous number of milking stools used, and therefore that the milking stool must be a considerable item of manufacture, and that it might aven be that there were factories that made nothing else. With this idea in mind, he set out to get some facts con corning the trade in milking stools. At two establishments for the sale of dairy supplies, where he saw great variety of all sorts of things for dairy use, the inquirer was informed that they did not sell milking stools, and had never heard of them as an article of trade. It was quite true that there were many thousands of them in daily use, but they were made by the farm CTS themselves. It wouldn't pay to make them to sell, cheaply as they could be made, because the farmer could make them cheaper still, and there was no occasion for him to buy a thing that he could make in very short time for nothing, or next to nothing.
 The most elaborate of milking stools would be one made of piece of board or plank, with the corners rounded off, making the stool round, or practically so, and into the under side of it would be bored, not quite through, three or four auger holes. Into these holes would be driven pegs for legs. But not all milking stools are so elaborate as this. Two dairymen who were asked for information on the subject said that they had never seen milking stool for sale in any store, city or country; that every farmer made his own, and that it might be something far simpler still than the milking stool with legs. It might be simply handy small box, or it might be a short stick of wood with a piece of board nailed across one end, stool that would be picked up by the board. Whatever It was, the milking stool was something that was found or could be made on the farm
 No such thing as au ornamented milking stool of any kind?" asked the inquirer.
 There's generally some cow In the herd that does whatever ornamenting there Is done,' said one of the dairy to infer that the COW does not always stand placidly lazily switching off a fly aL2 gazing drowsily meanwhile off upon a peaceful summer landscape, but that there is now and then COW that occasionally rears and tears and mpsets the milk pail and kicks the milking stool into small slivers.
 Inquiry at the office of two large dairy establishments eiicited the same information. Indeed, it was not until the inquirer had sought the establish ment of wholesale manufacturers thai he found the milking stool produced as an article of trade. The stool so made is disk of wood with short legs, called by the most euphonious name of the milkmaid's stool, and sold, finished in the natural wood, not for milking pur- poses, but in city stores, to women who paint, ename! .,liu ornament them in one way or ar9ta 1T, or adorn them with ribbons ing them useful or decorative ariaaes of furniture.-N. T.. Sun.