The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-05-12
THE MILKING STOOL.
Common Use That Is Not Made in
Factories, and Why.

\ man who had seen in pictures
milking stools occupied by milllmaids
engaged in milking cows that stood
placidly switching off fly now and
then and looking drowsily out upon
lovely summer landscape, thought to
himself that, taking into account the
numerous number of cows in this coun-
try that were daily MIXED, there must
be an enormous number of milking
stools used, and therefore that the
milking stool must be considerable
item of manufacture, and that it might
even 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 a great
variety of all sorts of things for dairy
use, the inquirer was informed that
they did not sell milking stools, and
of trade. 1t was quite true that there
were many thousands of them in daily
use, but they were made by the farm
ers themselves. 1t 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
thing that he could make in a 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 a milking
stool fer sale in any store, city or
country; that every farmer made his
own, and that it might be something
far Eimpler still than the milking stool
with legs. 1t might be simply handy
small box, or it might be a short stick
VI NOOu WIN DlCNt VI DOdlu udlltu
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.
mo such thing as an 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
men, and from this the inquirer was led
to infer that the cow does not always
stand placidly, lazily switching off
fly and gazing drowsily meanwhile
off upon peaceful summer landscape,
but that there is now and then a COW
that occasionally rears ard tears and
upsets the milk pail and kicks the
milking stool into small slivers.
Inquiry at the Office of two large
dairy establishments elected the same
information. Indeed, it was not until
the inquirer had sought the establish
ment of a wholesale manufacturer that
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
millmaid's stool, and sold, finished in
the natural wood, not for milking pur-
poses, but in city stores, to women
who paint, enamel and ornament them
in one way or another, or adorn them
with ribbons, making them useful or
decorative articles of furniture.-N. Y.
Sun.