DAIRY FIXTURES. The principal appa ratus for large dairies should be, a steam engine, Or other means for heating and power, cheese presses, cheese vats, cnrcl cutters, clippers, pans, or other utensils for setting milk and raising cream; also churns, butter table and worker-, pails, and c;ans for milk, and packages for ship ping the merchantable commodities. (See But ter, Cheese, etc.) These of course -will be of the latest and inost improved founs. In the. article cloths, to be -used in bandaging cheese, it is now manufactured especially for the pur pose; .,f) also, are the boxes for packing-., and the dairyman can 110W order just such fixture for one, or of any required size for the other. Ammtto is now pi epared with special relation to. the wants of the dairyman, and :-() are all of the other materials needed. Hoops for holding the cheese -while being pressed, are now made of varicms materials, the best probably, being those of galvanized iron, turned over stcmt wire at the top and llottorn. Bent hoops of elm or hickory, and those made of wooden staves, banded with iron, are rdoo in use, but are decidedly inferior, since they are niuch more difficult to keep clean_ (Sce article Cheese.) On page 261 we have shown scone of the most appioved forms of dairy fixtures: Fig.. 1, heater; Fig. 2, perpendicular gang curd knife; Fig. 3, horizontal curd knife; Fig. 4, cheese hoop; Fig. 5, a modern cieam raising apparatus; and Fig. 6, one of its tallS.
DAM. The use of dains and embankments, to form reservoirs of water, is important in dry loculities and countries, as a means of securing a supply in times of drought, when the supply is not easily reached near the surface. As a means of securing power for mechanical purposes Hie tig,e is limited in agriculture; nevertheless, there are many situations where two purposes may he subserved in this way, that of forming a never failing pond of water for stock, during the dry season, and of supplying power for running-, various farm machinery, during the spring, late autumn and much of the time in winter.
No specific directions can be given for the for mation of dams or embankments. AVlien the head is not more than four or five feet, a simple embankment of earth to be protected from the. buDrovving of muslc-rats and other water animals, by means of planks, s:et upright, edge to edge, closely. and at knst two feet below the bottom of the pond, with a waste way in the most con venient place, tu allow the surplus water to pass off freely; this will he al] that -will be neces sary \\Alen the head is of a height sufficient to. endanger the bank by the overflow of water. Alre givy an illustration showing how all em bankment may be built in a depression, showing pond of water and trees ten years planted. The. earth excavated to deepen the pond niay form the embankment. This may be cheaply done by any of the modern scrapers which dump without stopping the team, and at the same time the operator may spread the earth, so but little levelling will be needed. Dams may sometimes be made to serve the purpose of furnishing a.
supply of water to the house and out-buildings, when the elevation of the locality containing water is sufficiently above the buildings to form a sufficient head when conducted in underground pipes. Thus the water of a higher level, by means of a suitable dam, may be made to operate a fountain and supply ornamental and other ponds and streams near the dwelling. So, again, water is sometimes conducted in underground pipes, where the level of the pond is not much below the level of the barn, and the water is pumped, by wind or other power, thence into a tank, placed at a sufficient height, for distribu tion. The pipes for conducting the water must be quite tig-ht, and of sufficient strength to resist the strain, according to the height ot the water head. Thus, the pipes may be conducted over inequalities in the land, care being taken that at no place they rise higher than the pond or pool from which the water is taken.