As to the general merits, or general conditions, of muzzle-pivoting, however, once in doubt at first, these are admitted now by all; and the latter resolve themselves almost into this--that system of muzzle-pivoting must be best which, while preserving the essential point of leaving the muzzle of the gun free of any direct attachment, i.e., with an imaginary, not an actual, pivot of vertical arc motion, shall be the simplest possible in its parts, have the least details, the fewest parts capable of being struck by splinters or shot, and all its parts of such materials and character as to receive the smallest amount of injury if so struck. In every one of these aspects Herr Gruson's mounting is at fault. With parts and movements far more ingeniously adapted than those of the crude and unskillfully designed muzzle-pivoting carriages of Captain Heathorn, also exhibited at Paris, and much exhibited and exposed since, the Gruson mounting is even more complicated, expensive, and liable to injury of every sort to which a gun carriage can be conceived liable. We may even venture to affirm that ponderous as was the mass of cast iron, etc., in the Paris model carrying only a 12-pounder gun, were it all enlarged in such ratio as might appear to suit for a 10-inch 25-tun rifled gun of the British type, the almost proverbial relations, between weight, velocity of impulse, and brittleness of cast iron, would show themselves, in the whole machine going to pieces within a very few rounds.
Stock Feeding by Clock Work.
Mr. F. B. Robinson, of North Haven, Conn., has invented a very neat arrangement, whereby horses or stock can be fed at any time required with certainty and without personal attention at the time of feeding. His invention consists of a hopper with a drop bottom in which the provender is placed. A latch secures the drop bottom, the latch engaging with a spring catch. A simple arrangement of clock work on the principle of the alarm clock, may be set to release the spring at any hour or minute desired, when the drop falls and the provender falls through a chute into the feeding trough. This invention may be adapted to feeding any number of horses or cattle, only one clock being required. We regard the invention as one of much value. By its use much neglect of careless attendants may be obviated, and a farmer without help, might leave home for an evening's entertainment, or absent himself on business, without fear that his stock would suffer. Besides being so convenient the cost of the apparatus is a mere bagatelle.
Milk, and What Comes of It.
Orange County has long been a laud flowing with milk and--butter. Three or four of these most beautiful autumn days were spent by us, says a writer in Harper's Weekly, among the farmers which are supposed to butter our New York city bread, and qualify our tea and coffee. Recent mechanical improvements have taken away much of the traditional romance of the farm, but, on the whole, the loss is more than made up by the gain of perfect system and wonderful adaptation. Instead of four or five cows, known by such names as Brindle, Bess, and Sukey, milked by rosy-cheeked maidens, we have now droves of fifty or a hundred, milked by men, who know them only as "good" or "poor milkers."
In some fine farms a large and luxuriant pasture, with running brooks and border of woodlands, affords, with the herd feeding in it, a beautiful picture; and the substantial barns constructed to keep the cattle comfortably cool in summer and warm in winter, with ample drinking troughs and stalls for fastening up at night, are indicative of the good shelter at hand when winter storms drive the cows indoors. To the farmyards the cows are brought night and morning, in summer, to be milked. The strained milk is put into large cans holding forty quarts, such as the milkmen use in distributing it through the city. These cans are then put into tanks made in some cool running stream, where the water comes nearly to the top of the can. Frequent stirring is necessary until the animal heat is quite gone. The milk is then fit to be sent to the cars. This process can never safely be omitted for, paradoxical though it may seem, milk is "fresher" and sweeter when it reaches the consumer if it is delayed at the farm for at least twelve hours. Even in hot weather, it is more certain to keep sweet when twenty-four or thirty-six hours elapse between the milking and the using in the city.