BUILDINGCONSTRUCTION maining movable notwithstanding the entrance of the seed so that no choking up of the slit is to be feared. The sampler is to be had at the Royal Seed Control Station at Krizevci (Croatia). 571 The “May” Milking Machine. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, Year 63, No. 16, p. 187. Vienna, February 22, 1913. This patent milking machine is remarkable for the great simplicity of its construction. One person, using two of these machines, can milk from 24 to 34 cows in an hour. The sole agents for this machine, in Austria and Germany, are Messrs. P. Lübke of Breslau. Zeitung, Year XV, No. 5, pp. 69-71. Vienna, March 1, 1913. This article contains an illustration and a description of the abovementioned apparatus, which was patented in Germany as No. 222.478. 573- A New Rapid Milk Boiler with Cooling Apparatus for Continuous Work. — AUERBACH, N. in Zeitschrift für Fleisch- und Milchhygiene, Year XXIII, Part 12, pp. 270-273. Berlin, March 15, 1913. From the researches of hygienists on raw and boiled milk the superiority of the latter appears to be proved. The writer describes the construction and working of a milk heater, which is provided with a device for automatically shutting off the supply of milk when the temperature sinks below a certain point. A heater capable of heating 53 gallons of milk per hour costs £34 6s. The heating can be done by gas, steam or electricity. 574 A Handy Sheep Dip. The Pastoralist's Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, p. 164. Melbourne, February 15, 1913. The sheep dip represented in the diagram has all the advantages of a long swim bath at a very reduced cost. The sheep swim back and come under the control of the man who is penning up before dipping them. When the draining pens are full, he has only to come through the fence and open the gates (Fig. 1). In Fig. 2, half a dozen sheep are placed in the decoy pen (b) first; the others then are forced up the inclined race (c); on reaching the slide (d), they lose their footing, and glide into the bath. Between the posts on either side of the slide, there is a square curtain of raw ox-hide hung to hide the fall and catch the splash. The slide is made of smooth, well-oiled, well-planed boards, so as to avoid the slightest foothold for the slipping animal. On leaving the bath (e), the sheep first reach the draining pens (f), and finally the drying yard (g). 575 Automatic Drinking Troughs. l'etable. GODBILLE, P. Installation hygiénique de L'Hygiène de la Viande et du Lait, Year 7, No. 2, pp. 62-70. Paris, February 10, 1913. After describing some systems of watering live stock, which owing to their defects, have not been largely adopted in practice, the writer des cribes the Manfroid-Bauduim system, which is widely spread in the North of France, in Paris and in Belgium, and which from both the hygienic and the economic point of view, has given the best results. As the annexed figure shows, this trough, which is fed directly from the water pipes or from a cistern, consists essentially of the drinking basin, in which a movable plate is so placed as to work a valve. The animal presses the plate with its muzzle and drinks at the same time. When pressure on the plate ceases the valve closes by itself by the pressure of the water and by the action of a spring. 576 Basket-Work Ventilators. Wiener Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, Year 63, No. 21, p. 255. Vienna, March 12, 1913. Farmers are often obliged by bad weather to store hay, straw, cereals or other produce before it is dry enough. Spreading in thin layers, making use of the upper and best ventilated storerooms of the farm, and similar measures may to a certain extent save the produce for a short time from destruction, but the limited amount of space is inadequate to cope with large quantities of produce. Matters however are very different and the available space car be utilized to a much greater extent when ventilator tubes offering an easy passage to air are used, such as those that H. Schmalle of Berlin has placed on the market. They are made of a durable permeable osier work and when placed at distances of two or three feet from each other in heaps of cereals or of other similar produce they ensure a steady circulation of air, which considerably diminishes the danger of heating and moulding. These ventilators are laid cross-wise in stacks. They are about 3ft. 8in. long; those made for stacks are 6 1⁄2 inches in diameter and those for cereals 10 inches. They cost 17s 6d to 18s. 6d. per dozen, RURAL ECONOMICS RURAL ECONOMICS. 577 Types of Farming in relation to Distance from Market. BRINKMANN in Fühlings Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, Year 62, Part 6, pp. 185-213. Stuttgart, March 15, 1913. The very varied systems of farming depend upon the action of two opposite groups of forces: on the one hand those which lead to the specialisation of production, and which render a particular locality suitable for certain products and another locality for other products (differentiation forces), and on the other hand those which tend to unite several branches of production into a whole (integrating forces). This latter tendency is due chiefly to the three following causes: the first of which is the regular distribution of work throughout the year for the economy of human labour, of other power and of capital. This tendency leads to the distribution of the acreage of the farm among a greater or smaller number of different cultures for which the operations of sowing, interculture and harvest fall in different times. Similar to the well known law of diminishing returns, the law of increasing expenses may be mentioned as coming into play with the extension given, beyond a certain limit, to any one crop, because instead of the union of several crops, the utilization of the soil tends to become a one-sided specialization. On the other hand the more appropriate the choice of the group of crops to be grown, in respect to the means of production employed, the lower will be the expenses per unit of surface and of production. In this connection the reciprocal complement that spring wheat and winter wheat are to each other is specially important. The same connection exists between hoed crops and forage plants, between cereals and oil seeds. The regular distribution of work throughout the year rises in importance with the intensity of farming, with the compactness of the soil and with the relatively unfavourable position of the farm respecting the market. The second cause which leads to adopting a combination of several crops as against specializing, is the need of utilizing in the best possible manner the conditions of fertility of the soil. The various crops which enter into the rotation must complement each other in their needs for growth, as well as in the influence they exert on the fertility of the soil, so as to have as far as possible a natural reciprocal reintegration of the fertility of the soil. Its follows thus that in the choice of the crops to be grown together, as well as in determining the area and place to be given to each in the rotation, the farmer must seek to combine the advantages which derive from one grouping of crops rather than another in its bearing upon the conservation of the fertility of the soil, together with those connected with the best utilization of the means of production employed. The more favourable the natural and economic conditions of a farm are, the more important for the combination of several crops does the principle of |