108 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
room or cheese house and well strained into clean 
shallow tin pans, if for butter, holding six, eight, 
ten or twelve quarts each, as may be most con¬ 
venient, about two thirds full, and set on clean, 
cool shelves, either of stone or wood (if of the lat¬ 
ter they should be slatted for the air to circulate 
under the pans moveable, so as to be taken out 
occasionally and washed), and the temperature 
of the atmosphere kept, if possible, not less than 
45°, nor above 55° or 60° of Farenheit—such 
temperature being the best for the rising of the 
cream. A half cellar—say 4 feet under ground 
and 4 feet above it, with good stone wall sides 
laid in mortar, well ventilated and whitewashed, 
and lighted with wire screened glass in movable 
sash, for admitting or excluding the air, dry and 
■well floored is the best. The cheese room or 
house we will talk about hereafter. 
.As soon as the milk pails are empty, let them 
he thoroughly scalded and washed in soft, hot wa¬ 
ter, until perfectly clean, and then placed out of 
doors in the sun, if fair weather, ora slatted table 
to dry. The sun and air sweetens them. So 
with the milk pans, the cheese tubs and every 
other moveable utensil used for milk, butter, or 
cheese for be it understood that rigid cleanliness 
is the very first requirement in the dairy either of 
butter or of cheese. Soap of course, must be 
used, as there is no cleaning things without it, 
from the hands of the milker, to the scrubbing of 
every thing which milk, cream, butter, curd or 
cheese touches. No snuff-takers, tobacco-chew- 
ers, or others indulging unclean personal habits 
have any business inside the dairy rooms with 
such habits about them while there. If they must 
use snuff or tobacco, let it be oufside not inside. 
ARTIFICIAL TEMPERATURE OF THE MILK ROOM. 
We have named 45° to 60° as the best temper¬ 
ature of atmosphere for the milk in cream rising, 
if possible to be had ; but we are well aware that 
such low temperature is seldom obtainable in the 
Summer season unless by artificial aid. Fortu¬ 
nately our dairy districts are in northern latitudes 
where ice abounds, and is easily obtained in Win¬ 
ter. Therefore every large butter dairyman 
should have an ice-house well built, and of large 
dimensions. 
[Pretty full descriptions of ice-houses of various 
kinds have already been given in the Agricultur¬ 
ist. A convenient form, Schooley’s, is illustrated 
in last volume, page 120 ] 
When a Spring of clear cold water is accessi¬ 
ble near the dwelling, the milk room can be built 
enclosing it, and the water made to flow over the 
stone shelves, or floors on which the milk pans 
rest. If no spring can be brought to aid the milk 
room, an ice house should certainly be attached, 
to cool the water for working the butter, and the 
butter itself when worked, or the entire room if 
possible, in case the temperature can not be kept 
low enough without. The ice will pay in any 
event, in one use or another which will be re¬ 
quired to aid the work in the dairy operations. 
MANAGEMENT OF THE CREAM. 
In a good milk house, the cream will rise in 
thirty-six to forty-eight hours, depending on 
temperature. After the milk sours or thickens, 
no more cream will rise, and it should then be 
skimmed with a tin skimmer, and set away in a 
clean stone jar, closely covered, and churned 
within a day or two, or daily, according to the 
size of the dairy. 
It is the practice of some of our most success¬ 
ful dairymen to churn the entire cream and milk 
together, turning the contents of the pans into the 
churns without separation. It is not claimed that 
this process yields more butter than that of 
churning the cream separately, or that the butter 
is of better quality, the mode being simply one of 
convenience or habit. That of churning the cream 
only we consider as less laborious, from the les¬ 
sened quantity of material to be moved in the pro¬ 
cess. The proper temperature for churning is 
about 60° Farenheit, and a thermometer is ne¬ 
cessary to regulate it when sufficient practice does 
not enable the dairyman to judge correctly as 
many experienced ones can do. The churning 
should be done regularly, and with a moderate 
stroke or revolution as the form of churn used 
may determine, and occupy from three quarters 
of an hour to an hour and-a-half according to 
temperature. 
We will speak of churns in our next. 
-*«►-« 
Fig. 1. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
The Onion Fly . —Anthomyia ceparum. 
In traveling through the County of Essex, (N. 
Y.,) a short time since, particularly along the 
beautiful plains in the vicinity of the Au-Sable 
River, I had my attention repeatedly attracted to 
the withered and sickly appearance of nearly all 
the fields of onions, through which I passed. 
Upon enquiring the cause, I was invariably told, 
that it was the effects of a worm, and that it was 
extremely doubtful if a single tuber in a healthful 
condition would be obtained in a hundred plants. 
This excited my curiosity, and on raising the bulbs 
from the earth, I had little difficulty in recognising 
the larva of a Dipterous (two-winged) insect, be¬ 
longing to a species which in England, as well as 
in many other parts of Europe, for the last twenty 
years, have almost entirely destroyed the onion 
crops, upon the cultivation of which so considera- 
able an amount of labor and experience have 
been expended. To such a degree have their 
ravages extended in those countries, that the 
Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 
husbandmen have been driven to the necessity of 
abandoning the culture of this important vegeta¬ 
ble, not having yet met with any efficient remedy 
for the destruction of their enemy. 
Much uncertainty still seems to prevail among 
entomologists respecting the peculiar habits and 
instincts of this little depredator, and we greatly 
fear that they will long remain in ignorance, un¬ 
less some interested and intelligent individual, re¬ 
siding on the spot, and having daily access to the 
plants, shall establish a series of practical obser¬ 
vations on their habits, and in this manner, trace 
them through their various stages of existence, up 
to the perfect fly. Until this is accomplished, 
and not till then, will we, with any degree of cer¬ 
tainty be able to suggest any reasonable method 
for effectually removing them. If it be not done 
speedily, a knowledge of the prolific manner of 
their increase, makes it probable that they will, in 
the course of but a few years, spread over the 
whole country, and almost, if not entirely, oblit¬ 
erate this highly useful vegetable from our gar¬ 
dens. 
This insect depredator is, I think, undoubtedly 
the Anthomyia ceparum, of Meigen, or a species 
so closely allied, as to differ but little from it in 
any of its habits. 
It is shown at c, fig. 1, somewhat magnified, the 
actual length being indicated by the perpendicular, 
and the spread of the wings by the horizontal 
line, below the cut of the fly ; c and d, same fig., 
show the pupa, from which the insect emerges, 
c being the natural size, and d magnified. It be¬ 
longs to the second general division of the Mus- 
cidcs, that of the Anthomysulcs, which is com¬ 
posed of species, all of whom have greatly the ap¬ 
pearance of common flies. 
The larva of this insect a in fig. 2, is about i of 
an inch in length, fleshy, and of a white color. It is 
of a conical form, with a smooth and shining sur¬ 
face, and entirely free from any external superfi¬ 
cial appendages. The incisions are finely granu¬ 
late, and the last and largest segment is obliquely 
truncated at its base, upon which is placed a sur¬ 
rounding border of eight small knots, or projecting 
points, as seen at b, fig. 2, representing the larva 
magnified. 
The female fly deposits its eggs on the base o 
the stem near the surface of the ground, which, 
in a few days become hatched, the larvae imme¬ 
diately penetrating between the leaves to the bulb, 
upon which it preys unseen ; but the effects soon 
Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 
become visible, for the leaves turn yellow, fall 
prostrate on the ground, and quickly wither away. 
These are shown in figs. 3 and 4. In the course 
of about two weeks they arrive to maturity, and 
change to the pupa state, fig. 5, and in from fif¬ 
teen or twenty days more emerge the ptf feet fly, 
fully prepared to accomplish their depredations 
by depositing their eggs upon the more healthy 
plants. As many as from one to five of the larvae 
were frequently to be met with on a single plant. 
The perfect insect is about half the size of the 
common house-fly, with a few thinly scattered 
hairs covering the surface of the body. It is of an 
ash grey color, the males being distinguished by 
a series of dark stripes upon the back. The head 
is marked with a brownish spot upon its apex. 
The wings are exceedingly transparent, exhibit¬ 
ing beautiful iridescent reflections from their sur¬ 
faces, the shoulders of which are of an ocliery- 
brown color, and the veins of brownish yellow. 
This fly may not unfrequently be met with in 
the Spring of the year, basking in the sunshine 
about the windows of the neighboring dwellings. 
And from the circumstance of finding their larvae 
in the greatest profusion, committing their depre¬ 
dations in the middle and latter parts of August, 
we are inclined to believe that they pass through 
several generations in a season, and that they pro¬ 
bably make use of the seed of the plant, on which 
