dairies. I may add that the size ot the fat 
globule has much to do with the butter value 
of cream. The larger the tat globules, and 
the more of them, the higher the butter value 
of the cream; while the fat globules may be 
so small that few of them can be churned in- 
2 
Fig. 105. 
to butter, and hence are run off in the butter¬ 
milk. There are instances on record where 
no butter could be churned from cream or 
milk which analyses showed to be rich in fat. 
It seems strange that it takes so long for the 
general public to become familiar with well- 
known factshaving a direct pecuniary bear¬ 
ing on the several different callings. But 1 
believe the dairymen are the slowest of all. 
WHAT TEN WOMEN DID. 
It was at the meeting of the Ladies’ Aid 
Society for April 1888. As is our custom, we 
lingered to talk a little while after the meet¬ 
ing had adjourned. No general subject had 
been started, when our president said: 
“One thing, ladies: Please don’t let us dis¬ 
cuss the blizzard or the might-have-been of 
the pastor’s last sermon!” 
“Suggest something fresh, wise, and origi¬ 
nal 1” said Sister Soule, in her sarcastic way. 
“All right,” returned Sister Ray. “We 
have just the right time to talk about the milk 
problem, which is agitating all the men-folks.” 
“If we could only think up a remedy!” I 
said, and three or four echoed the remark. 
“I can tell you my idea,” said Mrs. Ray. 
“But excuse me,” Mrs. Orr said. “I do not 
understand what you are talking about,” (she 
had but just removed to town.) 
“Why, it’s the milk,” said half a dozen at 
once. “You see we’ve all been sending to the 
condensing factory,and getting two and three- 
quarters cents the year round. But they 
shut down on April 2nd., and now there is the 
general query: ‘What shall we do with our 
milk?”’ 
Fig. 10(5. 
“Send it to New York, and get two cents; 
to the cheese factory, and get 2 l-10th cents; 
to the whole-milk factory, and get still less?” 
rattled Sister Soule. 
os, that’s just it!” we all said. “It is im¬ 
possible to hit upon anything to take the place 
of the ooudensing factory 1” 
THE BUBAL MEW-Y©BBER. 
443 
“Unless folks start a co-operative cream¬ 
ery,” said Mrs. Edson. 
“Which they will notl” said the president. 
“It is the thing, but it won’t go.” 
“Unless we make it,” said Sister Ray. 
“How?” asked Gran’ma Esty.“ Those that 
know say we can’t start one, ef fur no other 
reasin, cos it wouldn’t be nowise pos’ble to git 
a buildin’ up in time.” 
Mrs. Ray smiled. 
“See here,” she said. “Of the 28 dairies on 
this side of the creek that furnished to the 
condensers, 13 can be controlled by women, 
and eight or 10 of those women are here to¬ 
day. Now, can’t we organize?” 
“How?” I asked. 
“Well,” she said, “buy the outfit and—” 
“Fit out what?” asked Mrs. Soule. 
“The building is ready,” she said. “That 
is our new horse-barn. John will not use it 
till winter, if I say so, having the old barn. 
The basement under the carriage-room is 
all bricked, and the ice-house at one end is 
full. We can fit it up nicely fora creamery.” 
“At what cost?” some one asked. 
“For $100 to $150,” she said. “Here are 
the items:—One 150-gallon cream-vat is $60. 
A No. 6 Davis swing churn is $18. A No. 3 
Eureka worker is $10. A Nesbitt printer is 
$5. That is $93, and all else put together will 
not make it exceed $150, including the minor 
fixings, drains, and carpentry.” 
“Well!” was the general exclamation. And 
for one thing, and that was that we all agreed 
“neither to boast nor whine, whatever the out¬ 
come might be.” But it paid. (The commis¬ 
sion merchants did not, however, until I had 
a lawyer’s help.) Last March, on the occa¬ 
sion of our annual meeting, the men came in 
and proposed a “ General Creamery.” Let 
me say, with all candor, that we graciously 
admitted them, being satisfied with having 
shown them that with small capital and lots 
of pluck, 10 women can settle the “milk prob¬ 
lem.” It is not my purpose to write of the pres¬ 
ent association, their organization, new fac¬ 
tory, etc. We made it possible: that is all. 
One word to farmers’ wives: If there is no 
creamery in your town, believe the general 
opinion that it pays, and instead ot waiting 
for the men, go ahead I mbs. l. c. m. 
Westfield, N. J. 
THE WIRE-WORM NUISANCE. 
Readers of the R. N.-Y. are requested to 
pass along several rows of their potatoes and 
see if here and there stems with curly or wilt¬ 
ed leaves be not found. If so, let them re¬ 
move the soil from each stem near the surface 
and two inches in depth. If the leaves are 
WORK OF THE CUT-WORM ON POTATO VINES Fig. 167. 
it was well. In an hour we had organized a 
Ladies’ Creamery Association, capital $500, 
divided into 50 equal shares. Three-fifths 
were “signed ” on the spot, and the remainder 
in four days, and all by women, too. 
John Ray’s new barn was “ just the thing.” 
Bullion a side-hill, it had a basement 30x48 
feet, which was originally intended for a pig¬ 
pen. This was divided into work-room, cream- 
room and storage-room—the ice-house adjoin¬ 
ing, and no boiler-room provided, as we de¬ 
cided to “ run it by hand.” The outfit was 
put in, and all in order, for $132.65, each 
patroness buying her own Cooley creamer. 
The building was rent-free; the drainage was 
put in free, and we agreed among us to take 
turns butter-making and cream-collecting. 
“.We’’.were ten women, all “good butter- 
makers,” and representing a total of 118 
cows. It is but fair to say that the men let 
us have our way (though they laughed some), 
and that we got along without their help 
altogether, except that wo had to have the 
ice-box filled for us, and the milking done by 
men. All of the rest we did ourselves, assisted 
by the dog of one of the patronesses, which was 
employed to churn for us. A as butter- 
maker, and B as cream-gatherer and assistant, 
would take charge one week (beginning May 5), 
then C and D would take charge a week, and 
so on around. All had a voice in things; but 
Mrs. Ray was president, I was secretary and 
sales-agent, aud Mrs. Fox was secretary. The 
10 “directed” as one. Everything was other¬ 
wise conducted as iu any co-operative Cooley 
Creamery. 
We discontinued operations early iu No¬ 
vember. Now I might proceed to tell how 
profitable it was—for it was so—if it were not 
merely curled, it will be found that a wire- 
worm (millipede) has eaten the stem so as 
nearly to sever it, or that it has bored into 
the stems in which case the grub may be 
found within the stem an inch or so above or 
below the orifice. Large, strong stems may 
be.eaten nearly in two, and yet present a green 
appearance. The curl in the leaf is the first 
evidence that the stem is so nearly severed 
that it can no longer convey the required 
amount of sap to the leaves and stem above. 
The stem often begins to rot after the “wire- 
worm” has attacked it, in which case the vine 
falls over and dies. For the past two weeks 
the writer has examined many plants thus in¬ 
jured, not only at the Rural Grounds, but 
upon neighboring farms, and there is little 
doubt that it is these many-legged insects 
(lulus) which are the cause, though a number 
of farmers ascribed it to “blight” or the ex¬ 
cessively wet weather that has up to this time 
prevailed. In one patch of potatoes, 12 In a 
row of 66 plants showed either the curly or 
wilted leaf, while two entire plants had fallen 
over, the stems having rotted apart. The illus¬ 
trations, Fig. 167, will show the reader one of 
these stems and the character of the injury sus¬ 
tained, while Fig. 168 shows the appearance 
of the stem just below the ground. 
We have found not alone the hard “ wire- 
worm ” which seems to be made of hard rings 
closely joined together and which curls up 
like a spiral wire as soon as touched, but also 
the softer, more active grub, at work, both ou 
the outside of the stem aud on the inside. As 
many as five of various sizes, from a quarter- 
of-an-inch long to the mature grub have been 
found in one stem. 
The R. N.-Y. would like to learn through 
its readers if these larvae are at work else 
where upon the stems of potato vines, or if, 
owing to local causes, their depredations are 
confined to a limited a rea. 
J* 
* 
The entomological name of the wire-worm 
that coils up upon being touched is Julus Can¬ 
adensis. That of the other is probably Scolopo- 
cryptops sexspinosa. 
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P L AJMK E D llj P 
I 
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Fig. 169. 
HOG TROUGH DEVICE. 
The device shown at Figures 165 and 166 
may be an old thing to many of our readers, 
yet we are led to print it from seeine the 
numbers of hog pens that are without any 
handy means of pouring food into the trough. 
Figure 165 shows a side view of the hanging 
door, while Fgure 166 shows a front view. 
The pictures show the working of the device 
without much explanation. No. 1 is a joist 
forming the upper edge of the pen; 2 is a 
boarded space; 3 are hinges on which the door 
swings; 5 is an iron rod; 8 is the trough and 7 
is a slot cut in a block. To feed or to clean 
out the trough, the door is swung back, and 
the iron rod 5, is pushed down into the slot 7. 
This keeps the hogs away from the trough un¬ 
til the feeder is ready for them, when the 
door is swung back and the iron rod pushed 
down into the slot at the front. This is a 
great deal better than trying to pour the feed 
over the side of the pen. 
A CONVENIENT VIRGINIA BARN. 
When I moved to this farm there was no 
barn on it. As I was a young man, and just 
t beginning the business of farming, every one 
had something to say about what kind of a 
barn I ought to build. I was somewhat like 
the Dutchman who invited all his neighbors 
to a big dinner, after w hieh they were to tell 
him where to “set his barn.” After dinner 
eacu neighbor had a different place aud plan 
