686 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 13 
the butter is perfect when it goes into storage, it is 
perfect when it comes out. The disadvantage of hold¬ 
ing butter in this way is that after it has been out for 
a short time it begins to change, and changes much 
more rapidly than other butter. It should be held in 
a cool place till ready for use. Without doubt the 
I superiority of cold-storage butter over that held by 
the farmer, as in former days, has had much to do in 
effecting the change of methods among dairymen, 
tending strongly towards the creamery system. Since 
the cold-storage machinery has been added to the 
Bainbridge creamery, only about 300 tons of ice are 
annually harvested, where before that time 1,000 tons 
were required. This ice is used mostly for shipping 
butter, cream and milk, while the brine circulating in 
the pipes of the cold storage system cools the cream 
after separating and, of course, maintains a uniform 
temperature in the cold-storage room. 
Water for use in and about the creamery is pumped 
from a well drilled 167 feet deep, the water rising to 
within 14 feet of the surface. As would be inferred, 
the temperature of the water is uniform throughout 
the year, standing at 47 degrees Fahr. This well 
sustains an abundant flow of very pure water, so pure 
that it is used by druggists in the place of distilled 
water. The cold storage machinery requires a large 
quantity of water in its working, and what is true in 
all creameries as to the large amount of water used, 
is emphatically true here. While the cold storage was 
put in primarily to facilitate the safe keeping of but¬ 
ter from the time when the largest amount is pro¬ 
duced till the shortage occurs, less butter is held than 
formerly because the demand for this make of butter 
has increased so greatly. At one time 40,000 pounds 
were held for better prices, when the butter was sold 
mostly to regular customers as cold-storage butter, 
but during the past season, notwithstanding the in¬ 
creased make, only one-fourth of that amount ever 
reached the storage rooms. Cream-selling is becom¬ 
ing a very important matter with this creamery of 
late, consequently less butter is made. 
A GREAT BUSINESS.—The business done has fully 
kept pace with the improvements made. In 1892 the 
quantity of milk handled during the month of June 
was 34,000 pounds per day, while last June 57,000 
pounds of milk were handled daily. At the time of 
the general improvements in 1892, the separators were 
exchanged, and six machines, most of them with a 
capacity of 2,500 pounds of milk per hour were put in. 
At the June flush these six machines are run from 
8 A. M. till nearly 2 P. M., in order to separate the 
entire amount of milk. It should be understood that 
all this milk is brought in by teams from the sur¬ 
rounding country, and not by rail from distant points. 
The production of milk for this creamery is entirely 
a local business. Scarcely any comes from a greater 
\ distance than 10 miles, and nearly all is produced 
much nearer. The creamery, however, together with 
a milk shipping station, gets fully 90 per cent of the 
milk produced in the vicinity. The station handles 
about one-fourth as much as the creamery. Without 
doubt the,liberal prices paid for milk account for so 
large a percentage of the production being obtained by 
the creamery. From the first it has been the policy 
of the management to pay ais liberal prices as pos¬ 
sible, thereby securing satisfied patrons. The price 
paid is that of the Milk Exchange, less the 32 cents 
freight per can and the usual 20 cents out for hand¬ 
ling, or 52 cents less than the Milk Exchange price 
in New York, and so far as I know the price has 
never been less than that amount, and it has many 
times exceeded 'it. In order to pay the most satisfac¬ 
tory prices, there has been constant study to devise 
ways to dispose of the by-products. 
'USING BY-PRODUCTS.—At first, hogs were pur¬ 
chased—sometimes as many as 500—to consume the 
skim-milk. These were procured from the West after 
the local supply had been exhausted. But as early as 
1890, the firm of Reed & Carnrick was induced to erect 
its laboratory on the lot adjoining the creamery. This 
firm manufactures some of the choicest invalid and 
children’s foods, using, in many of them, skim-milk 
as a basis. Here was a good market for a certain 
amount of the milk, provided it were of superior 
quality. They have used nearly 700,000 pounds of 
milk in a single year. This, however, did not satisfy 
Mr. Hovey. After a few more years of study he de¬ 
cided to launch into the manufacture of a casein 
sizing for paper making. That casein could be pre¬ 
pared and used in this way had been known by some 
papermakers for 50 years, but no attempts have until 
recently been made to bring this knowledge into 
• practical operation. About 1895 two or three con¬ 
cerns, Mr. Hovey’is being of the foremost, started 
making casein sizing as a business. Its development 
has been rapid. There was comparatively little diffi¬ 
culty in making a good product, but many paper- 
makers were shy of it at first, and some are still. 
Those who have given it the most thorough tests, 
however, are loudest in its praise. Its market is now 
fully established on a good business basis. Some of 
the agricultural colleges have included instruction in 
making paper sizing in their short courses the past 
Winter, I understand. As an illustration of the mag¬ 
nitude of the business, one paper concern in the coun¬ 
try, after spoiling a large quantity of paper m experi¬ 
menting, is now using 1,500,000 pounds of curd sizing 
a year. lit displaces glue in some instances, but I do 
not understand that it is used in making fine writing 
paper. Its use 'is principally in coating paper used in 
magazines, catalogues and the like. 
Nor was there a halt at this point. In 1898 the 
National Milk Sugar Co. was ’induced to locate a re¬ 
finery in Bainbridge. This company produces from 75 
to 90 per cent of all the milk sugar of the United 
States, having several plants for receiving whey in 
parts of Illinois, and a refinery at St. Charles. There 
are also several creameries in this vicinity where 
whey is received and prepared for the refinery in Bain¬ 
bridge. Mr. Hovey has contracted his entire output of 
whey to them, and hais a pipe leading directly from 
his creamery to the refinery. h. n. l. 
SAN JOSE SCALE AND OTHER INSECTS. 
Kerosene, Crude Petroleum and Parasites. 
During most of May, and all of June and July I was 
in European countries studying entomological meth¬ 
ods and trying to ascertain what the Continental 
farmer knew about fighting insects that we were not 
up to. For that reason I did not see Tins R. N.-Y. as 
it appeared, and have only now “read up.” If not too 
late 1 would like just a few words on a few subjects: 
©CADE PARASITES—June 2, W. A. B. asks about 
the Californian method of dealing with San Jose 
C. C. HOVEY, OF BAINBRIDGE (N.Y.) CREAMERY. Fig. 258. 
scale, and H. G. K. answers very clearly and accu¬ 
rately. To Tiie R. N.-Y. note I would like to add that 
the insect I introduced into New Jersey from Califor¬ 
nia was one of the Australian species of Rhizobius 
and another little Californian species of Scymnus. 
The Two-spotted ladybird I did not have to introduce, 
because it is already a native of New Jersey. In fact, 
all the parasites and natural enemies that have done 
so much for the Californian grower also occur in the 
East, and all that we need now is that we should in¬ 
troduce the Californian climate into New Jersey in 
order to make these enemies equally effective. I have 
no hopes, however, of getting a sufficiently large ap¬ 
propriation from our Legislature to accomplish this. 
Insects are queer creatures in many ways, and often 
have very fixed habits. The San Jose scale is used to 
a certain period of lying dormant, which in New Jer¬ 
sey begins in November or December and ends in 
early June. In California, though the climatic con¬ 
ditions are quite different, it takes almost exactly the 
same rest. It is a question whether they have, in 
California, even one full brood more than we have in 
New Jersey! The ladybirds, on the other hand, re¬ 
quire warm weather only, and breed actively while 
this lasts. In New Jersey, and, of course, this applies 
to the Atlantic coast generally, breeding weather for 
the Twice-stabbed ladybird does not begin until June 
and ends in September, at the very time when swarms 
of new scales are setting. In California the Chilocorus 
bivulnerus breeds practically all the time, and eats 
as larva or adult millions of scales while they are 
dormant. In June, when the scales begin to breed, 
there are already swarms of hungry ladybird larvae 
ready to gobble up all scale larvae as fast as they ap¬ 
pear, while the adult beetles are constantly working 
at the scale mothers. It is almost exclusively a mat¬ 
ter of climate in this case. 
'CERTIFIED TREES.—The editorial on page 388 is 
all right, and it calls attention to the fact, though 
indirectly, that it is the tree buyer who must be edu¬ 
cated. One of our prominent nurserymen told me a 
few days ago, when I was inspecting his trees, that 
not one buyer in ten ever asked whether he had a 
certificate or whether his trees were clean. Except for 
the legal requirements in many States he would not 
need a certificate. A prospective buyer of peach trees 
in one of our New Jersey counties inquired of me con¬ 
cerning a certain nursery. I replied that no inspection 
had ever been asked for, but I would look over the 
trees for him if he wished. I did so; I found scale 
present, and so advised the purchaser, who refused 
to accept the trees. I notified the nurseryman, who 
grew for local trade only, of the conditions of affairs; 
he declared that he would have no difficulty whatever 
in disposing of the trees—and he didn’t! All were 
gone less than a month later. Now here were some 
20,000 to 30,000 trees set out, a fair proportion scaly, 
and all because the buyers did not care whether the 
trees they bought were safe or not; though they might 
have known for the asking. No nurseryman who does 
not have prima facie evidence of freedom from scale 
Should be able to sell a tree; but they have no trouble 
in doing so. There are many such small growers who 
will do nothing so long as they can sell all they grow 
to their neighbors. 
KEROSENE AND WATER—July 21, you ask 
among the Brevities whether kerosene and water in 
mechanical mixture is as good as the kerosene emul¬ 
sion. It is both better and less effective, if you will 
pardon the apparent contradiction. A mechanical 
mixture of kerosene and water is a mixture of fine 
globules of kerosene and water; the object being to 
make one particle of kerosene go as far as from five 
to 10 would, otherwise. A particle of kerosene, when 
it strikes an insect, kills it; a particle of water does 
it no harm. Apply both together on a leaf and the 
oil gets to the top in a moment, leaving water alone 
in contact with the plant. Water evaporates or is 
taken up, and leaves the oil or what portion of it has 
not volatilized to kill the insects that did not get a 
direct particle of oil in the first place. Unless the ap¬ 
plication has been excessive the whole mixture is gone 
in a few hours, leaving rarely a faint odor of the oil. 
A kerosene emulsion is quite a different thing, for 
here we have the addition of a soapy or fatty body 
which is mixed intimately With the light oil. Dilute 
this with 10 parts, and you have a fine whitish mix¬ 
ture which is greasy to the touch. In an emulsion 
diluted 10 times, which is the extreme safety mixture 
for many plants, we have only about six per cent of 
actual kerosene. No mechanical mixture containing 
lesis than 10 per cent of kerosene is worth applying, 
yet the six per cent of oil in the emulsion is much 
more dangerous to foliage than the 10 per cent mix¬ 
ture of kerosene pure! Why? Because the oil in the 
emulsion is held longer in contact with the leaf; be¬ 
cause the soapy mixture penetrates into the tissue 
better and has a longer time to do it. Every drop 
of diluted emulsion carries oil, and any drop that 
hits a susceptible insect is likely to kill. Hence the 
emulsion is more effective than the mechanical mix¬ 
ture with the same percentage of kerosene, while it 
is for almost uie same reasons more harmful to foli¬ 
age. The mechanical mixture is much more readily 
used, requires no previous preparation, and is there¬ 
fore to be preferred at even a greater strength to the 
emulsion. 
CRUDE PETROLEUM.—References to crude petro¬ 
leum and its effects were several times made, some¬ 
times favorable, sometimes otherwise. The evidence 
is contradictory on the subject of the effect of the oil 
upon the plants; no one seems to question the effect 
upon the insects. It .should be remembered that crude 
petroleum is new as an insecticide, and that even the 
Paris-green, which we use so generally, had to be 
and is even yet continually studied, that we may learn 
to avoid injury to plants, while retaining its effective¬ 
ness as against 'insects. 
“Ye editor” has justly remarked that crude oil is a 
variable product and likely to give contradictory re¬ 
sults. Just so! The crude oil is not cheap, and cus¬ 
tomers of the jobbing oil merchants were in some 
cases induced to buy cheaper fuel or reduced oils, 
which in most instances caused trouble. Crude 
petroleum to be suitable for spraying the more 
susceptible fruit trees should be as fresh as passible, 
so as to have all the light naphthas present. It 
should be greenish in color and water thin on even 
the cold days of Winter. Such oil wil have a specific 
gravity of 43 or over, on the Beaume scale. Allow 
this oil to stand uncovered and it thickens. The light 
products go, the heavy remain. When it gets down to 
a specific gravity of 37 or thereabouts it gets dan¬ 
gerous to use as an insecticide, and we have the 
equivalent oi a “reduced” oil. Fuel oil, specific gravity 
35, will kill peaches more times than not, and will 
prove injurious on other trees. Over 200 barrels of 
crude oil were used in southern New Jersey last Win¬ 
ter and almost or quite 100 barrels on trees seen by 
