862 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 27 
BUTTER-MAKING—Soon after four o’clock in the 
morning in Summer leaders are placed in position to 
conduct the cream from the ripening vats to the great 
box-like churns. Faucets are turned, and quickly, 
without any particular change in temperature, the 
cream is transferred. Here over 6,000 pounds of but¬ 
ter have been produced in a day. It is an interesting 
fact that Pasteurized cream needs to be churned at a 
low temperature. When the churning is over, mov¬ 
able trays, power butter workers and rapid workmen 
quickly transform the mass of butter into neat pound 
and half-pound prints. Immediately it is whisked 
away to the cold storage rooms, where It Is kept at an 
ice-coid temperature by a powerful refrigerating ma¬ 
chine. The butter room is shown at Fig. 350. 
VARIED PRODUCTS.—The products from the 
creamery are many, and, as in any well-regulated 
business, nothing is allowed to go to waste. Sales in¬ 
clude clarified and bottled milk, condensed milk, Pas¬ 
teurized cream of all degrees of richness from 18 to 
40 per cent' of butter fat, print butter, three or four 
varieties of fancy cheese, casein (dried curd), and 
whey. It is believed that this plant does the largest 
creamery business where the milk is all handled at 
one point, and it is this only that I have attempted to 
describe. It should doubtless be mentioned that the 
Bainbridge Creamery Co. is not entirely free from the 
expansionist idea. Six other creameries have been 
purchased and are run as stations, somewhat after 
the plan of several other concerns, but of these I will 
not speak at present. This description is of the one 
creamery and the milk received there. Up in the 
testing room is a man who keeps busy. Samples of 
milk from each of the 700 patrons are brought here 
and tests are made at frequent intervals by the Bab¬ 
cock process. There is need here of a man of great 
accuracy, for the Babcock process is much like fig¬ 
ures. We are often told that figures don’t lie, and 
the same is said of the Babcock method of testing 
milk, yet we all know that both can be made greatly 
to prevaricate, sometimes unwittingly. For this rea¬ 
son a man is selected for the testing room who can 
be depended upon for accuracy. It is here also that 
the acid test is applied, for the purpose of finding 
when the cream has reached the proper stage in rip¬ 
ening. This is essentially a chemical test and is ex¬ 
ceedingly interesting. 
HOW BUSINESS IS DONE.—I was not a little sur¬ 
prised to find that a private telegraph office has been 
provided and an operator employed. Orders are re¬ 
ceived direct by wire from dealers in New York, and 
replies sent when necessary. The entire plant is 
fitted out with a system of telephones, 16 in number, 
connecting the different departments with the office 
and with each other. These are found to be great 
time-savers. Long distance telephones provide com¬ 
munication with the outlying stations, the express 
and freight offices and through the central with the 
public in general. There is a trucking department, 
requiring the use of 15 horses, and this is managed 
in the same systematic way as the rest of the estab¬ 
lishment. Each truckman receives his written orders 
for every trip made, and hands in his order, properly 
filled out with time and other particulars, upon his 
return from the trip. Two watchmen are employed, 
each making certain rounds every hour through the 
night, inserting his watchman’s key at every one of 
the places visited, In a little iron box, the box being 
connected by wires with a recording Instrument In 
the office. His key completes a circuit and Instantly 
a magnet moves a lever, and a point on the lever 
makes an imprint on a card disk. As the card is ro¬ 
tated by clockwork, the impression made by the point 
shows by Its position the room visited and the time 
when it was visited. The milk is purchased at a cer¬ 
tain price per quart, but a bonus is paid for milk test¬ 
ing over four per cent in butter fat. Prices paid for 
milk range higher than a few years ago. It is prob¬ 
able that the average for the year Is a trifle over two 
cents per quart. To the purchaser of milk in cities 
who pays six or eight cents or upwards for milk this 
seems a low price, but it is nearer the cost of pro¬ 
ducing than the price the farmer was able to get 10 
years ago. Perhaps, under favorable conditions and 
f 
with good cows, milk can be produced at this price 
with a small profit to the producers. nr. it. lyon. 
HOC-SCALDING TROUGH. 
Fig. 349 represents a scene on an Indiana farm at 
butchering time. In the foreground is shown an im¬ 
provement over the old method of using a barrel and 
heating the water in kettles and with hot stones. This 
pan saves much hard work in lifting and the hogs are 
scalded better, as the water can be kept at the right 
temperature. The pan has a sheet iron bottom and 
ends and is placed over a small trench in which a fire 
is built to heat the water in the scalder. The sides 
and ends are made flaring and the dimensions of the 
pan are as follows, outside measurements: Bottom, 33 
inches wide and five feet eight inches long; ends, 23 
inches wide at bottom, and 30 inches at top; sides, 24 
inches deep, five feet eight inches long at bottom, and 
six feet three inches at top. The bottom and ends are 
one piece, and nailed directly to the two-inch pine 
sides. This pan cost $4 and has been in use every 
Winter by nearly all our near neighbors for 10 years. 
Try one. elmer g. tufts. 
PRUNING THE BURBANK PLUM TREE . 
Advice is desired as to the cutting back of some Bur¬ 
bank plum trees. They have made three years’ growth 
since they were planted; are rampant growers and have 
made from three to five feet the present year. Would 
it be a wise plan to cut them back this Fall? If so, how 
much? I wish to avoid the ice damage which some years 
is severe here, we being about 1,100 feet above the sea 
level. I think it would reduce the leverage of the present 
year’s growth and avoid splitting the limbs. How much 
can I cut back now, and how much more in the Spring? 
Some of the trees span 12 feet across. a. p. h. 
Westminster, Mass. 
The pruning of the Burbank plum tree presents a 
unique problem. Perhaps that is stating it a little 
too strongly, for as a matter of fact, we do have a 
similar difficulty with other trees; but the Burbank is 
so much worse than anything else commonly grown 
that the problem is brought clearly and emphatically 
to the mind of every grower of this popular plum. The 
men who are handling this variety with more or less 
success at the present time have all adopted severe 
methods of repressive pruning. It would be too much 
to say, however, that anybody has developed an ideal 
system. Each man has simply cut back, in sheer des¬ 
peration, to prevent his Burbank trees from slopping 
all over the orchard or from wandering off to his 
neighbor’s farm. If a tree makes four to six feet of 
horizontal growth each year it is simply a question 
of time—and not very much time either—when it 
HOG-SCALDING TROUGH. Fig. 34P. 
will be clear over the fence. Any system of cutting 
back, however, appears to be merely a matter of de¬ 
laying the inevitable end. A man can hardly afford 
to cut off all the wood that grows each year, and if 
he leaves even one foot of new growth annually it is 
still the question of a few years when the tree will 
spread so as to become unmanageable. 
When this severe cutting back is practiced the dif¬ 
ficulty is in some ways emphasized. A tree severely 
cut back, as everyone knows, will tend to grow still 
more rapidly. The rampant habit of the tree is made 
still worse. So far from being a remedy, therefore, 
heavy Winter pruning is a very unsatisfactory pallia¬ 
tive. It is possible, theoretically at least, to check 
this tendency toward overgrowth by doing some 
Summer pruning. This has actually been put into 
successful practice in some cases. I have done It my¬ 
self in a small way, and J. H. Hale, of peach fame, 
has done the same thing on a larger scale. It ought 
not to be very difficult, therefore, to strike a balance 
between these two tendencies—that is, between Win¬ 
ter pruning and Summer pruning. If the trees were 
cut back a certain amount during the dormant per¬ 
iod and then checked again by doing a certain amount 
of Summer pruning it ought to be possible to keep 
them within bounds and at the same time to keep 
them in a healthy, vigorous, fruitful condition. 
I believe nobody has worked this plan out in such 
perfection that It might reasonably be called a satis¬ 
factory system for pruning the Burbank plum. How¬ 
ever, I have been experimenting along this line for 
a number of years and have my own ideas, which I 
am willing to give, subject to all the qualifications 
and reservations herein contained. The plan which I 
am following until I get a better one is this: I cut 
back the trees severely each Spring. Where a growth 
of four feet has been made I take off all but 18 inches. 
In fact, I think it is best to cut back closer than that 
rather than to leave more wood. This will depend 
somewhat on the condition of the tree, however. The 
Summer pruning begins about the middle of June In 
this latitude, or possibly a little earlier. At first 
the weaker side shoots on the interior of the tree are 
pinched back. These are not the ones which cause 
the difficulty usually, and they are therefore fre¬ 
quently overlooked. I think it is best to save them 
in this way, however, because they make the most 
prolific fruit spurs in case they are properly handled. 
Cutting them back this way to a length of two to six 
inches usually develops a large number of fruit buds 
in this part of the tree. Later in the season—say 
July 1 to 10—another Summer pruning is given. This 
time the growth of the main branches is stopped by 
clipping off the tips. In a few cases entire green 
shoots are removed, even though they have attained 
a length of three or four feet. This is done, however, 
only in cases where the top of the tree seems likely 
to be choked. The object of the principal pruning is 
simply to stop the excessive growth of the main 
branches. This tends to cause the wood to ripen up 
earlier and it tends also to weaken the growing force 
of the tree. In this way it checks to a certain extent 
the habit which has been complained of. 
This method of pruning, though somewhat rough¬ 
ly outlined, for the Burbank plum, is applicable to 
nearly all of the Japanese and hybrid varieties. In 
fact, it seems to me to be one of the necessities for 
the early future that we shall adopt some definite 
scheme of treating these new varieties in some such 
way, although Abundance, Chabot, Wickson, Gon¬ 
zales and other plums of those classes do not de¬ 
mand attention so urgently as the Burbank. Yet they 
are all rank growers and all stand in constant need 
of repressive pruning. f. a. waugii. 
Mass. Ag’l College. 
RURAL MAIL CARRIERS AND SNOWDRIFTS. 
Last year there was an unusual amount of drifted snow 
in western New York. The daily papers reported that 
the United States Government had ordered farmers to 
clear the roads so that the rural carriers could get 
through. At that time we wrote a number of farmers in 
Niagara County about this. The matter is more timely 
now than It was then, and we print a few of the replies: 
We had an unusual amount of snow in Niagara 
County last Winter, but we did not have to do any 
more work than if we had not rural free delivery. 
The carriers do not find any fault if the farmers do 
the best they can to keep the roads open. I had my 
mail delivered every day except two last Winter. We 
drove on top of the snow, but when It began to thaw 
we had to plow the roads and shovel them out. 
Appleton, N. Y. c. e. n. 
There being an unusual amount of snow last Win¬ 
ter we had to do more work clearing roads. We do 
some shoveling in the highest drifts, then hitch teams 
to our bobsleighs and drive through till we have a 
passage. We sometimes use a harrow to level the 
surface. We were not notified to keep the roads 
cleared, but it is the same old complaint in most dis¬ 
tricts that two or three have it all to do. n. r. s. 
Johnson Creek, N. Y. 
We had not been notified to keep the roads clear 
(February 27) only by our path master, as we are 
every Winter when necessary. In our district we 
tried shoveling through the worst drifts, then put on 
all available teams to tread down the snow and make 
track. The continued winds filled the deep cuts and 
the work had to be done over again. After that we 
went out with teams after each blow and tried to 
keep the track on top of the banks as much as pos¬ 
sible. An adjoining district went out each morning 
with a number of teams behind one of which a heavy 
drag was hitched. This was the best way, I think, as 
It kept the track good width and level. b. f. b. 
Middleport, N. Y. 
No special notice has been delivered to the farmers 
here to clear the roads of snow on account of free 
rural delivery. It is our custom to keep all roads 
open except some few cross-roads that are used but 
little, and no more work is done than formerly, ex¬ 
cept in keeping open such of these roads as are on the 
carrier’s route. These roads are opened by shoveling 
through the deeper drifts and driving a team and 
sleigh over the road a few times or sometimes by 
forming a track in the same way through the fields 
adjoining the highway. The wisest plan is to remove 
so far as possible the causes of drifting. For this 
purpose it is well to cultivate a public sentiment in 
the community that will not tolerate fences or hedges 
that cause the snow to drift. In our more progres¬ 
sive communities we have but few such fences left, 
and drifting has been reduced to a minimum. 
Barker ,N. Y. w. t. m. 
Variations in Kieffer Pears. 
Why do two Kieffer pear trees in my orchard differ 
«o much from the others planted at the same time and 
from the same nursery? - These two trees have pears 
much smaller and greener, and the leaves turned pur¬ 
plish in color in the latter part of September. Otherwise 
they seem healthy and all have made good growth. They 
were planted five years ago. a. c. r. 
New Paris, Pa. 
It is beyond my ability to tell why these trees and 
some that I have seen occasionally should bear fruit 
that differed from the normal type. It may be owing 
to some peculiarity of the soil or interference with 
their roots. It might be well to put manure about 
these two trees and see the result. It cannot hurt 
them and It may make them bear the same size and 
color of fruit as the others. h. e. v. d. 
