53o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
August 14 
or as many as eight generations in a year. When the 
insect is raised on a commercial scale, the moths, of 
course, are not allowed to issue, and thus spoil the 
cocoons. About eight or ten days after the cocoons 
are finished, they are steamed for 20 minutes to kill 
the pupse, and are then dried out. This is as far as 
the individual usually goes in the production of silk. 
The further manipulation of the cocoons and the reel¬ 
ing off of the silk require expensive machinery. We 
have carried the subject far enough to show how it 
may be made the source of much pleasure and intel¬ 
lectual profit in a schoolroom, or in the home. The 
best and most complete and available information 
published in this country is in Bulletin 9 of the 
Division of Entomology of the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, issued in 1886. Considerable 
information can, also, be obtained in regard to the 
condition of the industry in this country in the Report 
of the Secretary of Agriculture for 1888. 
Aristotle, writing more than 300 years before 
Christ’s time, states that silk from cocoons was first 
woven in the Island of Cos by Pamphila, the daughter 
of Plateos. Pliny, writing several centuries later, 
states that the silk dresses worn by the women of 
Cos were so fine as to be transparent. The industry 
has thriven in several European and Asiatic countries 
from those early times down to the present. When 
silkworms were first grown in this country, I have 
not learned. I have before me part of a copy of No. 
1, vol. 1 of a journal called The Silkworm, which was 
published at Albany, N. Y., in May, 1835. It was to 
be a monthly periodical, devoted to the booming of 
the industry in this country ; whether it ever got be¬ 
yond the first issue, I do not know. In 1887, under 
the patronage of the Government, over 6,000 pounds 
of cocoons were produced in the United States. The 
next year, less than 4,000 pounds were produced and, 
apparently, the industry has practically died out. 
Mr. L, O. Howard, United States Entomologist, 
writes me recently: “The silkworm is not being 
raised commercially in this country at the present 
time. The experiments of this Department have 
shown that the industry cannot be made to pay under 
the present conditions. At the time the McKinley 
bill was under consideration, Mr. Philip Walker, the 
silk expert of this Department, testified before the 
tariff committee that our experiments hadshown that, 
unless an ad valorem duty of 10 per cent was placed 
on raw silk, and a bounty given of seven cents a 
pound for green cocoons, the people could not be in¬ 
duced to take up the industry.” There is thus, prob¬ 
ably, no market for the cocoons now in this country. 
Efforts are being made to reestablish the silk section 
in the Department of Agriculture, and thus try to re¬ 
vive the industry. It is doubtful, however, whether 
it ever becomes a paying business in the United States. 
Any one, especially a teacher, who will undertake 
the rearing of a few of the insects, will be more than 
repaid for the time and trouble in the pleasure and 
intellectual profit to be gained in seeing the develop¬ 
ment of this domesticated insect, m. v. si.ingkrland. 
THE PRIVATE DAIRY VS. THE CREAMERY. 
THE TWO SYSTEMS COMPARED. 
While it is, probably, true that, in the majority of 
cases, the public creamery is the most feasible way 
for the farmer to have his butter made ; yet it often 
happens that the length of haul to the creamery, or 
unsatisfactory management there, or a special fancy 
market open to the private dairy, may make it the 
truest economy to manufacture the butter at home. 
The most usual point in favor of the dairy is that, 
where there is a haul of three to six miles and return 
with tbe milk of 20 cows, as thousands of farmers 
are doing, it is probable that, with modern utensils, 
the home dairy will be found not only somewhat more 
satisfactory from the standpoint of financial returns, 
but to involve no more wear and tear and labor than 
the trip to the creamery. It will, however, require 
very much greater skill. 
For at least nine-tenths of the cow-keepers of this 
country, the creamery is a boon. The average butter 
factory will make better butter and get a much better 
price for it than will the average farmer’s wife. Of 
course, there are many sides of the question to be 
considered in deciding what system shall be practiced: 
1. There is the question of a suitable plant, the cost 
of which can be closely estimated, and the arrange¬ 
ment of which will be discussed. 2. The labor in¬ 
volved in two systems which can be pretty well 
estimated. 3. What gain, if any, in price of product 
is to be expected ? 4. The condition in which the by¬ 
products can be secured and their consequent feeding 
value. 
In locating and planning the farm dairy-room, 
there are many things to be kept in mind, and the 
details must vary with each man’s conditions. It is, 
of course, desirable to have it as near as may be to 
the stables and, also, to the pig and calf pens. Yet 
there may be other considerations to be weighed in 
deciding the location. Probably the ideal location is 
within or adjoining the barn, yet this would, gener¬ 
ally, be impracticable unless the barn had been 
originally planned with this end in view. If it is to 
be situated thus, all surroundings must be excep¬ 
tionally well regulated. A small, detached building 
is all right, but has the disadvantages of being ex¬ 
pensive to construct, and more difficult to keep cool 
in summer and warm in winter than if part of a 
larger building. To secure this advantage, one can 
well afford to carry the milk a few rods farther. 
Most generally, I think, the preferable location will 
be within, or attached to, the rear of the dwelling, 
GROUND PLAN OF BUTTER ROOM AT HILLSIDE FARM. 
Fig. 215. 
Dimensions of main room, 19 x 9 feet. 
D—Dior through which milk is brought in and taken out. 
D'—Door to fuel supply. 
D"—Door to engine room. 
D'"—Door from engine room to dwelling. 
D ""—Door from dairyroom to dwelling and to refrigerator. 
S—Separator. 
C—Churn. 
A -Washing sink with running water and steam at hand. 
L L— Line shaft, 10 feet long, hung to ceiling. 
R—Cream-ripening can. 
T—Table on which to wrap print butter. 
J— Butter worker. 
H H—Two rows of shelves for small dairy tools and Babcock test. 
N—Drain in floor. 
E—Engine. 
F—Fuel storage. 
especially since it frequently happens that there is 
already room there which can be devoted to this pur¬ 
pose ; most of the small farm butter rooms which 1 
have seen, were thus located. It has the advantage 
of economy and, more than that, the ease of making a 
sort of “good-night call” upon the cream for to¬ 
morrow’s churning. This is a duty more probably 
neglected if the dairy room is a dozen rods distant. 
It was after a good deal of thought that our own 
dairy room was located in the house instead of the 
barn, and on the whole, we have never regretted the 
decision. But wherever located, it is of prime neces¬ 
sity that it be constructed so as to be affected as 
little as may be by outside temperature, i e., it should 
be cool in summer and easily warmed in winter, and 
thesame methods in building will secure both results. 
This means that it should have, at least, one, or bet¬ 
ter, two dead-air Epaces in the walls, separated by 
boards and building paper. It should have no more 
windows or doors than needed, and the windows 
should be protected by shutters or heavy curtains. 
The inside would better be of ceiling, either Georgia 
pine or any soft wood painted some light cream 
color. The floor should be of cement, or well-oiled 
matched pine or oak. The cement floor is the most 
INTERIOR OF BUTTER ROOM AT HILLSIDE FARM. Fig. 216. 
expensive, but if a satisfactory job is done, will be 
best. Cement floors, however, are often poor on ac¬ 
count of cracks and depressions due to lack of skill 
in making. Our own floor, after a couple of attempts 
at making new, and much patching, is still not what 
it 1 should be. It has been the experience of many 
that a cement floor is nice when you get it, but often 
hard to get. 
Unless rigid economy compels, even a small dairy 
room should be supplied with a steam engine. Its 
advantages are so many, especially that of having 
steam for heating water and disinfecting all utensils, 
that the use of animal power or gasoline is hardly 
to be considered. Of course, the engine should be 
partitioned off to avoid dirt and noise, and above all, 
the heat from tbe boiler in summer. 
In the arrangement of the room, it should be re¬ 
membered that it will be used once or, probably, 
twice daily for years, and the great study must be 
convenience. The engine can, probably, best be 
belted to a main line shaft hung above the separator 
and churn, with a separate pulley for each. The 
floor should have a decided slope to one corner, 
where should be a drain provided with a trap. Along 
one side of the room it will be well to have some 
shelves for holding butter wrappers, ladles, Bibcock 
fixtures, etc. Generally, it would seem best to have the 
separator nearest the door where the milk will be 
brought in and taken out after separation. The churn 
and butter worker should be near ^ach other and 
placed as seems most convenient. Near the churn 
should be a washing sink supplied, if possible, with 
running spring water. It should be near the churn, 
so that the water can easily be taken to wash the 
butter. As near as possible to the butter worker, 
should be the table on which to wrap print but¬ 
ter. A marble slab is the orthodox thing for a fancy 
dairy, but a clean wooden table serves the purpose, 
perhaps quite as well. Over the washing sink, pure 
water and live steam should be on tap. Water can 
be heated simply by turning a jet of steam into it, or 
the disagreeable noise thus produced can be avoided 
by having a “suction tie”, enabling one to draw a 
stream of water nearly to the boiling temperature 
without much noise. 
As to size, it is not best to be crowded, but as model 
housewives do not like too large a kitchen, so it is 
not desirable to have too large a dairy room to care 
for. There is the further danger that, if too large, 
things will be kept there which have no business in 
the butter room. These are a few suggestions for a 
place to make the butter at home, having regard 
always to the question of economy of first cost and 
of use. 
Fig. 215 gives the ground plan of the little dairy 
room at Hillside Farm where, for several years, has 
been handled the milk of from 30 to 50 cows, with 
very fair satisfaction. Fig 216 shows the interior of 
the room. This room is fitted up in the rear of the 
house, with cement floor, and ceiled with matched 
basswood painted light cream color, with the engine- 
room lathed and plastered. It may seem quite too 
small (180 square feet floor space), but I hardly think 
more room any advantage for the amount of milk 
handled. 
The best method of cooling print butter is of im¬ 
portance. For a small plant, it hardly pays to main¬ 
tain a special cold room costing $200 to $500, and 
requiring a ton of ice per week. A large refrigerator, 
sufficient to store 200 to 300 pounds of butter at once 
can be purchased for from $25 to $50, and will, prob¬ 
ably, answer the purpose. The cream must, of 
course, be cooled as soon as separated, and this is 
best done by running it into “shot-gun” cans, and 
sinking in a cold well or in ice water. In our own 
case, a disused well two rods from the dairy room 
door contains water at about 47 degrees, into which 
cream is lowered. It saves us tons of ice and lots of 
trouble, and although this well has been used for no 
other purpose for many years, we esteem it really 
worth several hundred dollars. 
The cost of a good farm dairy plant will vary with 
its size and, to a greater degree, with the personal 
taste of the builder. The outside of the structure 
can be made as cheaply or expensively as one wishes. 
If a room of the house is available, the cost will be 
small ; probably less than $25 would ceil it and put 
in a suitable floor. For a dairy of 30 to 60 cows, the 
fixtures would cost something like this : One separa¬ 
tor of one of the two or three well-known manufac¬ 
turers, $200 ; one two horse-power upright engine and 
boiler, $100 ; churn and butter worker, $30; plumb¬ 
ing, butter print, cream pails and other small utensils, 
$20 ; total, $350. For a small dairy, the separator 
can be substituted by a smaller size at, say. $125, with 
small reductions on the other estimates. This will be 
found very close to the truth if the supplies be pur¬ 
chased from the responsible dairy supply dealers. 
Dairy implements, under careful handling, do not 
deteriorate rapidly. 
If the dairy is large enough to warrant the purchase 
of a special cream vat, then it will be necessary to 
add about $35 to the above. If economy is necessary, 
however, a large milk can inside of a big, old-fash¬ 
ioned cheese-factory can, and the space between 
filled with water, makes a very good cream vat. 
As to the labor involved in the two systems, on one 
side we have the time of a man and a horse actually 
consumed in making the trip to the creamery, and the 
time consumed at home in caring for the milk and 
washing empty cans. On the other side, we have the 
time occupied in separating and in washing the uten- 
