Chicago, Ill.
Is it generally believed by Bible scholars that the Red Sea was so called because of the destruction of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army?
Ann Halliday.
Answer.—The drowning of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea had nothing to do with its name. It takes this from a peculiar reddish color remarked at certain seasons of the year in parts of this sea, due to marine plants, or to reddish animalculæ, called by sailors “whale feed,” which float on it like a scum; or to the reefs of red coral which abound in many parts of it; or, possibly, to the fact that its upper coast was one of the boundaries of Edom, “the red.” No Biblical scholar of any repute has ever asserted that the sea took its name from the overthrow of Pharaoh.
DESCRIPTION OF A CREAMERY.
Fort Dodge, Iowa.
The farmers of this section of the country need to know what a good creamery is. Tell us what the inside of a really good creamery looks like.
Many Readers.
Answer.—A Chicago inquirer says: “Oblige butter and cheese consumers with a description of a first-class creamery. Some of us have a very vague notion of such an establishment.—E. D. Smith.” Another inquiry comes from Neligh, Neb. So some care has been taken to obtain a description of a thoroughly well-constructed factory of this kind. This is the more important as the dairy business of the West is growing with wonderful rapidity, and nothing has done more to develop this industry than the recent introduction of creameries. The term creamery was formerly applied to an establishment fitted up expressly for the purpose of manufacturing butter, but now the name is given to factories where both butter and cheese are made. Milk is brought in spring wagons from dairy-farms for a distance of six miles or less, and cream is gathered anywhere within a radius of fifteen miles to be manufactured into butter and cheese. This product thus handled in larger quantities, in a scientific manner, with effective labor-saving machinery and proper surroundings, makes it possible to obtain the best results, and such product is always marketable at prices much higher than dairy butter. The factory of the Aurora Creamery Company, built at Aurora, Ill., about a year ago is generally regarded as a model establishment, and will furnish an example for this description. To operate a creamery successfully two things are absolutely necessary, viz., a good spring of living water of low temperature, say 50 to 54 deg., and good drainage; without these features there is no prospect of permanent success in the undertaking. The factory named has a spring located about 200 feet off which discharges, both winter and summer, 750 gallons of pure water per hour, temperature 52 deg., with 5 feet 9 inches fall, while drainage is supplied by a 2-foot square stone sewer which empties into the river, through which a slough is drained, and into which there is a 5-foot fall from the factory. The main building is of brick with a 12-inch wall: size, 32 × 70, 20 feet high; right wing, 20 × 24; left wing, 18 × 24, and rear extension, 18 × 26. The room in which the cheese is manufactured is 30 × 40. It contains a fine upright 9-horse-power engine, a Wir’s self-agitating rotary cheese vat with a capacity for 12,000 pounds of milk and a gang cheese press. The butter room, 30 × 30 feet, contains one churn with a capacity of 400 gallons, and one with a capacity of 150 gallons, a power butter worker, sink with steam pipes to scald, and revolving brush for washing cans, 3 cream vats 300 gallons each, a receiving vat into which the milk is strained, and from which it is drawn into deep pails, or sets, which are placed in three cemented water vats of capacity sufficient to cool 20,000 pounds of milk daily. The left wing of the factory contains a 16-horse power boiler, which furnishes steam to run the machinery and heat the building; a seventy-barrel water tank, which is placed over the boiler; a Davidson steam pump and coal bin which will store fifty tons of coal. An improvement which, it is claimed, is found in no other factory, is an elevated “whey vat” placed over the boiler-room, into which the whey is raised by a rotary pump, and from which the farmers draw their supply of whey to be carried into the country. When all that is wanted has been drawn out a gate is opened, and the balance is run into the river, after which the tank is scalded out and kept sweet and clean. This is a vast improvement over the pestilence breeding arrangement which is sunk in the ground, and is located near the butter and cheese rooms of most other factories. The right wing of the factory contains a driveway, a receiving-room, weighing platform, and stairway to office. The extension holds 150 tons of ice, and contains a refrigerator with a capacity of 30,000 pounds of butter. In the second story is a neat office, store-rooms, and curing room, to which the cheese are raised by an elevator. The lower floors are made of 2 × 6 joists, dressed and matched and imbedded in cement; under which is a four-inch coating of grout, so that there is no possible chance for the milk to leak through the floor and produce the sickening stench which is so common in many factories. Special attention has been given to ventilation in every part of the building and the whole establishment has the appearance in neatness of a tidy farmhouse kitchen. The sum of $10,000 was expended in real estate, buildings, and fixtures of this factory, but a good creamery with a comfortable outfit of medium capacity could be put up for much less money. The machinery for churning and working the butter is as simple as it is ingenious. The churn is a great square chest revolving on an axis running through its longest diameter; the butter-workers are fluted wooden cones running around a circular disk inclined at an angle to the horizon, so that the buttermilk runs off as fast as it is expressed. The apparatus for stirring the cheese curd and pressing the cheese, and a score of other nicely contrived instruments, operate with the uniformity and precision of clock work.