Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

Quality of Butter.

—In January, 1857, samples of about 56 oz. each, of butter of my own, and also of Mr. Alcock’s, were sent to the laboratory of Messrs. Price & Co.’s candle-works, at Belmont.

My butter was found to consist of (taking the pure fat only),

Hard fat, mostly margarine, fusible at 950°,	45.9
Liquid, or oleine,	54.1
	100.0

Mr. Alcock’s,

Hard fat, mostly margarine, fusible at 10°,	36.0
Liquid, or oleine,	64.0
	100.0

For these analyses of butter the agricultural public is indebted to the good offices of Mr. George Wilson, director of Messrs. Price & Co.’s manufactory. It will be observed that Mr. Alcock’s milk is richer in butter and that his butter is also richer in proportion of oleine to margarine than my own.

Professor Thompson (“Elements of Agricultural Chemistry,” 6th edition, p. 317) states that winter butter consists more of solid, and summer more of liquid or oleine fat.

An analysis of butter made in Vosges gives:

	Summer.	Winter.
Solid or margarine fat,	40	65
Liquid (or oleine) fat,	60	35
	100	100

In Lehmann’s “Physiological Chemistry” (Leipsic edition, vol. ii., p. 329), an analysis of butter by Bromus gives:

Margarine,	68
Oleine,	30
Special butter-oil,	2
	100

It will be observed that my butter may be classed as summer butter, and that Mr. Alcock’s is the richest in the proportion of oleine. Both were produced in the month of January.

These results are important, and completely establish the conclusion I had previously formed, that the quantity and quality of butter depend essentially on the food and treatment; and that by suitable means you can produce as much and as rich butter in winter as in summer.

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