—To get good butter it is quite necessary that the fresh milk be properly cooled before it is set for cream. In the great dairies of North and South Holland, which not only possess the best cattle, but may be given as models in dairy husbandry, they manage as follows:
The milk, as it is brought from the pasture, is poured from the buckets, cans, and casks, through a hair strainer, into one vessel, the milk-kettle. These milk-kettles are not everywhere of the same size, or of similar form, but are always riveted together with strong brass or copper bands, and lined with tin inside. The most common milk-kettles hold sixteen cans; yet they are found so large as to hold three barrels, or about six hundred quarts. The peculiar kettle form is very rarely found, but more frequently the cylindrical, or vase-shaped. They are held either by two handles or one. The number required depends on the number of cows and the quantity of milk expected.
Fig. 96. Cool-bath.
The milk-kettles, when filled, are set into a basin with cold water, called the cool-bath, for the purpose of cooling the milk. The cool-bath is frequently in the kitchen, sometimes in the bauer-house, so called, or directly before the cow-room, near the spring. The latter is the most common and the most convenient place. The water reservoir is dug in the ground, and an oblong four-cornered form is preferred for it; the sides of the excavation being walled up with hard-burnt building-stones and cement, but the bottom is laid in tiles, either red, hard-burnt, or white glazed. Richer dairymen take finely-hewn blue stone or white marble for it. The size of the reservoir is governed by the number of milk-kettles to be put into it, and so is its depth by their height, so that the rim of the kettle is on a level with the top of the cool-bath, [Fig. 96]. The sides of the cool-bath in the kitchen project some feet over the floor, yet are not so high that the setting in and taking out the milk-kettle will be attended with great inconvenience and trouble. Where it is desired to make the work of setting in or raising up the milk-kettles from the cool-bath as easy as possible, a beam is fixed along the side of the trough, and iron props are firmly fixed, which extend out a little over the edge of the trough, half-way down from the beam. On these the operator can support himself in lowering or raising heavy vessels. These stays, or props, are sometimes fixed directly into the wall, along which the cool-bath stands. Under the bottom of the reservoir, on the other side from where the water comes in, is an outlet, stopped with a tap or faucet, to let off the water.
The cool-baths in the kitchen are, for the most part, on the floor, and extend up a convenient height; whilst those in the cow-barns, as a general rule, are dug down and walled up, and their top is fastened to the floor of the barn. They are deep enough to allow the water for cooling the milk to come up to the rim of the milk-kettle; but, in order to prevent men and cattle from falling in, it is covered with a strong wooden lid to shut down, as in [Fig. 97].
Fig. 97. Cool-bath.
Such a cool-bath is used in the cow-room only in summer, when the heat is so great that it is difficult to keep the milk cool in the kitchen. The cool-bath in the cow-room is considered as only an auxiliary to that in the kitchen, and to be used only in case of necessity. The milk-kettles are hung by their handles, and let down by means of a crank. When the platform is not in use it is taken away from the cool-bath, and the cover is let down and kept closed.
The milk is allowed to remain in the cool-bath until the froth has disappeared, and there is no difference in temperature between the water and the milk. The milk of one milking must give place for the next, so that it will be changed twice daily, morning and evening. A very great importance is, everywhere in the Dutch dairies, attached to this rapid cooling of the milk, because it is known by experience that it is thus greatly protected from turning sour.[3]