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

The first seven gave 7 rolls, or	175	ounces	of	butter.
Second seven gave 7 rolls 2 oz., or	177	“	“	“
	352
Equal to 251⁄7 ounces per quart.

On testing the comparative yield of butter and of butter-milk, I find seventy per cent. of butter to thirty per cent. of butter-milk, thus reversing the proportions given in the publications to which I have referred. An analysis of my butter by Professor Way gives:

Pure fat or oil,	82.70
Caseine or curd,	2.45
Water, with a little salt,	14.85
Total,	100.00

The only analyses of this material which I find in the publications in my hand are two by Professor Way, “Journal,” vol. xi., p. 735, “On butter by the common and by the Devonshire method;” the result in one hundred parts being:

	Raw.	Scalded.
Pure butter,	79.72	79.12
Caseine, &c.,	3.38	3.37
Water,	16.90	17.51
Total,	100.00	100.00

The foregoing observation of dairy results was continued up to grass time in 1855. In April and May the use of artificial means was discontinued, without diminution in the yield of butter or richness of cream, the natural temperature being sufficient to maintain that of my dairy at 54° to 56°.

I now proceed to describe the appearances since that time. In the summer season, whilst my cows were grazing in the open pastures during the day and housed during the night, being supplied with a limited quantity of the steamed food each morning and evening, a marked change occurred in the quality of the milk and cream; the quantity of the latter somewhat increased, but, instead of twenty-five ounces of butter per quart of cream, my summer cream yielded only sixteen ounces per quart.

I would not be understood to attribute this variation in quality to the change of food only. It is commonly observed by dairy-keepers that milk, during the warm months of summer, is less rich in butter, owing probably to the greater restlessness of the cows, from being teased by flies, etc. I am by no means sure that, if turning out during the warm months be at all advisable, it would not be preferable that this should take place during the night instead of during the day time. Towards the close of September, when the temperature had become much cooler, and the cows were supplied with a much larger quantity of the steamed food, results appeared very similar to those which I had observed and described from December to May, 1855. During the month of November the quality was tested with the following result:

From two hundred and fifty-two quarts of old milk were taken twenty-one quarts of cream, of which twenty were churned, and produced four hundred and sixty-eight ounces of butter, which shows:

27.50	ounces	of	butter	from	16 quarts of new milk.
23.40	“	“	“	“	each quart of cream.