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 specific gravity of milk is greater than that of water, that of the latter being one thousand, and that of the former one thousand and thirty-one on an average, though it varies greatly as it comes from different cows, and even at different times from the same cow. A feeding of salt given to the cow will, in a few hours, cause the specific gravity of her milk to vary from one to three per cent.

Milk will ordinarily produce from ten to fifteen per cent. of its own volume in cream; or, on an average, not far from twelve and a half per cent. Eight quarts of milk will, therefore, make about one quart of cream. But the milk of cows that are fed so as to produce the richest milk and butter will often very far exceed this, sometimes giving over twenty per cent. of cream, and in very rare instances twenty-five or twenty-six per cent. The product of milk in cream is more regular than the product of cream in butter. A very rich milk is lighter than milk of a poor quality, for the reason that cream is lighter than skim-milk.

Of the different constituents of milk, caseine is that which most resembles animal matter, and hence the intrinsic value of cheese as a nutritive article of food. Hence, also, the nutritive qualities of skimmed milk, or milk from which the cream only has been removed, while the milk is still sweet. The oily or fatty parts of milk furnish heat to the animal system; but this is easily supplied by other substances.

From the peculiar nature of milk, and its extreme sensitiveness to external influences, the importance of the utmost care in its management must be apparent; and this care must begin from the moment when it leaves the udder, especially if it is to be made into butter. In this case it would be better, if it were convenient, to keep the different kinds of milk of the same milking by itself—that which comes first from the udder, and that which is drawn last; and if the first third could be set by itself, and the second and the third parts by themselves, the time required to raise the cream of each part would doubtless be considerably less than it is where the different elements of the milk are so intimately mixed together in the process of milking, after being once partially separated, as they are before they leave the udder.

After milking, as little time as possible should elapse before the milk is brought to rest in the pan. The remarks of Dr. Anderson on the treatment of milk are pertinent in this connection. “If milk,” says he, “be put into a dish and allowed to stand until it throws up cream, the portion of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and equal in quantity to that which rises in a second equal space of time; and the cream which rises in a second interval of time is greater in quantity and richer in quality than that which rises in a third equal space of time. That of the third is greater than that of the fourth, and so of the rest; the cream that rises continuing progressively to decrease in quantity and quality, so long as any rises to the surface.

“Thick milk always throws up a much smaller proportion of the cream which it actually contains than milk that is thinner, but the cream is of a richer quality; and if water be added to that thick milk, it will afford a considerably greater quantity of cream, and consequently more butter, than it would have done if allowed to remain pure; but its quality at the same time is greatly deteriorated.

“Milk which is put into a bucket or other proper vessel, and carried in it to a considerable distance, so as to be much agitated and in part cooled before it be put into the milk-pans to settle for cream, never throws up so much or so rich a cream as if the same milk had been put into the milk-pans, without agitation, directly after it was milked.”

Milk as it comes from the cow is about blood-heat, or 98° Fah. It should be cooled off as little as possible before coming to rest. With this object in view, the pails may be rinsed with hot water before milking, and the distance from the place of milking to the milk-room should be as short as possible; but, even with all these precautions, the fall in temperature will be considerable.

From what has already been said with regard to the manner in which the cream or oily particles of the milk rise to the surface, and the difficulty of rising through a great space, on account of their intimate entanglement with the cheesy and other matters, the importance of using shallow pans must be sufficiently obvious.

To facilitate and hasten the rising of the butter or oily particles, the importance of keeping the milk-room at a uniform and pretty high temperature will be equally obvious. The greatest density of milk is at or near the temperature of 41° Fah.; and at this point the butter particles will, of course, rise with the greatest difficulty and slowness, and bring up a far greater amount of cheese particles than under more favorable circumstances. These caseous and watery matters, as has been already stated, cause the cream or the butter to look white, and to ferment and become rancid. To avoid this, the temperature is generally kept, in the best butter-dairies, as high as from 58° to 62°. Some recommend keeping the milk at over 70°, and from that to 80°, at which temperature the cream, they say, rises very rapidly, especially if the depth through which it has to rise is but slight. But that, in the opinion of most practical dairymen, is too high.