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

Fig. 80. Butter-worker.

The butter-worker, [Fig. 80], with its marble top, used by the writer of the statement above, is an important addition to the implements of the dairy. It effects the complete removal of the butter-milk, without the necessity of bringing the hands in contact with it. Another form of the lever butter-worker is seen in [Fig. 81].

Fig. 81.

To keep the cream properly after it is placed away in pots or jars, it should stand in a cool place, and whenever additions of fresh cream are made, they should be stirred in. Many keep the cream, as well as the butter, in the well, in hot weather. This is the practice of Mr. Horsfall, whose experiments have been [alluded to]. Finding his butter inclined to be soft, he lowered a thermometer twenty-eight feet into the well, and found it indicated 43°, the temperature of the surface being 70°. He then let down the butter, and found it somewhat improved; and soon after began to lower down the cream, by means of a movable windlass and a rope, the cream-jar being placed in a basket hung on the rope. The cream was let down on the evening previous to churning, and drawn up in the morning and immediately churned. The time of churning the cream at this temperature would be as long as in winter, and the butter was found to have the same consistency.

The same object is effected in this country by the use of ice in many sections; but, if the butter remains too long on ice, or in an ice-house, it is apt to become bleached, and lose its natural and delicate straw-color.

The time of churning is by no means an unimportant matter. Various contrivances have been made to shorten this operation; but the opinions of the best and most successful dairymen concur that it cannot be too much hastened without injuring the fine quality and consistency of the butter. The time required depends much on the temperature of the cream; and this can be regulated at convenience, as indicated above.

The temperature of the dairy-room should be as uniform as possible. The practice of the best and most successful dairymen differs in respect to the degree to which it should be kept; but the range is from 52° to 62° Fahr., and I am inclined to think from 58° to 60° the best. At 60°, with a current of fresh, pure air passing over it, the cream will rise very rapidly and abundantly.

The greatest density of milk is at about 41°, and cream rises with great difficulty and slowness as the temperature falls below 50° towards that point.