It is necessary to have good cows to start with, and if good butter is the object sought I prefer good Jerseys. The next thing is good feed. Grass that is fresh and tender is best of all. This does not last very long up here in Vermont. My cows have a feed of green corn fodder, at night, and a small feed of grain, in the morning. I prefer to mix different kinds of grain together. It must be all sound and good. Make the cows comfortable and contented. Kind treatment is indispensable, and the more regularity in caring for them the better.
We try to keep the milk entirely clean. If it is necessary we wash the cows' bags, before milking. The milk is strained into large, open pans, and as soon as the animal heat is out of it, the pans are covered over with thin cotton cloth. The covers are made by sewing the edges of the cloth to some strips of basswood, about three-fourths of an inch square and a little longer than the pans. They cost but a trifle, and after using them ten years we would hardly make butter without them. The butter is not quite so yellow, at first, for raising the cream under the covers, but will be after it has stood a few hours.
When we first tried our large pans, we used to run water around them, but the coolers have got to leaking, and we do not think it would pay to get new ones.
Our rule is to skim the milk soon after it sours, as the cream will come off easily. We keep the cream in a cellar, when it is necessary, but prefer to keep it in the milk room, when it is not too warm. Our dairy is small, and we have churned only twice a week, this year. We use the Stoddard churn, and would not use a float churn. I have never seen the acme churn yet, and hardly think it has been made. 58 degrees is the right temperature at which to churn the cream, in warm weather: 62 in cold, and 60 in spring and fall. We put in from three to six quarts of water to thin the cream, and if the cream is too warm we use cold water (we have a cold spring), and in extreme warm weather use a little ice. If the cream is too cold we warm the water sometimes up to 120 degrees. If that will not answer, the cream must be warmed beforehand. The buttermilk is drawn off as soon as it can be done, and leave most of the butter in the churn. Any butter that runs out is put back with a skimmer. We use cold water enough to keep the butter in the grain, and wash it until the water runs clear. I suppose brine would be better, but have not used it much. After the butter has drained, the salt is strained in with a paddle; and then it is taken out with the paddle and pressed into the butter bowl. We use about an ounce of salt to a pound, but some of it works out. After it has stood a few hours, it is worked with a lever in an old fashioned butter worker, just enough to get the salt in evenly, and then it is ready to print. We always try to injure the grain as little as possible.
Our printer holds four pounds, and makes eight half pound prints. The prints are put up in four pound boxes, and cut apart with wooden blades. The boxes are made here in Stowe, and are washed and scalded with boiling water, sprinkled with salt.
Our milk house is shaded on the eastern side by a willow tree, and on the southern by another building, and we can cool it to some extent with currents of air. But if we should admit currents of air, without the covers over the pans, there would be white specks in the butter.
We use butter color when it is necessary to color the butter, but think it better to color it too little than too much.
I am in the habit of mixing a small quantity of cotton seed meal with the grain for the cows, and think I get a little more milk from that than anything else. Linseed meal is very high here, and I have never used it.
Last, but not least, the cows must have pure air to breathe, and the milk, cream and butter must be kept in a good atmosphere.
I am fully convinced that any farmer that makes a prime article of butter, of uniform quality, has an excellent opportunity to use common sense and sound judgment.