No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 229 



must also be taken after white washing. This dairy is an old fashioned 

 spring house and has been made over somewhat to suit modern 

 methods and increased trade. Of course it would be better if it could 

 be heated by pipes and thus do away with the stove, which in this 

 case necessitates covering the cream each time it is raked and the 

 ashes removed, and great care in seeing that there is no coal gas which 

 would affect the cream at once. 



The cream should be stirred down every day and thoroughly mixed. 

 To do this I have a round disk of tin, with a row of inch holes, 

 fastened on a steel rod about two and a half feet long, about like a 

 poker. This disk or tin j)late is just large enough to fit inside the 

 coolers and be moved up and down, allowing the cream to come 

 through the holes and thus becoming thoroughly mixed. Cream 

 should not be allowed to fall far from the separator to the can, as the 

 air in the froth on it seems to make it rancid very soon and stirring 

 down into the can ruins tlie whole can of cream. 



Ripe cream is siceet cream soured. Soured cream has a pleasant 

 smell and is not rancid or strong. It tastes good and is pleasant to 

 eat. I know of no better dessert than a saucer of soured cream and 

 a slice of soft ginger bread, and can think of nothing worse than to 

 have to eat a saucer of scmr cream even if accompanied by "angels' 

 food." 



Sour cream is cream that is spoiling and on the way to putrefaction, 

 but soured cream or what is called ripe cream is luscious and sweet. 

 It has reached a point of fermentation where it is still fresh and un- 

 spoiled, and has not yet begun to decay. To bring cream to this state 

 at the time desired is a delicate matter. In my own case I have the 

 coolers lifted out of the spring and stood on the cement floor, and into 

 each one I put a little more than one-half pint of souring from twenty- 

 four to thirty-six hours before churning. This in an atmosphere with 

 a temperature of 60 degrees will ripen the cream sufficiently for butter 

 making, although if the dairy temperature is lower it may take longer. 



The souring is made fresh each butter day — we churn twice a week, 

 each Monday and Thursday — by taking six quarts of separator skim 

 milk and adding two quarts of fresh butter milk, which is well mixed 

 and kept stirring each day, the top being taken off before being used 

 for souring. 



The public demands butter of a good rich color, but except in Sum- 

 mer, and not always then, do even Jerseys given cream that will make 

 yellow butter- Therefore the butter maker must resort to some of the 

 many kinds of butter coloring that are on the market and are sold 

 under the pure food laws. I have used "anato," which is a South Ameri- 

 can gum or root which comes in a powder very finely ground, a purely 

 vegetable compound and entirely harmless. I know of but one place 

 where it may be had and that is at HanselFs, No. 8 S. 18th Street, 

 Philadelphia. I used to buy it by the pound but now it must be 

 bought in five pound })ackages. It should be kept in a dry place. Pre- 

 serve jars make good tight receptacles for it, and by opening one jar 

 at a time the balance may be ke])t safely. I use at this spas<m of the 

 year and through the ^Vinter one tablespoon ful to seven coolers of 

 cream, mixing it first in abdut 1 quart of hike-warm water, and then 

 stir it in the cream with the mixer de^^cribed before. 



The cream is now ready for the churn and to get the churn ready 

 for the cream is the next step. I want to say here that scalding water, 



