230 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



and plenty of it is a necessity to successful dairy work, and if one can 

 have steam also il facilitates the work of cleaning and sweetening the 

 dairy utensils, churn, separator, etc., enormously. The churn should 

 be thoroughly scalded and rinsed, then chilled with plenty of fresh, 

 cold water, after which it is ready for the cream, and we nuiy begin 

 churning. In this cleaning work use no soda and no soap except pos- 

 sibly to wash the rubber rings of the separator. 



It should require about half an hour for the butter to come and as 

 soon as you have butter the size of shad roe or very small marbles it 

 is time to stop churning. After that to continue cliurning merely in- 

 jures the texture of the butter. You get no more out of the cream but 

 merely gather it into large greasy lumi)s. 



Draw off the butter milk through a wire sieve to catch the butter 

 that will flow out with it. Then rinse the butter with cool, not cold, 

 water and take it from the churn. 



While the churning is being done, one should have scalded all the 

 paddles, prints, etc., to be used, also the butter worker, and should 

 have chilled them afterward and left them in cold water- We set ours 

 in. the spring to await our needs. 



The butter is put on the worker and the salt is spread over it. We 

 allow half an ounce to the pound, and it should be weighed, not guessed 

 at, unless you have buckets to hold the butter and measures for the 

 salt that have been tested, so that you know what you are doing. 



A sponge with a bit of cheese cloth about it makes a very useful 

 thing in working butter. One should stand sideways to the worker, 

 with a sponge in one hand the paddle in the other, and keep turning 

 the butter up and over to the worker, and keep constantly patting it 

 with the sponge, thus absorbing the water more quickly and lessening 

 the danger of destroying the grain by over-working to get dry. The 

 water and the salt should, however, be well worked out, not only the 

 experience can tell one when this is sufficiently done; but there is a 

 look that means a little to the experienced butter maker that the but- 

 ter is worked. 



In butter, as in everything else that we want to sell, appearance 

 counts for much and care should be taken to have the prints sharp and 

 well cut, so that the butter may take the impression clearly, after 

 which it should be neatly wrapped in butter paper and set in pans io 

 harden. In Summer the butter is often too soft, when first printed, 

 to wrap and should be laid on open papers in the j)ans and wrapped 

 later. The triangular point of paper at each end of the package should 

 be turned under, rather than' upwards, in wrapping as it makes a 

 neater package. Some persons have naturally cool hands and these 

 are fortunate if they must handle and wrap butter. For myself, I 

 have a warm hand and so must be continually dipping my hands and 

 arms to the elbow in cold water to keep my fingers cool and dexterous. 



Too much care cannot be given to the cleaning up after butter mak- 

 ing, for much of the success of the next butter depends upon the sweet- 

 ness of the utensils used ; and especially when they are wood is it nec- 

 essary to scald and scrub and steam them, clean, chemically clean, so 

 that no animal fat may enter the grain to decay and thus destroy the 

 possibility of making good butter or keeping the dairy tools sweet. It 

 is impossible to get them thoroughly clean if once the grain gets full 

 of rancid fat and grease. 



