:280 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I put the creiini into a tin pail twenty inches deep and eight inches in diam- 

 eter, tlie same that is used in X. Y. State dairies to set milk in. When the first 

 pail is full it is thorouglily stirred up and one-half poured into a second pail. 

 The skimming is then into the two alike, and so on till I obtain a churning, 

 thus skimming into all pails alike, and making the cream alike. By this 

 course I liave kept cream seven days in the summer without its getting bitter. 

 These pails, of course, are kept in the water all the time. When a sufficient 

 quantity of cream is obtained for a churning, it is taken to the house and set 

 behind the stove to let it sour, which it will do over night. Then each pail is 

 set into a kettle of water and brought to a temperature of from 02 to OS degrees, 

 according to the temperature outside, as the churn is in a shed. In warming 

 the cream it should be thoroughly stirred all the time, so that it may all be 

 alike. The churn is a barrel with four staves fastened edgewise on the inside. 

 The chura is revolved, and these staves carry the cream up till it falls over^ 

 thus agitating it. 



A small amount of June butter coloring is put into the churn with the 

 cream through the winter months. The belt is then attached and I get my 

 Jersey bull (for you are all aware that it takes the Jersey cattle to make gilt 

 edge butter), lead him into the tread-power, raise the brake, and the churn- 

 ing goes on without any further attention from me. At the end of one-half to 

 three-fourths of an hour I put in an appearance and generally find butter. 

 The buttermilk is then drawn off and a couple of pails of cold well water put 

 in ; the churn is given a few more turns and the butter is ready to come out 

 and salted, using one ounce of Ashton's dairy salt to the pound of butter, it is 

 then set away for 24 hours, when it is worked. I use a large board two feet 

 square to work the butter on. I take it out of the bowl in quarter sections 

 and work it on this board, using a linen cloth to cover my hod with which the 

 butter is worked (something as you women knead bread), the cloth taking up 

 all buttermilk and water that is in the butter. It is packed into a wooden 

 l)ail as worked, the top of the butter covered with a piece of dairy cloth, a 

 handful or two of salt spread over this, the cover nailed on and marked with the 

 name of the brand, it is then taken to the express office and I am through 

 with it, all but spending the money when it comes, which I assure you is a very 

 small part of butter-making. 



One of the most important questions to be asked and answered in connection 

 with this subject is the time of year to have our cows fresh that we may 

 make tlie most money out of butter. My cows come fresh the last of Septem- 

 ber and first of October, by which means they are in full fiow all winter, and 

 ■when grass comes in spring tliey are as good almost as new milch cows. Then 

 I dry them off the first of July, thus getting them out of the way through the 

 hurry of harvest and the time of preparation for wheat seeding. By this course 

 the cows are dry througli the hot and dry months of July tmd August, and 

 liavc nothing else to do through August and September but figlit fiies, whicli I 

 take it is about all they ought to do. One of the most effective arguments in 

 favor of this course is the price of butter, which we all know is fearfully low 

 in the summer, but generally bears a good price in the winter. My butter has 

 sold for 18 to 22 cents all winter. Another reason is tlie ease with which butter 

 can be made in the winter as compared to the summer: and another reason is 

 the more perfect creaming of the milk in cold weather, as I heretofore tried to 

 demonstrate to you; yet another reason is the time that we have. "I mean 

 men folks,'' in the winter to attend to the necessary work; and last, but not 

 least, is the raising of calves. You can have sweet skim-milk for them, and 



