76 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the quality of the butter. It is a mistake to " heal up " or 

 " cool clown " the cream just before putting it into the 

 churn, or while churning. And, in churning, don't be in a 

 hurry : it is very pleasant to have the butter " come " in 

 three minutes ; but makers of the very best butter prefer 

 from twenty to forty minutes' churning. 



As to the churn itself, no rule can be laid down. Very 

 different churns are needed under different circumstances. 

 Cream differs much, according to the cows, and the manner 

 of treating the milk. There are more different creams than 

 there are different churns. The butter-globules from some 

 cows are much smaller and more numerous than in the milk 

 of others : the smaller they are, the more beating the cream 

 will bear without injury to the butter. So, too, very thick 

 cream, as that from shallow-set milk, where evaporation has 

 made it wrinkled and leathery, needs more violent action by 

 the churn than the bulky and thinner cream obtained by 

 deep setting in water. There is always danger, however, of 

 over-churning. What is really wanted is agitation of the 

 cream, rather than beating it ; and therefore churns without 

 dashers, empty boxes of different shapes, which merely shake 

 their contents, closely approach this ideal of churning, and 

 are coming more and more into favor. The nature of the 

 cream should be considered in selecting the churn and in 

 using it. Recollect that the only object is to rupture the 

 little sacs which contain the fatty matter, so that its parti- 

 cles may collect, forming butter, and that it is very desirable 

 to accomplish this without beating or pressing the butter 

 thus formed. 



More butter is spoiled by working it too much, or in the 

 wrong way, than by all other causes, unless it be in tainting 

 the milk before it is set. Butter does not require "work- 

 ing," as bread does kneading, to make it good. It is well to 

 keep in mind just what is wanted through the whole process 

 of butter-making : so we may briefly review. 



In reality, we don't make butter, we only get it. Milk is 

 an animal secretion, nearly nine-tenths water, which holds, in 

 a solution of caseine (cheese) and milk-sugar, globules of 

 certain animal fats. These fats in a natural combination 

 we call butter. The fatty globules are enclosed in membra- 

 nous sacs of caseine, or some similar albuminous substance. 



