EXPERIMENT. STATION BULLETINS 211 



Thirty-six hours is a conveuiieut length of time to allow for ripening, as the 

 cream may be set to ripen one morning and by the evening of the next day it may 

 be cooled down and allowed to stand at a low temperature over night and then 

 churned the next morning. 



Perhaps it would be more proper to speak of this as allowing forty-eight hours 

 for ripening, for the cream is certainly not ready for the churn at the end of the 

 thirty-six hours; if it Avere it would be dnjured by standing over night, even at a low 

 temperature. 



The use of commercial starters in the home dairy is not to be recommended; not 



because their use would not give the best results, but because they are not needed. 



We have used the commercial starters known upon the market as B. 41, Chi-. 



' Hansen's Lactic Ferment, and the Boston Butter Culture, all with good results, 



but their use has not given us any better butter than where the home-made starter 



was used. 



Dui-ting the winter of 1895 6 a number of ti'ials were made in which two lots of 

 cream were handled just alike except that in one case the B. 41 starter was used 

 and in the other a home-made starter. Samples of the butter were sent to a Chi- 

 cago commission man, who scored them without knowing their source. At the end 

 of the trial it was found that the average scores for the different samples were 

 practically the same. 



The most accurate means for determining the acidity or ripeness of cream is 

 furnished by what is known as the Mann's acid test, or by the use of Farrington's 

 alkali tablets, a modification of the Mann's test. Both are simple and accurate, 

 and their use to be strongly recommended. 



One Who has had a good deal of experience in ripening cream comes to judge its 

 condition very accurately by its appearance. The question often arises how to tell 

 by its appearance when cream is properly ripenetl, but it lis difficult to describe. 

 There is a slight thickening of the cream and it has an appearance of lightness 

 which is contradicted by a feeling of heaviness as the dipper is drawn through the 

 vat. There is a smoothness of appearance which unripened cream does not 

 present. 



Chiiiiiinf;.— The churn wliich has no inside contrivance and in which the butter 

 is made to come by the falling of the cream from one side to the other is the best 

 churn. Countless churns of so-called improved patterns, with various styles of 

 paddles or disks, have been put upon the market from time to time, usually with 

 the claim that they Avould bring butter in some incredibly short time. We have 

 used a number of these churns and found that, without exception, with the cream in 

 the same conditiooa, it has required just as much churning to bring the butter in 

 them as with the barrel, box or swing churn, and very often the loss of the fat 

 in the butter milk has been increased by the sticking of the cream to some central 

 part of the inside affair. 



The churn should never be filled more than half full of cream and less than half 

 full is better. In order to test the influence of the fulness of the churn upon the 

 time required to get butter, and upon the loss of butter fat in the skim milk, a 

 number of churnings were made under the following conditions: Ci"eam of uniform 

 temperature and ripeness was divided into three lots of ten, tvv'enty and thirty 

 pounds each, and churned in churns made just half full by twenty pounds. The 

 ci'eara was well ripened and churned at an averaae tempera tnre of .^2 decrees Fah. 

 The average time required to churn ten pounds of cream was thirty-four minutes; 

 twenty pounds of cream, fifty-six minutes, and thirty pounds, sixty-four minutes. 

 The per cent of fat lost in the butter milk was practically the same in each case. 

 Reference has been made several times to the churning temperature. In answer 

 to the question as to what is the proper temperature for churning, it is well to say: 

 "Churn at just as low a temperature as you can and have the butter come in a 

 reasonable time." We find that a low temperature gives a more exhaustive churn- 

 ing than a high temperature, other things being equal. The butter is firmer and in 

 smaller granules. Less Avashing is required to get the butter milk out of the but- 

 ter and the salt may be more easily distributed. Thick shallow-pan or separator 

 cream may be churned at a lower temperature than thin deep setting cream. The 

 thicker the cream, so long as it will fall in the churn, the sooner the btitter will 

 come and the less will be the loss of the butter fat. Do not expect the butter to 

 come in less than thirty minutes; better churn an hour and get a good, firm butter, 

 Avith almost no loss in the butter milk, than have it come in ten minutes and be 

 soft and the butter milk rich with the lost butter fat. The proper temperature will 

 be found somewhere beloAv 60 degrees Fah. Our practice is to churn at 50 degrees 

 or below in summer and not above 56 degrees Fah. in winter. 



