4/0 



The Country Gentleuian^s Magazine 



BUTTER MAKING IN CHEESE FACTORIES. 



AT a late meeting of the Vermont 

 Dairymen's Association, the subject 

 of making butter in connexion with cheese- 

 making in factories was discussed at some 

 length, with the diversity of opinion usual 

 upon such occasions. There was, however, 

 a lack of data to sustain the opinions and 

 arguments upon either side, and little real 

 benefit resulted from the discussion. It 

 added little interest or profit that our 

 mothers and grandmothers had, for more 

 than thirty years, practised skimming their 

 night's milk and making first quality cheese 

 from the half-skimmed milk ; for so changed 

 is everything pertaining to the cheese 

 Jntetest, that little if any credit is given to 

 such experiences. 



With a view to the settling of this question, 

 the Lamoille Valley Butter and Cheese 

 Factory at West Milton, Vermont, had made 

 many experiments, and had fully satisfied 

 themselves and their patrons that they could 

 take the cream from their night's milk without 

 so impairing the quality of the cheese as to 

 enable the most skilled dealer to distinguish 

 between the two kinds ; and yet they had 

 not, in determining these results, kept their 

 data in such a way as enabled them to meet 

 the arguments of the other side. The fact 

 that the cheese made from the half-skimmed 

 milk is as good as the other, and keeps as 

 well and with as little shrinkage, was fully 

 settled ; but whether the lessened production 

 of cheese, and the greater expense of 

 manipulation, &c., did not make up, or 

 more than make up, the gain consequent 

 upon the production of the butter, was, 

 after all, only a matter of opinion. The 

 managers of the factory believed that the 

 making of the butter was an advantage of 

 4S. 3d. a day to their patrons, but they 

 could not make anybody else see it. 



I fully determined, says a correspondent 

 of an American contemporary, that the sub- 

 ject should be investigated this summer, and 



to that end requested the managers of the 

 factory to make full milk cheese for one 

 week, that we might compare results with the 

 preceding or succeeding week ; but so fully 

 convinced were they that they could not do 

 so without serious loss, that I could only in- 

 duce them to give me the result of two days' 

 trial, which I append : — 



Milk received. Cheese made. 



July 8 9176 lbs 910 lbs. 



9 9097 S96 



Milk received. Cheese made. Butter made. 



July 10 9331 lbs 816 lbs. 74 lbs. 



II 9337 813 77 



Aggregating the milk and cheese for the 

 first two days, we find that a pound of 

 cheese was made from 10. 11 lbs. of milk; 

 while upon the others it required 11.40 lbs. 

 for a pound of cheese, after a pound of 

 butter had been taken from each 123.56 lbs. 

 of milk. 



In the report received, it is remarked that 

 the " whole milk " was worked up on two of 

 the very worst days of the season, and the 

 result is believed to be less than it would 

 have been under more favourable circum- 

 stances. I may be permitted to remark, too, 

 that since the introduction of the skimming 

 system, the cooling of the milk is mostly 

 done in the setting pails in the tank, and it 

 is barely possible that better results would 

 have been reached had the facilities for 

 agitation, &c., over the night been such as 

 are in general use, and such as were for- 

 merly in use at this factory. Assuming then 

 that under entirely favourable circumstances 

 tlie result might have been so much more 

 favourable, let us reject the fraction, and 

 taking 10 lbs. as the necessary amount of 

 milk for the production of a pound of 

 cheese, proceed to compare the two systems. 



In the case of the whole, milk c?ieese we 

 find that each 100 lbs. of milk produces 10 

 lbs. of cheese, worth 5s. i;^d., or after de- 

 ducting cost of manufacture, &c., id. a 



