206 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



adapted vessels or receptacles for the milk. Probably the most convenient manner of using 

 it is in a non-conducting refrigerator, closet, or tank. In using these it will be well to 

 remember that when once the water or the air in the tank, or closet, and the substance 

 itself of these, have been cooled to the lowest degree, the greatest economy consists in pre 

 serving the low temperature by keeping up a supply of ice. The loss of ice by conduction 

 from a well constructed closed refrigerator is very small ; but if this is left open when not in 

 use, a considerable quantity of ice will be required to cool it down again, and this waste is 

 loss. One pound of ice will cool one pound of water of 174 degrees to a temperature of 32 

 degrees. In other words, one pound of ice in melting absorbs 142 degrees of heat. This is 

 known as the measure of the latent heat of water at 32 degrees, and which must all be given 

 off to the atmosphere before the water can become completely changed to ice. It may be 

 said, then, that water absorbs cold, which is the same thing practically as giving out heat; 

 and this result may often be turned to good account in milk rooms or dairies in cold weather, 

 to prevent the milk from freezing, by putting a tub of warm water into the dairy. The water 

 will freeze before anything else, and in freezing actually warms the air and contents of the 

 dairy, or rather, in reality, takes up all the cold in excess of 32 degrees, until it is frozen. 



One pound of ice, therefore, in melting, will absorb sufficient heat to reduce four pounds 

 of milk from 80 to 45 degrees; and if a good refrigerator is used, there will be little loss of 

 ice in overcoming the water from the cooler. The quantity of ice to be provided may there 

 fore be readily calculated, by considering that every pound melted will take 142 degrees of 

 heat from a pound of milk; 71 degrees from two pounds; 47 degrees from three pounds; 36 

 degrees from four pounds; or 18 degrees from eight pounds. If therefore the milk is first 

 set in cold spring or well water, and reduced down to 80 degrees, one pound of ice will then 

 be able to reduce nearly 10 pounds of it to a still lower and perfectly safe temperature of 45 

 degrees. At this temperature the cream may all be raised from milk in twelve hours, and 

 milk may be kept sweet for seventy-two hours or longer. 



An ice house and a supply of ice will be found indispensable to every well conducted 

 dairy, from a one-cow establishment up. The supply of ice maybe procured without difficulty 

 by throwing a low dam across a small stream, and collecting the water in a pond, or by exca 

 vating a pond, where there are no other means of getting it. A cubic foot of ice weighs about 

 55 pounds, or one-ninth less than water. A surface of less than 80 square feet of ice six 

 inches thick will yield a ton, and a pond of a quarter of an acre will therefore give 136 tons 

 with ice of this thickness only. The ice house and dairy should be contiguous and yet 

 separate.&quot; 



The cream should be obtained from the milk while it is sweet, and in order to secure 

 this object, ice is essential in warm weather, which, with the requisite conveniences for the 

 purpose, such as may be found in some of the improved creamers adapted to the modern sys 

 tem of deep setting, etc., a uniform quality can be secured, and as good butter be made in 

 August as in June, providing the feed be of equal quality. 



Taints and Odors in MHk. One of the reasons why we prefer deep setting to shal 

 low setting of milk, is because less milk surface is exposed to the air by the former method 

 than the latter; for unless the air that comes in contact with the milk is perfectly pure, the 

 milk will be liable to absorb any impurity it contains, and acquire taints that will affect 

 the quality of the butter. There is no article of food so susceptible to odors, and so easily 

 contaminated by surrounding impurities as milk. In fact, it affords one of the most fertile 

 fields for developing and multiplying the seeds of fungus plants, which to a greater or less 

 extent are always found floating in the atmosphere, and if this fact were more generally known, 

 there would be more caution exercised on the part of every dairyman with reference to the 

 quality of the air which is permitted to come in contact with milk. 



