344 



ELEMENTS OF FARM PRACTICE 



churn at the creamery. Butter makers in creameries do 

 nothing but make butter. They make a study of it; and, 

 having better facihties than are usually found in the home, 

 make a better quality of butter. 



Overrun. — Milk usually contains from 3% to 5% butter- 

 fat, and cream from 20% to 40% butter-fat. A pound of 

 butter-fat will make more than a pound of butter, because 



butter contains from 12 

 to 15% water; also some 

 salt and casein. This 

 increase in weight is 

 called. by butter makers 

 the overrun. A good 

 butter maker with mod- 

 ern creamery equipment 

 can get an overrun of 

 from 18% to 24%. If 

 he buys 100 lbs. of but- 

 ter-fat he can make from 

 118 to 124 lbs. of butter 

 from it. It is very sel- 

 dom that one can get as large an overrun, when churn- 

 ing a small amount of butter on the farm, as can a good 

 butter maker in a modern creamery. While a farmer can 

 get more pounds of butter by churning his cream himself 

 than he had pounds of butter-fat in the cream, yet he can- 

 not as a rule get as many pounds of butter as could a 

 butter maker by churning the same cream in a modern 

 creamery. This fact, together with the fact that home 

 dairy butter is not quite so marketable as creamery butter, 

 makes it the part of wisdom, on most farms, to sell the 

 cream or milk at the local creamery; or, if no creamery is 

 convenient, to ship either the milk or the cream, rather 

 than to make butter on the farm. 



Exceptions. — There are times when it may be wise to 

 make butter on the farm, but at present such conditions 

 are exceptional. In deciding which method to follow one 

 should not overlook the fact that butter making on the 

 farm usually falls to the housekeeper, who, as a rule, has 

 too much to do without this unnecessary work. 



Figure 152. — Home manufacture of butter. 



