30 ELEMENTAEY AGKICULTURE 



washed with warm suds and then rinsed with scald- 

 ing water. As soon as milk is drawn, it is well to 

 cool it to stop the growth of the germs that cause 

 it to sour. 



Butter-fat. If we look at a drop of milk through 

 a microscope we shall see many tiny, roundish bod- 

 ies with a pearly look floating in the fluid. Fifteen 

 thousand to twenty-five thousand of these little bod- 

 ies placed side by side will measure an inch, and 

 there are millions of them in a drop of milk. These 

 particles are the fat of the milk, from which butter 

 is made. They are lighter than milk, and Avhen 

 milk stands for a time they float upward. With 

 some of the milk on top of the pan they form the 

 cream. 



Ready to Churn. After the cream is removed by a 

 skimmer or the new hand-separator, it should stand 

 until it ripens, or sours. It is most easily churned 

 at a temperature of from fifty-six to sixty degrees 

 Fahrenheit. The room should be, as nearly as pos- 

 sible, the same temperature as the cream. 



Churning. When this cream is put into a churn 

 and dashed about, the little particles of fat hit to- 

 gether and stick to one another until they unite to 

 form small pieces of butter about the size of a grain 

 of wheat. Then we can see the butter-fat in the 

 buttermilk. 



Preparing Butter for Market. When the butter is 

 gathered from the churn, it may be washed to remove 

 part of the buttermilk. Then the whole butter mass 



