BUTTER. 



161 



them it was poured out like oil; with us it is cut and 

 "Y* ipiraJ. Their butter wa< probably much inferior to 

 ours, and its use very limited. 



Tin- processes for making butter have been vari- 

 iii ililli p'ut ages, and among different nations. 

 The operation of churning is well known ; and we 

 . only to observe, that though churns have been 

 constructed of different forms, they may be all re- 

 duced to two, the vertical and horizontal. The ver- 

 tical, or pump-churn, as it is usually named, was 

 probably the first thought of, and is nothing more 

 than a tall wooden vessel, three or four feet high, 

 narrow in proportion to its height, and straitcr above 

 than below, having a sort of piston or staff adapted 

 to it, with a perforated head, by moving which up and 

 down with the hands, the cream is agitated, and the 

 butter at length formed. The utensil is sufficiently 

 well adapted to the operation of making butter on a 

 small scale, where the cream to be churned is the 

 produce of a few cows only. But where dairying 

 is managed on the great scale, and the quantity of 

 cream large, the operation performed in this way is 

 too tedious and laborious for general use, and me- 

 thods have been contrived to expedite the process 

 and abridge the labour. This is best done by means 

 of the horizontal, commonly called the barrel-churn, 

 which is a cylindrical vessel, close at both ends, and 

 firmly fixed upon a stand, having a sort of rack or 

 trundle adapted to it within, usually with four blades, 

 and turned by a winch or handle, placed on its axle, 

 passing through the ends of the churn. By this 

 machine, as much cream may be churned in an hour 

 as could be done in ten or twelve by the common 

 upright churn. 



Ingenious machinery for working both species of 

 churns, by means of water, and other moving powers, 

 have been contrived, and found to answer well. 



In the northern parts of Africa, in Egypt, and 

 Arabia, they churn by putting the cream into a goat's 

 skin, turned inside out, and pressing it to and fro, 

 in an uniform manner. Sometimes they place it on 

 an inclined plane, permitting it to roll to the bottom, 

 and then again replacing it to run the same course. 

 A method which in a short time produces butter. 



Dr Chandler, while travelling in Greece, observed 

 them treading the skins thus filled with their feet ; 

 a practice which has been thought to illustrate the 

 passage already quoted from the book of Job. 



In Bengal, they churn by simply turning a stick 

 in the milk ; and that families may have the butter 

 fresh and sweet to breakfast, it is made in this way 

 every morning. In many parts of the East, they 

 make butter of the milk of the buffalo ; but this is 

 by no means esteemed equal in excellence to the but- 

 ter of the cow's milk. It is deficient in consistence, 

 colour, and flavour. 



With regard to the good or bad qualities of but- 

 ter, a great deal has been always ascribed to the pas- 

 turage of different farms or districts. Recent ob- 

 servations and experiments, however, shew that much 

 less depends upon this than has been commonly ima- 

 gined. The mode of management appears to be of 

 much greater consequence. * In every district," 

 says Dr Anderson, " where fine butter is made, it 

 is universally attributed to the richness of the pas- 



VOL. V. PART I. 



ture a, though it it a well known fact, that take a 

 skilful dairy -maid from that district into another, 

 where no good butter is usually made, and where, of 

 course, the pastures are deemed very unfavourable, 

 she will make butter as good as she used to do ; and 

 bring one from this last district into the other, and 

 she will find that she cannot make better butter there 

 than she did before, unless she takes lesions from 

 the servants or others whom she finds there." " I 

 have frequently," continues he, " known instances 

 of this kind. And the same thing takes place in the 

 manufacture of beer and many other articles. In 

 matters of this sort, a very great diversity is pro- 

 duced by circumstances apparently of a most trivial 

 kind." 



M. Tessier, of the National Institute of France, 

 says, " The particular nature of Bretagne butter, 

 whose colour, flavour, and consistence, arc so much 

 prized, depends neither on the pasture nor the parti- 

 cular species of cow, but on the mode of making. 

 This butter is of a superior quality, because they 

 make it of the richest cream, and usually in large 

 quantities at a time. As soon as it is made and wash- 

 ed, they sprinkle it with sweet milk, spread it out in 

 flatted cakes, larger or smaller, but rarely contain- 

 ing less than three, or more than six pounds ; and 

 lay it on a kind of pan, placed on hot cinders, 

 and covered with a copper lid, on which are put 

 cinders also. It remains there some minutes, more 

 or fewer according to the bulk of the cake." 



This mode of managing butter appears from him 

 to be a secret in certain families, and to require prac- 

 tice and dexterity to conduct it with success. 



Still, however, we are disposed to believe that 

 certain pastures are more favourable to the produc- 

 tion of good butter than others. Certain plants, 

 such as turnip, wild garlic, hemlock, rough-leaved 

 dandelion, charlock, and may-weed, are known to 

 affect milk with a disagreeable flavour, and there 

 may be many others which, to a certain degree, im- 

 pair its goodness, though their effects are by no 

 means so evident. Far more, however, depends on 

 good management than on this circumstance, or even 

 on the species of cow we feed ; for that something, 

 likewise, is owing to this, is equally well ascertain- 

 ed. Cows have been found whose milk could not 

 be brought to yield any butter at all. 



It has been long remarked, that the butter in the 

 Highlands of Scotland, when properly made, possess- 

 es a peculiarly rich and delicate flavour ; and this 

 has been almost universally attributed to the old 

 grass on which the cows feed in these remote glens. 

 But what more common error than to mistake a con- 

 comitant circumstance for a cause ? Dr Anderson, 

 by his experiments on milk, has shewn that the ex- 

 cellence of the Highland butter may be very reason- 

 ably ascribed to a quite different cause. He hns pro- 

 ved that the cream of a given measure of milk con- 

 stantly increases in quantity, and still more in quality, 

 from the first drawn tea-cup full, to the last drop 

 that can be squeezed from the udder at the time. 

 * Probably," says he, on an average of a great 

 many cows, the proportion of the cream obtained 

 from a given quantity of the last drawn milk, may be 

 to that of the cream obtained from an equal quantity 



Butter. 



