REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 399 



there must be the purifying effects of boiling water. The utensils should, therefore, 

 always be scalded immediately after being used and kept perfectly clean and sweet. 

 The cows should be milked regularly at the same hour each day and as nearly as 

 possible at intervals of twelve hours, and always, if possible, by the same person. 

 As soon as the milk is drawn it should be set for the cream. It should always be 

 set in deep cans in cold water. The importance of immediate cooling for the 

 milk is not enough appreciated, and the sooner it is cooled, and well ventilated at 

 the same time, the better will it be for^any use. For butter excessive cooling is not 

 recommended. To cool the milk down to 45 F. is about right . Cream will rise sooner 

 with a lower temperature, but it is doubtful if the product is so good as when the 

 cream is raised at a temperature of about 45 F. , or a little less. On no account 

 should the temperature go below 40 F. The cream from milk cooled down to 

 these low temperatures is thin, green, or immature, and must be given time to 

 ripen or come to perfection. The cream should be raised within twenty-four hours, 

 after which it should be kept at a temperature of 45 F. until the ripening process 

 begins. The surroundings must be pure, free from taints, and the cream stirred 

 frequently that it may become well oxidized. This is a part, and an important 

 part, of the ripening process, during which the full properties of perfect oream are 

 developed. By " ripening" cream is meant a full aeration or oxidizing, which pro- 

 duces the best flavor in the resulting butter. To bring it to the highest degree of per- 

 fection in this respect it should be stirred occasionally and kept in a cool and even at- 

 mosphere (say 45 F. as a standard) for at least twenty -four hours after the last batch 

 of cream has been put in . This is done to insure uniformity of the cream in its ripe- 

 ness to give time for it all to ripen, At the end of the twenty-four hours it may be 

 warmed up to about 60 F. , when acidity will develop, and it is fit or in the best con- 

 dition to churn. This is a rule, or a good law. Circumstances may modify the condi- 

 tions or make radical changes, such as cool weather, hot, murky weather, thunder 

 storms, food, pure water, etc. , but the nearer the rule can be observed the better will 

 be the butter . Sourness is not ripeness . Sourness does not get the most or the best but- 

 ter if it is carried beyond the perfect point, which is simply " acid." A continuation 

 of acidity will lessen the amount of butter and make a miserable quality, and if it is 

 left to do its full work it will eat up all the butter fats, and there will be no butter. 

 Cream of different degrees of acidity will not churn evenly; hence there must be a 

 time when to stop adding fresh cream, and this time is designated " the beginning of 

 the ripening process. " After this ripening should go on for twenty-four hours, and it 

 is slower and more complete in a cool temperature than it is in a warm one, where 

 the cream speedily gets too sour and must be churned or lose in flavor and quantity of 

 butter. 



When the cream is completely and properly ripened, churn at a temperature vary- 

 ing from 62 to 68 F., according to the season and the surrounding temperature. 

 When the butter has become about the size of kernels of wheat draw off the butrer- 

 niilk and add cold water. Agitate the churn gently, then draw off the water, and re- 

 peat this process until the water runs clear. Take the butter out carefully and weigh 

 it. Place it on the worker and salt it; one ounce to the pound. Work enough to 

 thoroughly incorporate the salt and pack the butter immediately. 



Butter is made both on the farm, in private dairies, and in cream- 

 eries or butter factories. The creamery system, as it is called, was. 

 first introduced about fifteen years ago, and has since spread rapidly. 

 Its chief advantages are that a better and more uniform quality of 

 butter can be made, and the farm is relieved of a large amount of 

 drudgery that usually fell upon the women. 



Creameries are run either upon the ' :l gathered-cream " or " whole- 

 milk" plans. The former are by far the more numerous. Under 

 this system wagons are sent by the creamery to the houses of the 

 patrons, and the cream, which is always raised in deep cans set in 

 cold water, is skimmed by the driver. The cream of each patron is 

 either weighed or measured and a small sample taken to be tested. 

 Formerly a certain number of cubic inches of cream were taken for 

 a pound of butter and the patron paid accordingly, but it was found 

 that cream varied so greatly in its percentage of butter fat that while 

 an average could be so closely approximated that the creamery would 

 suffer no loss, great injustice would be done individual patrons. To 

 correct this injustice several systems of testing were devised. They 

 all depended upon the principle of quickly separating the fat of the 



