148 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



butter particles. The different constituents of milk separate on 

 account of a difference in specific gravity. Milk will ordinarily 

 produce from ten to fifteen per cent, of cream, though it is 

 sometimes much richer than this, and twenty-five per cent, is 

 sometimes, though rarely, obtained. The product in cream is 

 more regular in several different Lots of milk than the butter 

 product which can be obtained from that cream. Caseine most 

 resembles animal matter in composition and in nutritive quali 

 ties. The richest and most delicate butter is made from cream 

 which has not stood long on the milk, the cream that rises 

 first making a far sweeter and better quality of butter than 

 that which has stood a long time. If the milk is set in a favor 

 able position, on shelves some feet from the bottom of the milk- 

 room, around which a circulation of pure air can be had, from 

 twelve to eighteen hours, in summer, is sufficient to raise all 

 the best of the cream ; and all that rises, under ordinary cir 

 cumstances, after twenty-four hours, will deteriorate the quality 

 to a greater extent than it increases the quantity. This is an 

 important practical point, and ought to lead to the most care 

 ful experiments on the part of dairymen, who have been accus 

 tomed to let their milk stand for thirty-six and even forty-eight 

 hours. An ordinary house-cellar is very rarely a suitable place 

 to set milk, and it should never be set on the bottom of a cel 

 lar, if it is to raise cream. The bad gases (carbonic acid, and 

 others, perhaps,) in the room, are near the bottom, and are apt 

 to make the cream acrid. It will produce an inferior butter. 

 The square box-churn is one of the best and most economical 

 forms. To prepare new butter-boxes as quickly as possible, so 

 as to make them fit to use to send butter in to market, or to the 

 exhibition, dissolve common, or bicarbonate of, soda in boil 

 ing water, as much as the w r ater will dissolve, taking water 

 enough to fill the boxes, and at the rate of about a pound of 

 soda for a thirty-two pound butter-box. Pour the water in 

 upon it, and let it stand over night, and the box may be used 

 the next day without fear of its tainting the butter. A delicate 



