412 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Cb. XXXVII. 



cold before it is put into the milk pans to settle for cream, never throws 

 up so much nor so rich cream, as if the same milk had been put into 

 the pans directly after it was milked." 



5. " If it be intended to make butter of a very superior quality, it 

 will be in such case advisable to separate the milk that is first drawn 

 from that which comes last ; and the quality will be improved in pro- 

 portion to the smallness of the last drawn milk that is obtained. The 

 lirst skimmed cream should also be used, as it is always richer than 

 that which rises last." 



BUTTER 



is formed either by cream alone, or with the whole milk, unskimmed; but 

 although such different modes of manufacture might seem to warrant very 

 different results, yet they have very little perceptible effect on the quantity 

 or quality, though the profit on the produce of the dairy may be affected in 

 large towns by the greater demand for skim-milk or butter-milk. There is 

 also another kind which is much inferior, and made from the cream of whey 

 after the cheese has been taken from the milk ; but the process of making is 

 nearly the same. 



M hen butler is to he made from cream alone, the milk is in winter 

 usually skimmed as often as four, and in summer two or three times, or 

 until it will afford no more cream ; and this should be first separated from 

 the edges of the pan, to which it fiimly adheres, by means of an ivory or sil- 

 ver-bladed knife, run closely round it. The cream should then be carefully 

 drawn to one side and lifted off with a skimming dish, which is 

 generally pierced with small holes ; an act which requires some dexterity, 

 both to avoid the leaving of any cream behind, and to prevent any portion 

 of the milk being mixed with it. Some persons, indeed, have leaden 

 coolers with a plug in the bottom which allows the milk to escape to a large 

 vessel underneath, while it leaves the cream at top ; but the former practice 

 is the most usual. The length of time which the milk should stand before 

 it is skimmed, must depend botli upon the temperature of the air at the 

 time and the views of the dairyman. In moderately warm weather, if very 

 fine butter be intended, it should not be suffered to remain more than six or 

 eight hours ; for ordinary good butter it may, however, be safely allowed to 

 stand full twelve hours, and during^ cold weather much lonefer. 



The cream is then put into a deep vessel*, in which it is frequently 

 stirred every day with a wooden spoon, in order to prevent it from coagu- 

 lating, until sufficient be collected to form a churning. Many people 

 imagine that no butter can be of good quality except that which is made 

 from fresh cream : this, liowever, is a mistake ; and is so far from being well 

 founded, that the formation of butter only takes place after the cream has 

 attained a certain degree of acidity, and no butter of even tolerable quality 

 can be obtained from cream that is not more than one day old. 



The length of time which the cream should be kept before it acquires that 

 degree of acidity which is requisite for the best butter, has not been ascer- 

 tained by any series of experiments on which reliance can be placed ; and 



* '■' No vessel can be better adapted for this purpose than one in the under part of 

 which, close to the bottom, there is a cock and spiggot for drawing off', from time to time, 

 any thin, serous part of the milk that may chance to be there generated ; fur sliould 

 this be allowed to remain, it acts upon the cream in a powerful manni-r, and greatly 

 diminishes the richness and quality of the butter, The inside of the vessel should be 

 covered with a bit of close fine silver-wire gauze, to keep back the cream while the serum 

 is allowed to pass,"— Bath Papers, vol. v., p. 101. 



