414 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXVII. 



In the common way of making butter from cream, the dairies churn the 

 whole quantity at once ; but in the neighbourhood of Enping and the sur- 

 rounding districts, which have been so long celebrated for the character of 

 their butler, only the first skimmings are used for that of very fine quaUty. 

 The mode there pursued is as follows : — The milk, after standing twenty- 

 four hours in large shallow coolers, lined with lead, is then skimmed, or, as 

 they term it, " fleeted." The skimmed milk is then drawn off from the 

 leads into other vessels of increased depth, but unlined, in which it is left 

 from twelve to twenty-four hours, during which time it is fleeted two or 

 three times : this is called " doubling." It is then " threbled," or put into 

 tubs, or still deeper vessels, where it is occasionally skimmed so long as any 

 appearance of cream is found to form upon the surface; after whic h it is 

 given to tlie pigs. The butter which is made from the after-fleetings is of 

 a paler colour and of an inferior quality to that made from the cream cast 

 up within the first rising; it is therefore generally churned apart, or if any 

 portion of it be mixed with the first fleeting, the butter suffers proportionally 

 in price*. 



la hitler be made from the whole milk, the process in the best dairies 

 aromid Glasgow, in which the consumption of butter-milk is very great, is 

 tims described by Mr. Alton : — 



" The milk, when drawn from the cow, is placed in the coolers on the 

 floor of a clean, cool, and well-aired milk-house, from twelve to twenty-four 

 hours, till it has cooled to the temperature of the milk-house, and the cream 

 has risen to the surface. These coolers are next emptied, while the milk is 

 yet free from acidity, into a clean, well-scalded vat, of size to contain the 

 whole milking, or two niilkings if both are sufliciently cooled, where it re- 

 mains till churned, if another millsing, or meal ol milk, be ready before 

 that which has begun to become sour, that second meal may be put into the 

 same vat; but if tlie first has soured, or is approaching to acidity, before 

 the second quantity has completely cooled, any further admixture would 

 lead to fermentation, and injure the milk. It is necessary that the whole 

 milk become sour before it be churned ; but the whole of it must become 

 so of its own accord, and by no means forced into acidity by any mixture 

 of sour milk with that which is sweet. The utmost care should, however, 

 be taken not to allow the coagulum,or curd, of the milk in the stand-vat to 

 be broken till the milk is about to be churned. If it be not agitated, or the 

 ' lapper' (as it is termed in dairy language) broken, till it is turned into tlie 

 churn, it may stand from a day to a week without injury. 

 ' " If these rules be attended to, the butter will be rich, sound, and well- 



The cream should, in hot weather, be made into butter tlie next day; but in winter 

 it is thought better to let the cream remain one day longer on the milk. The cream, 

 being collected from the pans, is put into wooden bowls, which should be first rinsed with 

 scalding, then with cold water. It is now briskly stirred round one way, with a nicely 

 cleaned hand, which must have also been washed in hot and then in cold water, for these 

 alternate warm and cold ablutions of bowl and hand are not only for the sake of cleanli- 

 ness, but to prevent the butter from sticking to either. 



•'The cream being thus agitated, quickly assumes the consistence of butter, the milky 

 jiart now readily separates, and being jioured off^ the butter is washed and pressed in 

 several cold waters : a little salt is added to season it; and then it is well beaten on a 

 wooden trencher until the milky and watery parts are separated, when it is finally formed 

 into prints for the markets."' — Surv. of Cornwall, p. 141. 



" If the quantity of cream be considerable, the cream will be an inch or more thick upon 

 the siuface, and it is then divided into squares and taken off. The remaining milk, how- 

 ever, contains little besides the watery particles in its original composition."— .Complete 

 Grazier, si.vth edition, p. 137. 



* Survey of Essex, vol. ii, p, 285, 



