California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



The Quality of Butter-. 



•jtSTv. GRISCOM says in regard to but- 

 'j .1 ter: 1 have the bigbest respect for 

 I) |i butter, eaten in its natural state. It 

 (il'-i is very complicated in chemical com- 

 ■Syl positions; each globule, tbougli on 

 an average only 1-5000 of an inch in di- 

 ameter, being formed of an outer film or 

 shell of easeine, with a mixture of difl'er- 

 ent kinds of oil, each of which is again 

 composed of an organized substance, 

 liuown in chemistry as the oxide of gly- 

 cerine, combined with a separate acid. 

 Ea(.'h globnle in a recent state is distinctly 

 visible in the field of the microscope, and 

 when in unbroken integrity is sweet and 

 digestible; but when old or broken, its 

 chemical character alters, new compounds 

 are formed, and the nutiitive property 

 undergoes a change. Time alone will ef- 

 fect this change, but there is another ele- 

 ment which will produce it rapidly, viz., 

 heat; and hence the melting process must 

 so alter the relations of its chemical con- 

 stituents as to impair its assimilative 

 properties. 



The substitution of cream for butter in 

 cooking will, of course, obviate all ob- 

 jections to the latter in a melted form, 

 and only this, but you will infuse into the 

 food, with the cream, other nutritious in- 

 gredients, such as a portion of the caseino 

 of the milk, which is albumen in a solu- 

 ble condition— and more or less of the 

 sugar which is also found iu milk. A 

 more innocent article tlian cream, or one 

 more digestible and nutritive in cookery, 

 can hardly be mentioned. There can be 

 but one objection oft'ered to the substitu- 

 tion of cream for butter, and this is its 

 comparative inconvenience. Cream is 

 far less expensive than butter. 



Setting Milk. — The discussion on the 

 subject of deep or shallow setting of milk 

 having lately been re-opened, the Country 

 Gentleman gives the following report of a 

 committee appointed by a Farmer's Club 

 in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, to make 

 a comparative trial of the two plans. The 

 trial was conducted in the dairy house of 

 Eastburn Reeder: 



The pool for deep cans is 3G inches 

 long, 12 inches wide, and 20 inches deep, 

 holding 30 gallons of water. This pool is 

 filled with molted ice water flowing from 

 the ice-box in the top of the refrigerating 

 or cooling cupboard, and when it is filled 

 the surplus water is conducted in pipes 

 to the drain, and passes out of the build- 

 ing. The melted ice water keeps this 

 "pool at a temperature of 58". Four deep 

 cans wei-e expressly made for the purpose, 

 8^-$ inches in diameter and 20 inches deep, 

 capable of holding 5 gallons or 20 quarts 

 of milk, if filled to the brim; but 18 

 quarts of -ij^ gallons fills them 18 inches 

 deep, wbicli is quite as deep as they 

 should be filled for convenience in hand- 

 ling. A "conical-shaped dipper," of the 

 approved pattern, was also made for dip- 

 ping oir the cream from the deep cans, 

 and likewise a largo kettle, capable of 

 holding. 10 gallons, in which to mix all 

 the milk used in the trial. 



The trial commenced on INIonday morn- 

 ing, August 10th, 1874. On account of a 

 scarcity of milk in the mornings, but 8 

 gallons were used at a time during the 

 trial. Four gallons of measured milk 

 were put iu one doej) can, filling it just 



10 inches deep, and weighing 34 pounds. 

 The same quantity of this ijreviously 

 mixed milk, by weight and measure, was 

 put into four ordinary tin milk pans (4 

 quarts to the pan) , atid filling them three 

 inches deep. This was repeated for 14 

 milkings, one week, making a total of 470 

 pounds, or 224 quarts of milk, 10 inches 

 deep in 14 cans, and the same amount in 

 50 pans 3 inches deep. 



The water in the pool, as before stated, 

 was at a temperature of .58"; when a can 

 of warm milk was immersed in it, it raised 

 the temperature to 00°, but by the expi- 

 ration of 10 or 12 hours it would be low- 

 ered to 58" again by the inflow of fresh 

 ice water. A piece of ice was put in the 

 pool after the first day, so as not to let 

 the temperature be varied any more than 

 could be helped. The pans of milk were 

 set on a stone floor where the tem]>eraturo 

 was GO". During the whole trial the tem- 

 peratiire ranged as follows: In the pool, 

 from 58° to 00°; in the milk room, from 

 50° to 08°. Great care was taken to pre- 

 serve the uniform temperature during the 

 whole tri.il, admitting cool air at night 

 and excluding the warm air diiring the 

 day, which necessary feature is under 

 complete control. The milk in both cans 

 and pans stood 48 hours, when it was 

 .skimmed. The cream raised one inch in 

 depth in the deep cans. The amount of 

 cream obtained from the deep cans was 

 40 pounds; from the shallow pans 57 

 pounds. The last skimming was done on 

 Tues(hiy evening, August 18th, when the 

 cream was placed in a cooling cupboard 

 and the temperature lowered to 54°. The 

 churning was done Wednesday, August 

 lOtb. The 40 pounds of cream obtained 

 from the deep c^ns was churned first- 

 butter came in 30 minutes, and yielded 

 15 pounds 10 ounces. The cream from 

 the shallow pans (.57 fts) was churned 

 immediately afterwards— butter came in 

 50 minutes, and yielded 21 pounds 

 ounces. The result of this experiment, 

 which was conducted as fairly as possible 

 indicates a gain of 5 '4 pounds in favor of 

 the shallow pans, or over 25 per cent. 



The milk used in this trial was the pro- 

 duct of three thorough bred Jersey, two 

 Guernsey, and three grade cows, and av- 

 eraging over 5 pounds per cow, if all the 

 butter bad been obtained from all the 

 milk. The difference in time of churn- 

 ing is attributable to the churn being 

 overloaded with the cream from the shal- 

 low pans. The butter from the deep cans 

 was pronounced by some to be a trifle the 

 best, although both would rank as strictly 

 first-class. The dairy-house, in which 

 the experiment was conducted, has been 

 so fully described that nothing more is 

 necessary in that j)artioular. It is es- 

 pecially adapted for convenience and the 

 making of gilt-edge butter, being both 

 cool and dry. The floor had been washed 

 on the morning of the lUtb, and was per- 

 fectly dry by 11 o'clock. The cooling 

 cupboard under the ice-box is provided 

 with slate shelves, on which the butter is 

 pluced to harden before being sent to 

 market. The pool, before mentioned, is 

 a very suitable place to keep the cream 

 before churning, as it should be kept at a 

 lower temperature than the milk. It is 

 not built so much under ground as to 

 make it tiresome in carrying the milk in 

 cr out of it; in fact, we, after giving it a 

 critical examination, are unable to tell 

 how it could be improved. 



WATEniNG IMlLK TO GeT THE CbEAM.— 



It is well known that milk sot in the us- 

 ual way, althougli it throws up a good 

 perceutago o£ cream, does not yield up all 



the fat in the milk, because the skimmed 

 milk, on being subjected to analysis, is 

 found to contain a small percentage of 

 butter, notwithstanding it had on being 

 set thrown up the cream very perfectly. 

 Experiments that have been made in add- 

 ing water to the milk to facilitate the ris- 

 ing of the cream, have shown that more 

 cream is obtained. Thus a sjiecimen of 

 milk was divided into two portions. One 

 portion was set for cream, and seven 

 hours yielded 7 per cent, of cream. The 

 other portion was mixed with an equal 

 volume of water and the diluted milk set 

 for cream. The diluted milk in seven 

 houi-s gave 5 per cent, of cream, or 1% 

 per cent, more cream than it should have 

 yielded if watering made no difi'erence. 

 it may not be advisable, however, to use 

 the water in this way on all occasions for 

 getting up the cream, since water added 

 to milk hastens the acidity of the Hiiuid, 

 which in warm weather should be guard- 

 ed against. — Rural New Yorker. 



Mistaken PoiiiCT. — Many farmers en- 

 tertain the opinion that a cow gives the 

 largest yield of milk when she is j^oor in 

 flesh, in low condition, and this we sup- 

 pose explains the reason why wo see so 

 many wretched, poor and half starved 

 cows coming out of the barns of this 

 country every spring. But a more care- 

 ful observation of the points connected 

 with the condition of the cow will inva- 

 riably show that this cannot possibly be 

 the case; that if the condition is low, the 

 system emaciated, the yield of milk is of 

 necessity comparatively small, that is, 

 small to what any particular cow would 

 be capable of yielding on the same food 

 were she in better condition; and if the 

 yield is large in qantity it will be poor in 

 quality, because much of the food which 

 should go to yield milk will necessarily 

 be drawn by the animal to maintain its 

 bodily condition. This point has too of- 

 ten been overlooked in considering the 

 true economy of dairy management. — 

 Mass. Ploughman. 



— m-^-^ 



The Nero England Farmer says: The 

 milk of some cows, yielding a large quan- 

 tity of milk and but little cream, will ac- 

 tually prevent the cream from rising on 

 the milk of cows which is rich in cream! 

 This we learned from long, actual expe- 

 rience, and from repeated vexatious losses 

 which occurred before we did learn it. 



Anomalies. — Paper can be manufac- 

 tured from iron. If a tallow candle be 

 placed in a gun and shot through a door, 

 it will go through without sustaining in- 

 -nry; and if a musket ball be fired into. 

 water, it will not only rebound, but be 

 flattened; if fired through a pane of glass 

 it will make a hole the size of the ball 

 without cracking the glass; if suspended 

 by a thread it will make no difi'erence, and 

 the thread will not even vibrate. Cork if 

 sunk to the depth of two hundred feet in 

 the ocean will not raise on account of the 

 pressure of the water. In the Arctic re- 

 gions when the thermometer is below 

 zero, persons can converse more than a 

 mile apart. Dr. Jamison asserts that he 

 heard every word of a sermon at the dis- 

 tance of two miles. 



No farmer is excusable who makes his 

 field work a reason for not attending to 

 the vegetable garden. A good supply of 

 vegetables in their season is worth much 

 in money and health. 



"S\' hen love fails, we spy all faults. 



