DAIRY MANAGEMENT, THE MILK TRADE, ETC. 97 



churning the milk. This plan has constantly been condemned, 

 yet it has many admirers who declare it to be the best and 

 most profitable system. Care must, however, be taken that the 

 milk is properly ripened, it should be almost a sour curd, and 

 that it is churned at not less than 66'^ Fahr. We have made 

 numbers of experiments to test the relative value of churning 

 milk against churning cream raised by different systems, and 

 although sweet milk produced less butter than any, yet properly 

 ripened milk equalled every system but the separator. Quantity 

 of butter may, however, be obtained at too great a sacrifice, and 

 this is undoubtedly the case in this instance. The butter is 

 more difiicult to make up than cream butter, it is less market- 

 able, being deficient in flavour and containing more water. It 

 is necessary to churn daily, and in most instances to employ 

 power ; and last of all, the butter milk being absolutely sour, it 

 is quite unsaleable, except in a few districts where it is a 

 sjpecialite among the poorer classes. 



In the three western counties — Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall 

 — cream is raised by a plan common only to this part of 

 England. A shallow milk pan, similar in shape, but some 2in. 

 deeper than the ordinary setting pan, is allowed to stand in the 

 dairy for twelve hours, often twenty-four hours in winter ; it is 

 then removed to a stove, either on an iron plate or set in boiling 

 water, and the milk scalded. Care is taken to prevent the milk 

 boiling, although itmayreach anypointshort of this. Atempera- 

 ture of 175° to 190° is, however, quite safe. The pans are then 

 returned to the dairy and skimmed in twelve hours. The 

 cream is worked into butter by hand by the majority of farmers, 

 although some still use a churn. The plan is troublesome and 

 has nothing to recommend it ; the butter has a peculiar flavour, 

 which is admired by those who are accustomed to it, but 

 strongly condemned by experts and the trade in general. 

 Cream raised in this way is very delicious, and is not produced 

 so largely as it might be. 



In making butter, provided the cream is properly ripened and 

 churned at a proper temperature — 58° to 61°, the former in 

 summer and the latter in winter — it matters very little what 

 churn is used, so long as it is of a good make. We should 

 select one with a large mouth, light joints, and which can 



H 



