214 LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



In warm weather I keep cold water running from a large tank 

 in the milk room on the cover, thence under and around the 

 milk, keeping it as cool as desirable. This tank is so arranged 

 that large pieces of ice can be put into it to keep the water 

 cool. The water is pumped from a well into the tank by a 

 wind-mill, which also furnishes water for stock. I skim when 

 slightly acid or before, usually in thirty-six hours, and let 

 cream stand about twelve to twenty-four hours to ripen. I start 

 the churn with the temperature of cream at fifty-eight to sixty- 

 two degrees, according to weather, cooler in warm, and warmer 

 in cold weather. I use revolving churn. When the butter 

 has come to size of wheat grains, I stop the churn, draw off a 

 part of the buttermilk, add brine not warmer than sixty de- 

 grees, turn the churn a few times, draw off and continue to 

 wash until the brine runs free of any milky appearance. I 

 let the butter stand in good strong brine from ten to fifteen 

 minutes, then take from churn, weigh, place on butter worker 

 and press out all the brine, leaving the butter moist enough 

 t» dissolve the salt readily ; reweigh the brine, thus getting 

 the correct weight of the butter, and salt with any good dairy 

 salt, three-fourths ounce to one pound of butter. I work 

 enough to have the salt thoroughly distributed through the 

 whole mass, let stand from three to four hours for salt to dis- 

 solve, rework and pack. I use but very little color, and that 

 in Winter, and add the coloring after the butter is partly washed, 

 next to the last brine, in which the butter remains for a few 

 minutes. If coloring is used before the buttermilk is drawn off, 

 it requires nearly double the amount to produce the same effect. 

 The milk room is sixteen by sixteen feet; ice house ten by 

 ten feet, next to which is the cooling room, five by ten feet 

 wide, and having ice over it. The floor of the milk room is 

 twelve inches below the surface of the ground, laid with brick- 

 bats on a good clay foundation, and upon this is one inch and 

 one half of cement. The floor has a gradual slope towards the 

 drain. The wall consists of stone three feet high, banked up 

 thus far with earth ; and above the stone, the wall is double 

 studded, making two four-inch air spaces, one of which is filled 



