690 



FARMERS' REGISTER— BUTTER— COTTON. 



mer; but, by adding a certain portion (which ex- 

 ])erience only can determine) or' ihe juice express- 

 edfroni the pulp of carro's, to the cream previously 

 to churning, winter-made butter will acquire the 

 appearance and flavor ot" butter that lias been 

 churned during the prime part of the summer sea- 

 son. 



When butter is to be exposed to the heat of a 

 warm climate, it should be purified by melting, be- 

 fore it be salted and packed up. For this purpose, 

 Dr. Anderson directs it to be put into a close ves- 

 sel, and this into another containing water, whicli 

 must be gradually lieated until the butter be tho- 

 roughly melted. lu this state it must continue for 

 some time, when the impure parts will subside, 

 and leave at the top a perfectly pure ti-ansjiarent 

 oil; which, on cooling, will become opaque, and 

 assume a color nearly resembling that of the ori- 

 ginal butter, except that it will be a little paler, 

 and of a firmer consistence. This refined butter 

 is then to be separated from the dregs, salted, and 

 put up in the same way as the other butter: it will 

 continue much longer sweet in hot climates, as it 

 retains the salt better. Butter may also be pre- 

 served sweet vrithout salt, by adding a certain 

 quantity of fine honey, in the proportion of one 

 ounce of the latter to a pound of butter, and mix- 

 ing them thoroughly, so that they may be perfect- 

 ly incorporated. A mixture of this sort has a 

 eweet pleasant taste, and will keep for years with- 

 out becoming rancid. 



The process of making butter from the milk i 

 and cream together, which is much practised in 

 Scotland and Ireland, is usually as follows: 



The milk is placed in pans, from three to six 

 inches deep, and left, from twelve to twenty-four 

 ho!n.'s; until it has cooled, and the cream has risen 

 to the siu'face. It is then emptied (before it has 

 become sour) into a well-scalded vat, sufficiently 

 large to contain the whole of that milking; or of 

 two millcings, if both are equally cool and sweet; 

 but if there be the least approach to acidity in 

 either, they are kejit separate. The whole of the 

 milk is then left until it becomes thick and sour be- 

 fore it is churned; but it is allowed to become so of 

 itself and is not forced by the mixture of sour with 

 sweet. Care is also taken not to break the congu- 

 lum, or lapper, as it is technically called, until it is 

 churned: and it is ibund that the milk may thus be 

 safely kept, from a day to a week, until sufficient 

 is collected to form a churning. With due atten- 

 tion to these points, the butter produced is always 

 high-flavored, and the butter-milk that remains, 

 though ncid, is pleasant and nutritive, and, if kept 

 cool, will retain those qualities for a considerable 

 time uni'ijured; but ii\ on the contraiy, sour milk 

 be mixed with sweet, or the lapper be broken be- 

 fore churning, fermentation will be excited; the 

 milk runs into curds nnd whey; the butter acquires 

 a bad taste and smell, as well as an ill color; and 

 the butter-milk loses its most valuable proper- 

 ies.* 



Such is the piractice in the best Scotcli dairies: 

 in Ireland, where tlie butter is generally of very 

 line quality, the common method is, to churn the 

 anilk and cream toa-ether: the milk being aUowcd 

 to stand so long as it wheys on the top. It is thus 

 said to ])roduce"more butter than in the usual mode 



of churning the cream alone; and the butter-milk 

 is preferred, by those who are accustomed to it, to 

 skim-milk. 



In Holland, the mode is somewhat different. 

 There the milk, when cold, is put into a vat, and 

 frequently stirred to prevent the cream Irom sepa- 

 rating Irom the milk; and this is continued until 

 the milk becomes so thick that the ladle stands 

 erect in it. It is then churned; and cold water is 

 added, in order the better to effect the separation of 

 the butter. In this manner, the Dutch dairy-wo- 

 men also say, that more butter is obtained from the 

 milk than in any other; and they also insist, that 

 both the butter and the butter-milk are better than 

 in any mode adopted in this country. This, how- 

 ever, is the opinion of the advocates of each dif- 

 ferent system; all of whom consider their own as 

 the best; and, Avithout comparative experiments, 

 it is difficult to decide which has the advantage. 

 The chief distinction lies between the two meth- 

 ods of churning, either the cream alone, or the 

 cream and milk together; the latter, as we have 

 already seen, is said to produce most butter; but it 

 excludes the making of skim-milk cheese, which 

 is a prohtable object of dairy economy; and, if it 

 be true, that more butter is got in this manner thun 

 in the other, it must also be evident, that there 

 cannot be so much nutriment left in the butter-milk 

 as in the skim-milk. In Scotland and Ireland, 

 hoAvever, butter-milk is an object of great con- 

 sumption as food for the peasantr}", by whom it is 

 preferred to skim-milk, and it can be preserved 

 longer for use. In large dairies, the labor of 

 churning the milk and cream together is very con- 

 siderable; but, on the other hand, so is tlie trouble 

 of skimming, when the cream is to be churned 

 alone. As the object of both processes is to ex- 

 tract as much as possible of the substance of the 

 milk, it would probably be found, on a minute 

 comparison, that, whether that be eflected in the 

 shape of butter, of cheese, or of nutritive food left 

 in the milk or whey, either, when equally well per- 

 formed, would be nearly equally profitable. 

 [To be continued.] 



* Aiton on the Dairy Ilupbanclry of Ayrshire, chap. 

 III. sect. 3. 



REMARKS ON MR. SPAT.DING S KSSAY OjV THE 

 INTRODUCTION AND CULTURE OF COTTON. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



In common with your other readers, I have 

 been interested by the perusal of an article, (from 

 the Southern Planter) in the number of your jour- 

 nal lor November last, from the pen of Mr. Spal- 

 ding of Sapelo, Ga., relating to the introduction 

 of cotton into the United States — the progress of 

 its culture, &c. The readers of the agricultural 

 journals in this country are largelj' indebted to Mr. 

 Spalding. His authority on the subject of cotton, 

 especially the sea island cotton, is so great that I 

 have thought it worth while to notice, in your 

 journal, what I take to be a material error of his, 

 in relation to the species of the sea island cotton. 

 Alter enumerating tour different species of the 

 cotton j/lant (jL^cnus gossypium') to wit: — G. her- 

 baceum, G. hirsutum, G. barbadense, and G. 

 arboreum; he says that the sea island cotton of 

 Georgia and Carolina, belongs to the last species, 

 the Gossypium arboreum; whereas, I think it be- 

 longs to the third species, the G. barhadcnse, or 

 Barbt'idocs cotton. 



