20 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



pies of chemical transformation, or transmuta- 

 tion, and depends more or less upon precwus 

 conditions for its successful results ; no matter 

 how common place it may seem, or how much 

 farmers and farmers' wives may hoot at the 

 idea of scientific butter-malving. Things 

 "worth doing at all are worth doing well," 

 and the sooner this is perceived and carried 

 out in any department of human industry, the 

 sooner the hoped for "good time" will be 

 "coming." Health, happiness, long life and 

 prospeiity are more intimately connected with 

 quality than they are with quantity, and the 

 sooner this is seen the better for the progress 

 of the human family. 



We have always felt what we deemed a justifi- 

 able pride in the quality of our Lancaster county 

 butter as compared with other counties in and 

 out of the State ; but we were rather " taken 

 down" when we were infbrmed in a Philadel- 

 phia market that the butter from Chester and 

 Montgomery counties took rank above it in 

 texture, color and flavor. Lancaster was con- 

 ceded to be good, but Montgomery was Ixttcr, 

 and Chester best ; and to our reply that travel- 

 ing agents from Philadelphia made it a point 

 to stop in Lancaster merely for the sake of 

 getting a taste of Lancaster butter, we were 

 met with the response that their boarding 

 houses had not access to, or could not aftbrd to 

 buy, Chester county butter. Of course, tlie 

 quality of things sometimes depend upon parti- 

 ality, or personal preference, but there is a 

 possibility that our butter-makers, as a general 

 thing, do not attend to the conditions pointed 

 out in this article : 



BUTTER MAKING. 

 THE COW. 



The French cook, in givinp directions how to cook 

 a rabbit, began by saying- : " First catch the rabbit ! " 

 — it seeming essential, in his mind, that the rabbit 

 should be caught before it was cooked. So we, in 

 discussing the question of butter-making, will say — 

 first get the cow ! This is an important step, and 

 more im'portant than many think — for you cannot 

 make good butter unless you have a good' butter cow 

 to begin with. Do you ask what breed is best? We 

 answer, it does not make any difference what breed, 

 if you only get a good butter cow . There are good 

 cows among all breeds — more among some than 

 among others — and only experience — a practical test 

 ■ — can decide the value of a cow for making butter. 

 She may not give a large mess, but she must give a 

 rich mess, and it must have a clean, sweet flavor. 

 We see that the farmers in some sections seem to 

 understand this point. They have in Otsego county, 

 along the Unadilla river, to some extent at least, 

 introduced Devon blood, and we And among tlie 

 butter-makers there fine herds of grade Devons. 

 They are not generally reputed the best butter cows, 

 as a breed — most preferring the short horns or 

 Jerseys. But the short horns are not adapted to 

 hilly regions. For this reason, perhaps, the Devons 

 crossed on the best native stock, with a sprinkling of 

 Jersey blood, are the best for that section. 



But whatever blood you introduce, be sure it is 

 from a milking family. This is the main point to 

 look at. Get males from the best milking families — 

 males strongly marked with the characteristics of a 

 good milking family — and use no others. Cross these 

 only with your best butter cows, and if you have cows 

 that havecome from good native butter stock, so much 

 the better. But never trust to grade bulls, however line, 

 except in rare cases, where you are sure of the native 

 stock having proved good for several generations. 

 When you use a grade male, you never know what blood 

 you will breed from. He is just as likely to transmit 

 his bad qualities as his good ones, and give vou only 

 ■worthless, or next to worthless, stock. You cannot 

 aflord to take the risk of trusting a grade bull, if you 

 are trying to improve your dairy stock . Thereibrc, we 

 say, use none but pure bloods. It is better to pay a 

 little more for them than to run any risks— but be 

 sure that j-ou get a full blood from a good butter 

 family and with a good pedigree— for' without a 

 good pedigree he may prove as worthless as a grade. 



With a good butler cow and proper care and feed, 

 you are in a fair way to make good butter; but with- 

 out such a cow, your case is hopeless. No amount of 

 care and feeding will make a good cow out of a poor 

 one. But you may greatly injure, if you do not spoil, 

 a good cow by neglecting to give her an aliundance 

 of clean, sweet food and pure water. She is a 

 machine for working up raw materials into milk, and 

 she cannot make good milk out of poor materials. 

 The milk, and the butter and cheese made from it, 

 will be flavored more or less with the food which the 

 cow eats. See to it that she has sweet, nourishing 

 food and pure water in abundance. 



ODORS. 



The cow being all right, and her food and drink 

 being all right and in abundance, the milk will be all 



right, and we have only to look at its handling and 

 subsequent management. It must be milked from 

 the cow in a clean, sweet atmosphere. There must 

 be no taints in the atmosphere for the cow to breathe 

 or the milk to absorb. If there are, you will find traces 

 of them in your butter. Fats of all kinds have a stroilg 

 affinity for odors, and are used by the chemists in ex- 

 tracting the fragrance from flowers for the purpose 

 of making perfumes. These fats wUl absorb odors 

 from the atmosphere quite as readily. Hence, milk 

 and butter, from first to last, must be kept in a sweet 

 place. Even a coal stove or the use of a kerosine 

 lamp in a milk room, will flavor butter. The Prac- 

 ticnl Farmer relates an instance where a fancy butter 

 maker discovered a bad flavor in his butter — very 

 slight, but nevertheless to be tasted by his fastidious 

 customers — and he traced it to the kerosine lamp 

 used to light the milk room. lie at once ran a tube 

 from the lamp chimney up through the roof, for the 

 smoke to escape, and the evil was remedied. 



Not one cellar in a thousand is fit to set milk or 

 keep butter in, because of the mustiness or other bad 

 smells in them. The scent rising from vegetables, as 

 they sweat and steam — and especially if there is any 

 decay about them — will injure the flavor of butter. 

 A product so delicate and valuable should therefore 

 be kept by itself in a cool, sweet place. 



THE MILK ROOM. 



The milk house, then, must be clean and free from 

 all bad odors. It must also be well ventilated, and 

 ought to be so built that the temperature can be reg- 

 ulated and kept at about sixty degrees. It should be 

 built with double walls, so as to have an air chamber 

 between. If filled in with sawdust, all the better. 

 The windows should be double. The doors should 

 be double, and far enough apart so that you can 

 stand between them and shut one beibre opening the 

 other. The room should have facilities for giving it 

 an even heat in cold weather, and be provided with 

 means of introducing cool air through an ice-box 

 overhead or on the side near the ceiling, in hot 

 weather ; or, what is better, be put in communica- 

 tion, by means of tubes, with your ice-house adjoin- 

 ing and standing on a little higher ground. The 

 floor of a milk-room should be elevated above the 

 ground, and made double, like the sides, and have a 

 free circulation of air underneath ; or it should be 

 made of stone or cement laid on the clean earth and 

 made impervious to moisture at all points, so that it 

 will not absorb milk or other liquid spilt on it, and 

 generate bad odors. An elevated double floor is 

 much the healthiest to work on, as it will always be 

 dry and warm, whereas stone or cement will always 

 be cold, if not damp, and bad for th«dairywomen to 

 stand on. This is an important point to be considered 

 by all who desire to have their wives or daughters, 

 or whoever may work in the milk-room, healthy and 

 happy. Cold feet and limbs are sure to have a bad 

 etiect on the health and spirits, if they do not lead 

 directly to consumption and a premature grave. 

 Farmers should therefore always bear in mind the 

 health, comfort, convenience and happiness of the 

 women folks in all their arrangements about the 

 dairy-room, kitchen, and wherever women are em- 

 ployed. Too much attention cannot be paid to their 

 welfare. 



The air of the milk-room should not only be kept 

 clean and sweet and the temperature even, but water 

 should be kept in the room, so that the air will not 

 become too dry. Where milk is set in tanks of water, 

 of course the necessary moisture will always be 

 present in the atmosphere. It is also essential that 

 light should be admitted. We know that some think 

 a milk room should be kept dark, but it is a mistake. 

 Without light there will be no color to the cream, 

 and it will be poorer in quality and deficient in flavor. 

 The butter will also be pale and insipid in taste. 

 Light is essential to color and fine flavor. Any one 

 can make a simple experiment which will go far 

 toward satisfying him of this fact. Put a bit of 

 board over one-half of the pan, or so as to cut off the 

 light. He will have yellow, rich cream where the 

 light falls, and white, poor cream where the shadow 

 falls. It is also an advantage to let the sunlight into 

 a milk room. Of course, it should not falf on the 

 milk ; but let it strike the liuilding and shine through 

 the windows on the floor. Sunlight is a wonderful 

 purifier and promoter of health. It is not desirable 

 to have the hot sun shine into the milk room in the 

 middle of the day ; but instead of excluding it with 

 blinds, we should jirefer white curtains, that would 

 let the light through while excluding the heat. Of 

 course, if cream stauds long exposed to light, the 

 bleaching process will begin. Some think a steady 

 dim light the best. We prefer full daylight a ix)rtion 

 of the time, at least. During the middle of the day 

 the light may be shut otl' altogether. — Syracuse 

 standard. 



A WORD FOR THE FARMER. 



Prom the time it was brought into existence 

 I have not ceased to feel interested in the 

 continuance and prosperity of The Lancaster 

 Paumeh. I know that it has had for six 

 years " a hard road to travel," or rather the 

 editor and publishers have had. This, how- 

 eve'r, proves great tenacity and perseverance 

 somewhere. I had no anxiety on account 

 of its recent change of proprietors, but was 

 somewhat concerned for its change of face 

 and size. With the first number of the change 

 I am very agreeably disappointed,and if it is a 

 fair ;sample of what is to follow, Lancaster 

 county will have made quite a stride in Agri- 

 cultural and Horticultural literature. Should 

 our citizens, and farmers especially, fail to 

 patronize it as it deserves, the fault will be 

 with them, and not with the periodical or its 

 editor and publishers. The latter cannot pos- 

 sibly have embarked in this enterprise with 

 prospects of a lucrative business ; for it cer- 

 tainly required a new impetus to keep it from 

 sinking. It is therefore evident that their 

 giving' it a new lease of life and business 

 momentum is more for the honor of Lancaster 

 county and its tillers, than for the "almighty 

 dolhir. " I therefore renew my appeal to my 

 brother tillers of the soil of "the garden 

 county." Let us "put our shoulder to the 

 wheel," and give The Lancaster Parmer, 

 an impetus that will keep it going up for the 

 next six years instead of going down, after 

 which I have no fears of its permanency and 

 ability to stand on its own bottom. 



H. M. E. 



This nujiber of The Pakjier will be sent 

 to some of our agricultural friends who are not 

 subscribers, that they may have an opportu- 

 nity to pass upon its merits, and in the hope 

 that they will become sub.scribers. We invite 

 the attention of all who receive it in that way 

 to the prospectus on first page. 



"DYING FOR OUR COUNTRY." 



In times of war we hear much said about the duty 

 and glory of dying for our country. Orators who are 

 careful to keep their precious selves out of the bloody 

 fray, will harangueaudiencesbythehouronthe noble- 

 ness and reward of other people laying down their lives 

 to save their bleeding country. So meritorious is this 

 sacrifice considered by some, that they are ready to 

 promise eternal happiness in heaven to those who make 

 it, whatever may be their characters, or other deeds 

 while here on earth. 



But the religion which prepares men for heaven is 

 not manifested by imbruing our hands in the blood of 

 others, and the act of rushing intothe cannon's mouth 

 will not atone for other sins which have been com- 

 mitted throughout a lifetime. 



Dying for one's country generally means, when 

 stript of its sophistry, dying for those who wish to gov- 

 ern the country. It is dying for kings and nobles and 

 other great men who quarrel among themselves, and 

 then, too selfish to do their own fighting, meanly call 

 on their subjects to do it for them. And when thou- 

 sands or hundreds of thousands of these subjects have 

 " bitten the dust," how soon they are forgotten and left 

 to moulder in unremembered graves, while their poor 

 families and friends are euflering forthe want of their 

 care and support. What has been the gain of dying 

 for the countries during the many centuries whose 

 history has beenwritenin blood? In many eases where 

 men have died for their country their country has died 

 with them. This was the case with ancient Greece and 

 Kome, and has been also with many modern nations. 

 They have resorted to the sword to avenge some fancied 

 insult, or secure some unlawful end, and mightierones 

 have paid them in the coin of their own choosing and 

 blotted them from the map of the continent. 



How much more wise and noble to live for one's 

 country instead of dying for it. When dead there is 

 an end to all eflbrts to promote the welfare of our 

 friends and neighbors. But while we live we may daily 

 perform deeds and exert an influence that shall bless, 

 not only our friends and our country, but the world. 



Let then this false maxim, that it is our duty to die 

 for our country, be relegated to oblivion along with 

 that equally false one, that the way to preserve peace 

 is to prepare for war. Both had their origin in times 

 darker than our own, and are unworthy to be cher- 

 ished or believed by enlightened people. L. 



There is, most unquestionably, a time and a 

 sense in which the foregoing is just as true as 

 any "proof of holy writ," and that time is when 

 a nation or a country is enjoying a profound 

 state of peace. Although "in peace there's 

 nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness 

 and humility;" yet, when the "blasts of war 

 are blown in his ears, " at the behest of others, 

 he imitates the action of the tiger, "stiffens up 

 the siuews, summons' up the blood, and dis- 

 guises fair nature with hard favored rage," 

 and it is then too late, and altogether useless, 

 to preach to hun the doctrines of peace. 



