532 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



degree that the rising of the cream will have commenced before 

 the temperature of the mass is too greatly reduced for the operation 

 to be carried on with the requisite activity. In summer time milk 

 intended for butter should be set away in a cool place, so that it 

 may be soon reduced to a degree of heat that is not conducive to 

 rapid souring ; and even in moderate weather, as in spring and 

 fall, due care should be taken that it does not become too warm. 

 The heating of milk in winter time is by no means universally 

 practiced, but where it is practiced, and I speak from my own 

 experience, it is productive of excellent results. My custom is 

 to have a kettle of water put on the stove at milking time, and 

 raised to the boiling point by the time the milk .is brought to 

 the house. Into this water the milk pail is placed and allowed to 

 remain, until a little steam begins to show itself over the surface 

 of the milk, the mass being gently stirred once or twice during the 

 heating. It is then strained directly into pans, and an amount of 

 cream rises within twenty-four hours which, without the heating, 

 would have required double that time. I fancy, too, that the con- 

 sistency of the cream is rather better, its quantity somewhat greater, 

 and its color somewhat deeper, while the firmness of the butter 

 is in no way reduced, nor is the product in any way injured, even 

 if it is not benefited as I think that it is. Milk for cheese-making, 

 however it may be kept immediately after being brought in, should 

 be artificially raised to the required temperature before the rennet 

 is added. 



As in the case of the selling of milk, no further preparation is 

 necessary than the early cooling above alluded to, the remainder 

 of this chapter may be best devoted to the consideration of the 

 manufacture of butter and cheese. 



Concerning the manufacture of butter much has been writ- 

 ten, and much of the lore of local neighborhoods can hardly 

 be written, consisting as it does of traditional manipulations 

 which are to be learned much better by experience than 

 by reading. Processes in some respects differ almost diamet- 



