546 HANDY -BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



" that milk should sour before butter can be made. This is an 

 " error, numberless trials having shown that sweet milk and 

 " sweet cream yield butter, as much and as easily as sour cream, 

 " provided they have stood for some time at medium temperatures. 

 " It is well known that the fat of milk exists in minute globules, 

 " which are inclosed in a delicate membrane. It was natural to 

 " suppose that in fresh milk this membrane prevents the cohesion 

 " of the fatty matters, and that when, by standing, the milk or 

 " cream becomes capable of yielding butter after a short churn- 

 " ing, it is because the membrane has disappeared or become ex- 

 " tremely thin. Experiments show, in fact, that those solvents 

 " which readily take up fat, as ether, for example, dissolve from 

 " sweet milk more in proportion to the length of time it has stood 

 " at a medium temperature. 



" Readiness for churning depends chiefly upon the time that has 

 " elapsed since milking^ and the temperature to which it has been 

 " exposed in the pans. The colder it is, the longer it must be 

 " kept. At medium temperature, 6o°-70° F., it becomes suita- 

 " ble for the churn within twenty-four hours, or before the cream 

 " has entirely risen. Access of air appears to hasten the process. 



" The souring of the milk or cream has, directly, little to do 

 " with preparing them for the churn. Its influence is, however, 

 " otherwise felt, as it causes the caseine to pass beyond that gelati- 

 " nous condition in which the latter is inclined to foam strongly 

 " at low temperatures, and by enveloping the fat-globules hinders 

 " their uniting together. On churning cream that is very sour^ the 

 " caseine separates in a fine granular state, which does not inter- 

 '' fere w^ith the 'gathering' of the butter. Even the tenacious, 

 " flocky mass that appears on gently heating the sweet whey 

 " from Chester cheese, may be churned without difficulty after 

 ''becoming strongly sour. 



" Cream churned when slightly sour, as is the custom in the 

 " Holstein dairies, yields butter of a peculiar and fine aroma. 

 " Butter made from very sour cream is destitute of this aroma, 

 " and has the taste which the Holstein butter acquires after keep- 

 " ing some time. 



