134 BRITISH DAIRYING. 



cream at, or not long before, churning time. I may remark 

 here that the best sample of butter I remember to have seen 

 was at an international dairy show at Dublin (on which occa- 

 sion I happened to be one of the judges of butter), and it was 

 made by the aid of souring the cream at churning time 

 the souring medium being butter-milk from the previous 

 churning. 



Where the cream is intelligently ripened that is, brought to 

 the verge of sourness the souring by butter-milk may not be 

 needed, and indeed is not needed, but where the cream is com- 

 paratively fresh when churned, there can be no doubt that 

 souring in the manner indicated is a distinct advantage alike to 

 the process of churning, and to the quality, flavour, colour, and 

 firmness of the butter. 



" A good churn, in M. Boggild's opinion, should produce 

 butter in from twenty-five to forty-five minutes from cream 

 churned at a suitable temperature. It should be so constructed 

 that its velocity, as well as the temperature of its contents, can 

 be easily controlled and regulated. It should be easy to fill and 

 to empty, to clean and to ventilate. The material of which the 

 churn is constructed should allow the butter to slip easily ; it 

 should be a bad conductor of heat, and should impart no 

 flavour or odour to the butter. These latter requirements are 

 best met by a churn made of hard wood, such as beech or oak. 

 During the operation of churning the temperature of the cream 

 in the churn should not rise more than 3 degrees Fahr." 



The Danes allow a greater range of temperature in their 

 cream when it is put into the churn than, with carefully ripened 

 cream, we in this country should consider necessary or discreet. 

 In that country it may in part be a question of extremes of 

 climate which permits a range from 50 to 68 Q Fahr.; but 

 in well-appointed dairies these extremes are kept well within 

 bounds by artificial means, and a very high temperature of the 

 cream, even in winter, ought to be quite unnecessary. 



It appears that the Danes do not generally wash the butter 

 in the churn, as we do, but, when they wasn it at all, it is taken 

 from the churn and put into a strainer, which is merely dipped 



