ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 497 



board, and some of it is of really superior 

 character. It is probable that individual 

 dairies may be found which produce an 

 article unsurpassed by the best Orange 

 County or Philadelphia products; yet 

 these must be few compared with the 

 aggregate number of Western dairies. 

 The intelligence, skill, and care evinced 

 by many butter makers of the prairies 

 will prove a leaven that may be expected 

 to work wonders in the general improve- 

 ment of the butter of that great section. 

 The following directions for butter mak- 

 ing, by Mrs. M. A. Deane, of Farina, 

 Illinois, recently received a prize from the 

 Messrs. Blanchard, churn makers, at 

 Concord, New Hampshire, as a model 

 exposition of the subject and of general 

 application : 



Management of the Milk. — The advant- 

 age gained during the hot season by the 

 rapid and complete cooling of milk as 

 soon as it comes from the cow can hardly 

 be over-estimated, as recent experiments 

 show that the milk thus cooled will keep 

 sweet much longer and yield its cream 

 more readily and more abundantly ; and 

 as all experience has proved that the 

 quantity of" butter made depends greatly 

 upon keeping the milk in such a state as 

 to secure all the cream, a saving of labor 

 is effected by this process, as the milk, 

 when cooled to the required temperature 

 (6o°), may be set in deeper vessels, thus 

 diminishing greatly the number of vessels 

 required, and, consequently, the labor of 

 cleansing them. 



In a large dairy the washing and scald- 

 ing of the shallow pans so much in use 

 is always a laborious and tedious process. 

 There are many methods, more or less 

 simple, tor cooling milk. Patents have 

 been granted for various plans, and many 

 enterprising dairymen are testing ingeni- 

 ous devices of their own with excellent 

 success. If it is not convenient to pro- 

 cure a cooler, the milk may be cooled by 

 setting some large pails into a trough or 

 box partly filled with very cold water, 

 and pouring the milk into these pails as 

 fast as it is drawn from the cows, allow- 

 ing it to stand until of the required tem- 

 perature — if necessary, renewing the 

 water. 



The pails used in milking should be of 

 tin, never of wood. It is very difficult, 

 almost impossible, to cleanse wooden 



32 



pails so perfectly that they will not impart 

 some degree of acidity to the milk, 

 though it may be an insensible degree. 

 Owing to this fact, some factories make 

 it an absolute requisition that only tin 

 pails shall be used by those who furnisb, 

 them with milk. 



The Dairy Room. — Much of the success 

 of butter making depends upon the fitness- 

 of the place or room where the dairy is 

 kept, and upon its condition as to clean- 

 liness and freedom from taints and odors 

 of every description. If a cellar is used, 

 it should be a dry one, and perfectly 

 clean to the remotest corners, having no 

 hidden remnants of decayed vegetables 

 or fruit, or anything which could possibly 

 offend the most delicate olfactories. If a 

 room in the dwelling-house is used, or a 

 milk-house built separately, which is per- 

 haps better, it should not be situated near 

 a hog-pen, stable, or anything ot the 

 kind, nor should anything likely to impart 

 its odor to the milk, as smoked ham, 

 codfish, onions, or even potatoes, be 

 allowed a place in the room. Nothing 

 will receive a taint more easily than milk 

 or cream ; and all bad odors absorbed by 

 the milk are certain to be concentrated in 

 the butter, they not having the accommo- 

 dating disposition to run off with the 

 buttermilk. We have known butter to 

 be spoiled in consequence of the milk 

 standing in the room with a smoky 

 furnace, and it is sometimes sensibly 

 affected by the smoke of burnt grease and 

 other unpleasant smells from the cook 

 room. So if a milk-room communicates 

 with a kitchen the door should be kept 

 closed. 



Temperature. — The milk, whether in a 

 cellar or in a room above ground, should 

 be kept cool in the summer, never being 

 allowed to reach a temperature above" 

 6o°, though it may fall below that without: 

 detriment. Milk should be set upon, 

 racks, rather than shelves, so that the air' 

 may circulate freely under it as well as; 

 over and around it. Racks are made in 

 various ways j the most convenient that 

 we know of is constructed as follows: 

 Take a 6 by 6 pine post, of a length 

 suited to the height of the room, place it 

 upright upon a pivot so that it will re- 

 volve, and nail slats of half-inch stuff to 

 each side of the post, at such intervals as 

 will give room for the pans or other 



