426 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. xxii. 



will be communicated to the butter, which it 

 will, to a certain degree, injure. 



The time which the cream should be kept 

 before it acquires the proper degree of acidity, 

 must of course depend more upon the season 

 and the state of the weather than upon any 

 fixed rule ; but, generally speaking, it may be 

 assumed that, in the heat of summer, this 

 will take place in a day or two, and perhaps 

 Mdthin three or four days during the spring 

 and autumn ; or, in the heart of winter, it 

 may be left an entire week. The cream 

 should not, however, be allowed to stand on 

 the milk when that has become sour. 



There is vast difference of practice among 

 dairy-maids respecting the mode of keeping 

 the cream until the churning: the greater 

 number stirring it frequently during the day, 

 or at least every time any cream is added; 

 while others never allow it to be moved, and 

 even when addition is to be made to the 

 cream already in the steen, it is poured 

 upon it gently without breaking the crust 

 of that contained in it. In those dairies which 

 have many cows, it is, indeed, usual to keep 

 the cream of each milking apart from that 



