872 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Where creameries are at comparatively short distances from the 

 principal markets, this is a very satisfactory method of conduct- 

 ing the establishment. 



A New System. In some sections a yet different system 

 is being introduced in regard to the management. Instead of 

 collecting the cream, the new, fresh drawn milk is taken to the 

 creamery morning and evening, and is accurately weighed. The 

 seller accepts a contract price for his milk, or agrees to the 

 market price, a price paid at the milk buying factories, or yet 

 a proportionate price to the butter value of the milk. The 

 creamery man extracts the cream and returns the skim-milk to 

 the producer without cost. This enables the farmer to realize 

 market prices for his milk, and yet have its feeding to augment 

 the growth of his young stock upon the farm. 



Creamery Butter. The process of making butter at a 

 creamery is very interesting, not only from the dispatch and 

 skill noticed, but also the systematic treatment of the material 

 during the entire process. The person who visits the different 

 farms to collect the cream has a suitable spring wagon, and a 

 cream-can so constructed that the cream can not be agitated 

 while in the transit, as "churning" the cream while gathering 

 en route would be to defeat the object of high-grade butter. 



When the cream arrives at the creamery, it is placed in 

 cream vats, holding often several hundred gallons, where it is 

 frequently stirred to thoroughly mix the cream from the different 

 dairies, and thus divest it of its identity so to speak, and se- 

 cure ripening. This last, as distinguished from souring, is to 

 promote acidity in a mild degree by the action of the air, rather 

 than to secure another form of acidity by the ferment of the 

 milk which the cream contains, the ripening being conducive to 

 a delicate aroma so distinctive of choice butter, and to be dis- 

 tinguished from the higher, sharper flavor that naturally results 

 from souring the cream the formation of lactic acid from the 

 sugar of the milk being the cause of the latter. 



The first appearance of the acidity is the time chosen for 

 churning. In all creameries the churning is done with revolving 

 churns of some pattern, ample in capacity to produce at least 



