SETTING MILK FOR CREAM. 39 



Mr. Flint. Is it not longer than is usually necessary? 



Mr. Arnold. I think it is. 



Mr. Flint. Would you not get all the cream that is worth 

 getting in eighteen or twenty hours, in a suitable tempera- 

 ture ? 



Mr. Arnold. That is so ; in fact, you get about all in that 

 time. What you get after that time is of poor quality. 



Mr. Flint. Not only poorer in itself, but it injures the 

 cream as a whole ? 



Mr. Arnold. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Flint. Is it not, then, better, in small dairies, to let 

 the milk stand eighteen or twenty hours, rather than to let it 

 stand longer? 



Mr. Arnold. I think it would be ; but it does not usually, 

 at sixty degrees, get ripe enough to churn to the best advan- 

 tage in that time. In order to churn successfully, milk should 

 be a little sour. 



Mr. Flint. In families that keep but one or two cows, 

 they cannot churn very often, and the cream, as you know, is 

 usually set away in jars. Is there any advantage in mixing a 

 little salt with it, as the cream is added from day to day ? 



Mr. Arnold. Yes, sir, there is an advantage in adding 

 salt, and a little saltpetre, for the reason that both of them 

 check the growth of ferments, and the changes which would 

 otherwise be rapid, are kept back, and the cream does not get 

 over-ripe. It prevents the formation of so much acid as to 

 take out all the aroma, and it has a tendency to prevent the 

 formation of alcohol, which will occur in the advanced stages, 

 and which will also help, as the phrase is, to " eat up the 

 cream." 



Mr. Flint. Would not salt have some effect upon the 

 butter globules? Would there not be some influence upon 

 the caseine? 



Mr. Arnold. That is very likely so. It is a point that 

 had not occurred to me, but I can see readily, from the natural 

 action of salt, which is to absorb moisture, that it would take 

 the moisture out of the caseine, as it does out of meat, and 

 make it draw tighter over the globule. Then, when you 

 come to churn it, the tighter that is the easier it will break. 

 That is one of the effects of souring. The water separates 



