No. 4.] DAIRYING IX FRANCE. 123 



This building is almost always of stone, and on a shady 

 side a room has been set apart, with very thick walls, one 

 or two small windows and a stone floor, for keeping the 

 milk. Often it is empty except for the supply of heavy, 

 earthenware jars, which hold from 12 to 20 quarts of milk 

 each. These are called terrines (earthen jars) and chau- 

 dieres (warmers). These vessels stand upon the floor or 

 on a permanent bench around two or three sides of the 

 room. Into them the milk is strained on arriving from the 

 held, and atmospheric temperatures alone are depended 

 upon for cooling. Natural ice and cold water are scarce 

 articles hereabouts. These milk rooms are never cold, but, 

 on the other hand, they never get very warm, even in mid- 

 summer. They are kept well whitewashed and scrupulously 

 clean in Normandy ; and, considering the large bulk of milk 

 set in one vessel and the want of care prior to straining 

 away, the milk keeps sweet an astonishingly long time. 

 The milkers are by no means as clean as might be, in person 

 or dress ; the metallic pots are never steamed and rarely 

 scalded, but are washed clean and aired. The cows are in 

 the best of health, with the purest of food, but they have 

 poor water : their bodies are clean, and the} r are always 

 milked in the open air with cleanly surroundings. 



If the milk sours in less than 24 hours, as it seldom does, 

 it is churned entire ; otherwise the milk is skimmed at the 

 end of 24 or 36 hours, and the cream churned the same day, 

 or the next. Those who pride themselves upon making 

 butter of a superior quality skim 12 hours earlier, and not 

 closely, thus getting the very best of the cream ; the re- 

 mainder is considered well used when fed with the skim 

 milk to good calves. Churning ordinarily occurs every 

 morning, and early, while it is cool. The cream when 

 churned has developed but little acidity, and the butter has 

 a mild and rather flat flavor. Pure cultures, ferments and 

 starters are unknown. Dash churns are used, both of verti- 

 cal and of barrel form . Some horizontal barrel churns are 

 operated by a one-horse sweep-power. The butter is gathered 

 in the churn, in mass, and, after very thorough washing, lifted 

 out and worked in a wooden bowl or long tray with the bare 



