16 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



out in as good flesh to go to pasture in the spring, as they are 

 when they go to the barn in the fall. My pasture is good, so by 

 keeping well in the winter, what they eat through the pastur- 

 ing season goes to milk and butter. I give them no meal in 

 pasturing time ; they have then nothing but what the pasture 

 affords for them, except a few green stalks at night. 



Process of Making. — The milk is strained into tin pans, 

 where it stands from thirty-six to forty-eight hours ; it is then 

 skimmed, and the cream put into tin pails standing on a brick 

 floor. We churn once in five days, sometimes not until the 

 week comes round. After the butter comes, the butter-milk is 

 drawn off", and the churn filled nearly full of cold water, and 

 then the butter is stirred with the crank, until the butter-milk 

 is apparently all out ; it is then taken out of the churn, and 

 beat by the hand until all the butter-milk is out ; it is then salt- 

 ed with from three-fourths to an ounce of ground rock salt to 

 the pound, and again worked over, and made into pound and 

 half pound balls, fit for market. 



We commenced the 1st day of January to weigh all the but- 

 ter we make for the year, and the quantity of milk at the dif- 

 ferent seasons to a pound of butter. From the 1st of January 

 to the 20th of May, we made one hundred and ninety-eight 

 pounds of butter, the average quantity of milk to a pound 

 being eight quarts, or a trifle over. The last week in June it 

 took a trifle short of eight quarts to a pound. Last week I 

 tried my cow that calved the 27th of August, and she gave one 

 hundred and eleven quarts of milk, which made twelve pounds 

 of butter, or to come to the exact quantity, one ounce short. 

 This is a native cow. I raised her from the cow for which I 

 took the first premium at Lynn in 1846 ; she is five years old, 

 and has had three calves. My other cow is a half sister, of the 

 same age. I do the milking myself, all the time, and have regu- 

 lar hours at the difl"erent seasons of the year. In this way I 

 find I can keep the milk up, when others that are milked when 

 most convenient, are dried up, I also make a practice in cold 

 weather, to card and brush my cows down every morning, and 

 see that they lie warm and dry at night. 



Ipswich, Sept. 25, 1850. 



