138 QUARTERLYJOURNAL. 



being enabled to use, in experiments on this small scale, a more deli- 

 cate balance to ascertain the weight of the butter obtained. 



We were also thus enabled to make the comparative experi- 

 ments on the same milk, on the same day — points of essential imr 

 portance — as the richness of even the same cowl's milk is liable to 

 vary considerably from day to day, as we found from experiment, 

 according to her food, her health, and possibly, too, according to 

 the state of the weather. We also found thai the time which had 

 elapsed from the last calving had much influence on the quantity 

 of the butter. The quantity of butter was smallest, and the pro- 

 portion of cheesy matter greatest, just after calving ; and gene- 

 rally speaking, the milk of those cows w^hich yielded the least 

 quantity of milk, w^as richest in butyraceous matter. Thus the 

 quanti+y of butter afforded by a quart of milk of a small Alder- 

 ney cow was considerably more than from a quart of the milk of 

 the large Lancashire breed. 



We proposed to ourselves various objects ; such as ascertain- 

 ing accurately the temperature acquired by milk in churning^ 

 (which, I may state in general terms, without detailing the ex- 

 periments, we found to range from 5° to 8^ of Fahrenheit ;) the 

 effect of external temperature on the production of butter ; the ef- 

 iect of adding water to the churn, as is practised in many places ; 

 but, above all, to ascertain the comparative advantages of churn- 

 ing— 



1. Sweet cream alone. 



2. Sweet milk and cream together. 



3. Sour cream, or that slightly acid. 



4. Sour milk and cream together. 



5. Scalded cream, or what is called clouted cream, as prac- 



tised in Devonshire. 



Each of these five methods of preparing the milk afforded very 

 different results ; and, as these investigations seem to be the most 

 important, I shall give them more fully than the rest, selecting, 

 from numerous experiments, those which were most carefully per- 

 formed, and are, therefore, most worthy of confidence. Although 

 the absohite quantity of butter differed with the season and con- 

 dition of the cattle, yet as the five methods were practised at the 

 same time, on equal quantities of the mingled milk of four or five 

 rows, the comparative results of each series may be considered as 

 not far from the truth. 



It is well known that the milk first drawn from the cow is far 

 inferior in quality to that last drawn ; the latter is technically, in 

 Lancashire, called the afterings, and in many towns generally sold 

 as cream. It seemed also an object of interest to ascertain the 

 comparative quantity of butyraceous matter yielded by the first 

 and last part of the milking, as also the quntity of casci7ie or curd 

 in each. 



