Dairying in the Olden Days 95 



as an Agriculturist"; should I be called on to 

 sliow reasons why I make free on paper with the 

 cow with the crumpled horn and the dairymaid of 

 other days? 



I remember in my dairying days out West I 

 once churned four hours (sun- time) and the butter 

 wouldn't come. I danced jig-time, waltzes, polkas 

 and all the other steps I knew with that dashed 

 old churn, I made poetry while I churned, talked 

 kindly and, sometimes, unkindly, and yet that 

 butter-fat remained obdurate. At length when the 

 hope that is said to spring eternal within the hu- 

 man breast had entirely jfled and also when hope 

 deferred had made my heart sick, I upset a kettle 

 of boiling water into the heartless thing and lived 

 on scalded cream for two days after. My partner 

 on the ranch who came in just as the climax had 

 been reached, remarked that it was difficult to 

 churn ice cream into butter. You see, it was in 

 winter — forty below zero weather — and the cream 

 had too much ice in it. If I'd had a sensitive ther- 

 mometer finger like the old-time butter-maker I 'd 

 have warmed up the cream-crock before dumping 

 its contents into the churn. But I learned in the 

 school of experience that it's really impossible to 

 make butter from iced cream. 



PIONEER CHEESE-PEESS 



Yes, indeed, the churn and the cheese-press of 

 the pioneer are worthy of a place in this "Old 



