654 FIRST AND SECOND BIII.X AND CREAM. 



These differences may all be ascribed to varieties or natural differences 

 in the pasture or fodder upon wliicli the cow is fed.* The constitution ot 

 the animal also is known to affect the quality of the butter — since there 

 are some animals which with the best food will never give first-rate but- 

 ter. 



In all such cases as these, however, the quality of the butter is almost 

 entirely dependent upon that of the milk from which it is made, so that 

 whatever affects the quality of the milk must influence also that of the 

 butter prepared from it. But as I have already considered the circum- 

 stances by which the quality of the milk is principally modified (p. 

 534), I shall not further advert to this subject at present. 



But from the same milk, and even from the same cream, by different 

 modes of procedure, very different qualities of butter may be obtained. 

 The mode of making or extracting butter, therefore, is highly worthy of 

 your attention. Let us consider a few of the more important circimi- 

 stances under which different qualities of butter may be extracted from 

 the same quality of milk or cream. 



1°. First and second drawn milk. — If the milk be collected in two or 

 three successive portions, as it comes from the cow, we have already 

 seen (p. 536), that the last drawn portion will be much richer than that 

 which has been taken first. The cream yielded by it will also be richer, 

 and of a finer and higher flavour. Whether, therefore, the butter be ex- 

 tracted directly from the whole milk, or from the cream, the butter ob- 

 tained from the three successive portions will differ in quality almost as 

 much as the several portions of milk themselves. 



A practical application of this fact is made in some of the Highland 

 counties of Scotland, and in other districts, where the calves are allowed 

 to suck, or are fed with, the first half of the milk as it comes from the 

 cow — the latter and richest half only being reserved for dairy purposes. 

 This second milk is found to afford an exquisite butter. 



2'^, First and second cream. — In like marfher the first cream that rises 

 upon any milk is always the richest, and gives the finest flavoured but- 

 ter. The after-creamings are not only poorer in butter, but yield it of a 

 whiter colour and of inferior quality. 



This fact again is well understood, and has been long practically ap- 

 plied in the neighbourhood of Epping, which is celebrated for the excel- 

 lence of its butter. The cream of the first 24 hours is set aside and 

 churned by itself. The second and third creams produce a pale, less 

 pleasant butter, which always sells for an inferior price. Any admix- 

 ture of the after-creamings causes a corresponding diminution in the value 

 of the butter produced. To produce the most exquisite butter the cream 

 of the first eight hours only ought to be taken. 



3^. Mode of creaming.— The rapidity with which cream rises to the 

 surface, either naturally or when influenced by art, affects the quality of 

 the cream, and consequently that of the butter made from it. In warm 

 weather it rises more quickly than in cold, and more quickly still when 

 the milk is heated, as in the preparation of clouted cream. The butter 



* The influence of the food given in the stall and of the plants eaten in the pasture, upon 

 the colour and flavour of the butter, is familiar fo all practical men. The turnipy taste of 

 the butter in winter — the garlic taste in summer, where the wild onion grows in the pastures 

 — and the alleged effect of raw potatoes in winter, in giving a rich colour to the butter, are 

 •emmon examples of this kind. 



