62 



starting, and (4), the milk being delivered from cows just calved 

 (biestings), from strippers or sick cows. Sometimes it will 

 mend itself by allowing the cream to stand quiet for an hour or so, 

 but the safest in the first cases is to divide it into two churnings 

 and start fresh at the right temperature. 



DRAWING THE BUTTERMILK AND WASHING. 



When the granules are of the right size, and if salt in the 

 buttermilk is not objectionable, the addition of this will make 

 it draw better, but I have seldom been troubled that way, and 

 there is no need of losing a single granule, as a strainer, or better, 

 a hair sieve, should be used in drawing. 



When this is done, about the same amount of water of from 

 50 to 55 deg. should replace the buttermilk (if the granules seem 

 very soft 45 deg. may be allowed) ; the churn should be turned 

 a few times. Unless it is desired to harden the granules the 

 water should be drawn at once. It is a big mistake to leave the 

 butter to soak in water for hours. As a rule two rinsings should 

 be enough and indeed some of the finest butter is made without 

 rinsing at all, relying on the working to remove the buttermilk. 

 The Danes used to do this, but now they rinse the granules by 

 dipping them from the buttermilk with a hair sieve and then 

 moving this gently in a tub of cold water, thus washing the butter 

 only once and only for a minute or so. As in most other mat- 

 ters the best road lies in the middle course. 



Too much care cannot be exercised in securing pure water 

 for washing the butter, and I am convinced that in many cases 

 the butter is spoiled by impure water. 



If we have deep artesian wells, where no surface water is 

 possible, the water is all right unless indeed it contains too much 

 iron or other mineral impurities. Yet it is often customary to 

 pump the. water directly into the churn in order to get it as cold 

 as possible, and sometimes this may lead to a most disagreeable 

 result, that is : when sand is sucked up with the water, and it 

 happens now and then that a whole churning is spoiled. But 

 with dug wells it would really be best to boil, cool and filter the 

 water used for washing, and I believe it might even pay, at least 

 in large creameries, to distill the water to ensure absolute purity 

 and freedom from germs. If this is too much trouble, at least 

 filter it, and for this purpose the International filter is to be 

 recommended if a smaller size is placed on the market (the one 

 now sold for $110 will filter from 800 to 1,000 gallons per hour). 

 This cure may, however, be worse than the disease if the filter 

 is not kept bacteriogically clean. 



Dug wells into which the creamery or stable drainage has a 

 chance to leak should be condemned, and indeed no creamery 

 should be built without first providing the water supply and have 

 it analyzed chemically and bacteriologically even if it costs from 

 $25 to $50. 



