iz HINTS ON DAIRYING. 



ers and close observers that this adds to the quantity of 

 butter yielded without deteriorating the quality. 



WHEN TO SKIM. 



Whether skimming off the cream or drawing off the 

 milk be practiced, the question arises as to the proper 

 time for performing the operation. The more general 

 practice is to "skim" just as the milk gives unmistaka- 

 ble signs of acidity, or thickens a very little on the bot- 

 tom of the pan or can. A few prefer to skim the cream 

 sweet, and still another few let the milk lopper. This 

 wide divergence of opinion and. practice shows how very 

 imperfectly is the real philosophy of butter making un- 

 derstood; but, notwithstanding this, each one is usually 

 very tenacious in his belief as to thf> superiority of his 

 own practice. A few fancy butter makers say that the 

 finest butter is made from sweet cream, raised in cold air 

 by shallow setting. It is insisted by them that airing 

 and oxydizing, and not souring, is what " ripens" cream 

 and fits it for easy churning, while this airing and oxydi- 

 zing imparts the fine aroma so much desired in the finest 

 butter. This view of the origin or development of flavor 

 is sustained by experiments made at Cornell University, 

 at the suggestion or under the supervision of Prof. L. B. 

 Arnold. It is also claimed that the lack of flavor and 

 the short-keeping of sweet-cream butter churned from 

 cream raised by deep setting is due to its lack of oxygen, 

 and that souring the cream thus raised, before churning, 

 both oxydizes it and imparts a ranker and more positive 

 flavor resulting from the effects of the lactic acid. We 

 think both propositions look reasonable, and we should 



