122 



I^LW ENGLAND FARMER 



OCT. at, iKio. 



the upper woman 1ms full employment, without 

 milking, and needs the assistance always of one, 

 and sometimes of two, of tlie more experienced 

 dairy maids, in hulter and cheese making; but in 

 emaller establishments she milks a certain niunber, 

 generally 10 cows, while each of her subordinates 

 have 18; her wages are usually 55 to CO, that of 

 her chief assistants :.'2, and Lliat of the others 18 

 dollars per annum. 



During summer the dairy people must rise at 

 three, and even two in tl e morning, if ttie weather 

 be very hot; for which they are indemnified by 

 two hours' sleep, from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. 

 At 4 they commence milking, which takes place in 

 the field, and generally occupies two hours. At 

 the beginning of the season each girl marks her 

 own cows by tying a particular colored ribbon round 

 their tails, and in some places they adopt the pre- 

 caution of the milkers carrying a siring on which 

 they cost a knot as each cow is snccessivtdy milk- 

 ed, thus securing against one being forgotten. As 

 the fields are large, and often at a great distance, 

 the transport of the milk is facilitated by the very 

 simple contrivance of a long, low, four-wheeled, 

 one-horse wagon, in the side bars of which strong 

 iron hooks are ins.-rted, at such distances that the 

 milk pails, containing from 30 to 40 quarts each, 

 may swing free of each other, and these, though 

 filled nearly to the brim, are prevented spilling, 

 notwithstanding many a rude jolt over the rough, 

 and often deeply rutted load, by merely having 

 thin pieces of wood, about the size of a dinner plate, 

 floating on the surface ; a practice, indeed, iniiver- 

 sal in I hese countries, when pails with any liquid 

 are carried even in the hand. The milk when 

 brought to the dairy is immediately strained through 

 a hair sieve into the vessels, whether of wood, 

 earthen ware, copper tinned, zinc, cast iron, (lined 

 with a china-like composition,) or glass, placed in 

 rows on the floor. All these different kinds of 

 utensils have been tried with various success, in 

 the hope of discovering how, in hot weatbor, more 

 especially when a thunder storm is gatherifig, the 

 milk can be suarded against a too -arly scidity ; 

 for, as It is a fixed and invariable rule that the cream 

 must be removed from the milk before the latter 

 gets at all sour, and an equally established fact, 

 that all the oily particles cannot be obtained in a 

 shorter period than ;8(j hours, vessels in which, dur- 

 ing sultry, andfsspecially damp weather, the milk 

 colild be kept the due time, are a great desidera- 

 turn. As yet, however, there reigns much diver- 

 Bity of opinion on the subject, and shallow wooden 

 vessels, as nearly as possible equally wide at top 

 and bottom, containing when full iibout 8 quarts, 

 but in which during summer seldom more than 6 

 quarls are poured, are in most general use. The 

 tinned .opper milk pans are very cosily, end must 

 be carefully wached lest they should require re- , 

 tinning. The zinc arc as yet little known, and | 

 the assertion of their elTect in belter severi.ig the , 

 cream from the milk, not sufficiently proved. The ] 

 cast lion, lined with enamel, though assuredly du- 

 rable >ind very clean, seem too expensive ; and the 

 glass have many opponents on account of their 

 britlleiu-ss, and the vague notions respecting 

 glass and electricity inducing the idea, that if the 

 eleclric fluid get into the milk it cannot get out 

 again! whereas, as it is ascertained that it always 

 attaches itself to a comluctor, and, in the absence 

 of any thing more attractive, runs iilong the sur- 

 face, It IS uTore likely that tlie milk should be pro- 

 tectcd in glass, which i-s a non-conductor, Ihau in 



any other substance. In my dairy which contains 

 upwards of 180 cows, the glass vessels have been 

 used for 4 years; and I give them a decided pre- 

 ference over all others. Their form is good, being 

 16 inches broad at the top and ]2 at the bottom: 

 the glass is dark bottle-green, transparent, and per- 

 fectly smooih, about one eighth of an inch thick, 

 and provided with a rounded rim at the upper edge, 

 which makes it easy to retain a safe hold of them I 

 even when full. They contain 8 quarts, but never j 

 receive more than 6. ' They co.-t 8d. a piece, and j 

 their durability may be estimated by the fact, that I 

 to encourage caret^ulness, each dairy maid is allow- j 

 ed one dollar per annum extra, as pan money, be- | 

 ing bound at the same time to pay lOd. for each 

 one she breaks, yet hitherto no girl has broken to 

 the extent of her dollar. It is self-evident that 

 acidity cannot be communicated to glass, and the 

 ease and rapidity with which they are cleaned, re- 

 quiring merely to be first washed with lukewarm 

 water, then rinsed in cold water and placed in a 

 rack to dry, effect such a saving in fuel and labor 

 (diminishing the number of our dairy maids by at 

 least Q,) that the less quantity of butter obtained, 

 supposing (which I by no means concede) that the 

 milk, during a few weeks in summer, does sour 

 sooner, and consequently throws up less cream in 

 glass than in wood, is more than compensated by j 

 the lessened expense of the establishment, not to ; 

 mention the great advantage of attaining the indis- 

 pensable cleanliness and purity of the vessels, with 

 more certainty, because at a less expenditure of 

 time and trouble. Although it is an ascertained 

 and undeniable fact that the quality <if butter de- 

 pends much on the nature of the pasture, the locali- 

 ty of the dairy, the universally prevailing cleanli- 

 ness of the whole management, and very essential- 

 ly on the purity of the water employed, still I as, 

 cribe much of the reputation which our butter has 

 of late years enjoyed (and which is verified by our 

 [obtaining at all seasons one penny per pound above 

 [the market price in our neighborhood) to the bene- 

 ficial introduction of glass milk dishes. 

 ! It has already been .'^tated as a rule, that the 

 i cream must be removed from the milk before any | 

 j acidity is perceptible, if butter of first rate quality 

 is looked for ; and it has been found by experience 

 that a cellar temperature of from (iO'= to (i^'^ Kah- 

 renheit, is the most favorable ; a complete dissev- 

 eriiient of the cream then taking place in36honrs: 

 wherein a greater degree of warmth, though it 

 quicken the separation, still more hastens the sour- 

 ing process, which operates injuriously not only on 

 the quality but the quantity ol butter. In a cold 

 temperature, the separation is efl'ected much more 

 slowly, so that 48 or even (iO hours may be requir- 

 ed ; this, however, is the longest period that may 

 be accorded without incurring the risk of imp.irting 

 a rank, unpleasant flavor to the butter, which even 

 if not perceptible on its being first churned, nuini 

 feits it.-^elf very shortly afterwards. 

 I The commencement of acidity in milk is indica- 

 Ited ny a very slight wiinkling of the cream, and a 

 scarcely perceptible acid taste. So soon as these 

 'signs appear, the work of skimming must begin, 

 ev'en tliouirh the milk have only stood 24 hours ; 

 and the cream is poured through a hair sieve 

 (which is kept for this purpose, and miHt never be 

 used to strain up the new milk with) into large bar- 

 rels, containing about 240 quarts each (usually 

 sulliciem for one churning,) in whicli it remains till 

 the necessary sourness is attained, which in sum- 

 mer follows in 24, in winter seldom under 3G or 48 



hours ; unless when the small quantity of milk ad- 

 mits of it being partly strained at once into the 

 cream barrel, and the remainder added witliout 

 skimming from the rnilk pans wlien cool. This 

 metliod, undoubledly, gives at all seasons the great, 

 est return of butter, but as is generally believed, 

 not of so rich a quality as that produced from 

 cream alone ; and, moreover, in a large dairy, dur- 

 ing the time the cows are in full nijlk, would occa- 

 sion much additional trouble, an almost ceaseless 

 churning, and a total prevention of cheese making. 

 The cre'am having attained its requisite acidity, 

 during the advance to which it must be frequently 

 stirred with a small churn stafl" to prevent it coag- 

 ulating, technically called becoming cheesy, the 

 next o'bjcct of the dairy woman's skill is, the degree 

 of warmth or coolness which must be imparted in 

 I order to secure good butter. In warm weather 

 the churn is rinsed with the ccddest procurable wa- 

 ter, in which a piece of pure ice is often thrown, 

 and sometimes, though more rarely, cold spring 

 water is added to the cream about to be churned, 

 which operation is then always performed cither 

 very early in the morning or late in the evening. 

 In cold weather, on the contrary, warm water i» 

 applied, both to rinsing the churn and to the cream 

 ' itself. The churning being completed, the butter 

 I is taken oft' by means of a large wooden ladle, and 

 carried in a tub directly to the butter cellar, where, 

 in a large trough, hollowed out of the trnuk of a 

 beech or oak, very smoothly polished oil' inside, 

 and provided with a plug hole at the lower extre- 

 Ki'ay, (beneath which a small tub is placed to re- 

 ceive the expressed milk,) the butter is slightly 

 worked, and salted with the purest salt, then mould- 

 ed with the wooden ladle into a mass at the up- 

 per end of the trough, and left for some hours to 

 soak and drain. In the evening it is thoroughly 

 kneaded and beat, or rather slapped, the dairy maid 

 repeatedly lifting a piece of from 3 to 4 pounds, 

 and slapping it with force against the trough, so as 

 to beat out all the milky particles; and thu.s, lump 

 after lump being freed from extraneous matter, the 

 whole mass is s'pread out, receives its full propor- 

 tion of salt^in all about 1 1-8 oz. per pound,) which 

 is worked with the utmost care equally through it, 

 and again moulded into one compact mass. The 

 ■ butter in Holstein is seldom if ever washed, as wa- 

 ter is believed not only to rob it of its richness and 

 flavor, but as being itself susceptible of putrefac- 

 tion, to be equally inimical as milk, to its preser- 

 vation. When a sufficient quantity is ready to fill 

 a cask, the several cliurnings are once more knead- 

 ed through, a very little fre^h salt added and pricked 

 into the barrel, which is made of red beech wood, 

 water ti.'ht, and previously caiefuUy washed and 

 rubbed i'nside with salt. Much attention is paid 

 that no interstice shall remain either between the 

 layers of butter or the sides of the cask. A cask 

 is never begun to be filled until it can be cmuple- 

 ted, as thus^aloue the butter can be exactly of tin 

 sam'e flavor and color, which is probably one rea 

 Boii why small dairies, under whatever management 

 never produce sucli good butler as large ones, ai 

 the small churnings must remain long exposed ti 

 the air, until the requisite quantity is in readiness 

 The qualities of first rate butter are consulerc. 

 to be, 1st, a fine, even, yellow color, neither pal 

 i nor orange tinted ; 2nd, a close, waxy texture, i 

 which extremely minute and perfectly transparer 

 'beads of brine are perceptible; but if these drop 

 ; he either large or in the slightest degree tiuge 

 \ with milk color, it indicates an imperfect workin 



