96 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



Feb. 



stirred together in such proportions as not to be 

 very stiekv, and applied once or twice a day. 

 Cabot, Vt., Dec. 7, 1868. C. M. Fisher. 



CHURNING MILK. 



Can you or any ot your numerous correspon- 

 dents tell me anything about the churning of 

 milk for the purpose of making butter ? Can it 

 be made practicable and profitable ? If so, it will 

 remove one serious objection to keeping dairies — 

 that of the great amount of labor required. If 

 the milk can be churned by horse or other power, 

 it would save a great deal of hard work. 



Cornwall, Vt., Dec. 21, 1868. N. B. Douglas. 



Remarks. — ^The idea of churning the whole 

 milk in the manufacture of butter is not a new 

 one. We believe that it has long been practiced 

 in some of the dairies in Holland. Over thirty 

 years ago we saw the apparatus by which the milk 

 was churned by a farmer in Michigan who sold 

 butter to regular customers in Detroit, but we did 

 not learn the particulars of the process. But we 

 remember that some of the neighboring dairy 

 women spoke of it as saving much hard work. 

 In an agricultural address by J. Stanton Gould, 

 President of the New York State Agricultural 

 Society, we find a statement that may be interest- 

 ing to our correspondent, although we feel obliged 

 to say that we regard the writer as taking very 

 strong ground in favor of churning milk. The 

 fact that so few dairymen adopt this process is 

 sufficient in our minds to qualify any very san- 

 guine anticipations of the superior advantages of 

 that process. 



Mr. Gould says that James Toller, of Oswcgat 

 chie, N. Y., the township in which the village of 

 Ogdensburg is situated, strains his milk into 

 churns, and when sour, but before it is loppered, 

 churns the cntir6 mass. On the 10th of September 

 he strained 208 quarts of milk into pans, and 

 when the cream had all risen it was skimmed off 

 and churned. The amount of butter obtained was 

 17.^ pounds. On the ensuing day he strained 208 

 quarts of milk into churns, which, as soon as it 

 became sour, he churned and obtained 19;^ pounds 

 of butter. This is a fair sample of a great number 

 of experiments on record, which are intended to 

 test this question. Mr. Toller's experiment shows 

 that 10 per cent, more butter was obtained by 

 churning the entire milk than when the cream only 

 was churned. Experiments vary with respect to 

 the percentage more or less, but every carefully 

 performed experiment that I have seen myself, or 

 that has been recorded, demonstrates that from 

 eight to twelve per cent, more butler is obtained 

 by churning the entire milk, and it is equally cer- 

 tain that as a whole its quality is better, its flavor 

 more delicate, and it will keep longer without 

 change. The labor of churning so large a mass 

 is indeed greater, but when this operation is per- 

 formed by water power, or by animals, this is of 

 no consequence; on the other hand it supercedes 

 the labor of skimming the milk and washing the 

 pans, which make no inconsiderable items in the 



labors of the dairymaid. I think there can be no 

 doubt that this is the best mode of making butter, 

 both with respect to economy of labor and to the 

 quantity and quality of the butter. 



In "Milch Cows and Dairy Farming," Mr. Flint 

 says, "in some sections the milk is churned soon 

 after milking; in others, the night's and morning's 

 milk are mixed together and churned at noon; in 

 others, the cream is allowed to rise, when the 

 milk is curdled, and cream, curd and whey, are 

 all churned together." 



If any of the readers of the Farmer have had 

 experience in making butter from the whole milk, 

 we hope they will respond to the request of Mr. 

 Douglas. 



"gilt-edged butter." — HOW TO MAKE GOOD 

 BUTTER. 



The inquiries and remarks about "gilt-edged 

 butter" in the Farmer of December 26,"reminded 

 me of a little story I once heard of an old Quaker, 

 who sent his two daughters to hear a lecturer who 

 had acquired a "gilt-edged" reputation. After 

 listening attentively to the flov/ery discourse, the 

 girls went home. As customary the father in- 

 quired about the lecture, and asked his daughters 

 what valuable information they had gained. After 

 a moment's hesitation, one of them exclaimed, 



"Oh, Pa, if you could have been there ! Mr. 



was the most splendid looking man we ever saw ; he 

 wore pretty diamonds, had a foreign air, and said 

 so many beautiful things that we can't tell one 

 word about it." 



The old Quaker very gravely replied, "Well, 

 well, children, thee had better stay at home here- 

 after, and not attend any more lectures which are 

 too beautiful to be useful." 



I suppose "gilt-edged" butter, like the lecture, 

 is so beautiful that nobody can tell anything about 

 it. Just as likely as not it is nothing but butter 

 of a very good quality. I hope not one of the 

 neat, tidy women in Vermont, or in anj- other 

 State, will think they cannot make nice butter, 

 because they are not able to produce this inde- 

 scribable, genteel, "gilt-edged" article. 



I advise the consumers of the "gilt-edged" but- 

 ter of Faneui! Hall, not to crack up their inde- 

 scribable commodity too high, for we poor farmers' 

 wives, who live in rickety houses, do our washing 

 and scrubbing, mind our own healthy babies, 

 sometimes think that we eat just as good sweet, 

 wholesome butter of our own making, as that en- 

 joyed by those who live in marble palaces and pay 

 the "gilt-edged" prices of a fancy market-man, — 

 butter, too, that is made by a process that can be 

 described and taught to our daughters. That it 

 requires care and neatness, we are perfectly willing 

 to admit. When I milk our cow, which I often 

 do, I am very careful not to get any chatf or other 

 barn dirt into the milk pail. As soon as possible 

 after the milk is drawn, I strain it into well washed 

 and scalded tin pans, filling them about half full. 

 I set the milk in a clean, cool room where nothing 

 else is kept. When the milk has yielded all its 

 cream, I skim it off and deposit it in a tin pail. 

 In warm weather I hitch a rope to the pail, and let 

 it down part way into the well. Every time I put 

 cream into the pail I stir it gently. When a sufli- 

 cient quantity is accumulated, generally once in 

 three days, — as I don't think cream ought to be 

 kept over that length of time in warm weather, — 

 I put it into a clean churn that has stood with cold 

 water in it over night. Sometimes I throw a hand- 

 ful of salt into the cream. My butter always 

 comes quick enough. After draining the butter- 



