522 



KEW ENGLAM) FARIMER. 



Nov. 



lent time for farmers who own good sheep 

 farms to purchase. Farmers ought to copy 

 the bubiness methods of some of our manufac- 

 turing companies, when business has been dull 

 and men unfortunate and wish to sell, or are 

 compelled to sell their establishments. They 

 take advantage of other's necessities or follies, 

 and make their purchases, and when business 

 revives they are ready with their cheap mills 

 and cheap machinery to successfully compete 

 with those who have obtained their places less 

 advantag( ously. Too many of our farmers 

 fail by not being sufficiently quick and ready 

 to take advantage of those circumstances which 

 are continually offering to make such invest- 

 ments as would yield them rich returns. To 

 those farmers who are discouraged about the 

 price of wool, I would say, do not sell your 

 sheep ; to those who have money, I would say, 

 if you can, purchase a few Leicesters, Cots- 

 wolds or Lincolns ; if you cannot do that, then 

 find some one who will not take my advice 

 and buy their jNIerinos cheap. Mentor. 



Boston, Sept. 25, 18G8. 



For the 2Cew England Farmer, 

 PREMIUM BUTTER. 

 Mr. R. p. Eaton : — Dear Sir, — When you 

 asked me at Dedham yesterday for a statement 

 in connection with the box of twenty pounds 

 of butter entered at the Norfolk County Fair, 

 as a sample of what I had made since May 15th, 

 1 thought I would not let you publish it. But 

 heeding your suggestion that the public need 

 line upon line in the matter of butter making, 

 as well as on other subjects, I repented, and 

 herewith enclose my statement as you desired. 



To the Committfc on the Dairy of the Korfolk County 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Society. 



This lot of butter. No. 7, is part of one 

 week's churning, and was made on Wednes- 

 day of this week. The milk is strained about 

 two inches deep, into tin pans, and set in a 

 room on the ground floor. This room is lur- 

 nibhed with movable racks for the milk to rest 

 on, and is used for nothing but milk and 

 cream. The cream is usually taken olF every 

 morning and kept in a large tin pail that will 

 hold about live gallons. It has a close-fitting 

 cover and is hung in the well to cool the 

 cream, whenever it is desirable. The well is 

 under a roof, and is furr.ibhed with pulleys, so 

 that forty or fifty pounds of cream or butter 

 niav be lowered or raised with ease, and re- 

 main suspended at any depth desired. The 

 cream is well stirred when more is added, and 

 is churned but once a week, except in extreme 

 warm weather. 



Churning is always done with the cream at 

 a known temperature, varying from G0° to G4°, 

 according to the outside temperature. Churn 

 about an hour in Davis' self adjusting chum. 

 When the butter begins to "gather," pour in 

 a few quarts of cool milk or water to thin the 



buttermilk and aid its running off. When it 

 is drawn off, put in more cold water to cool 

 and harden the butter and clear off the remain- 

 ing buttermilk. If the cream contains little 

 flakes of sour milk that have, by heat or age, 

 become separated from the whey and formed 

 cheese, and known as "white specks in but- 

 ter," I know of no way of getting them off 

 from the butter as easily as to thoroughly rinse 

 in cold water several times. It must be done 

 before the butter is gathered into a solid mass. 

 If the sour milk contained in creaui is thin and 

 tender, as it is in its first stages of souring, it 

 will all leave the butter readily in the butter- 

 milk, but when it has separated from its whey 

 and become cheese or curd, it can only be 

 removed by picking out the specks by hand, 

 while working, or washing off in water while 

 the butter is in little crumbs in the churn. 



After the butter has been sufficiently cooled, 

 and worked in the churn, it is taken on to a 

 maple board, shaped like a fan, four inches 

 wide at one end and twenty-six at the other, 

 and twenty-eight inches long, with four inch 

 strips at the sides put on with screws. At 

 the narrow end, a three- inch strip is screwed 

 on across the sides, and forms a cap. under 

 which a movable white-oak lever is held down 

 at its small end. This lever is the same length 

 of the board on which it is worked, exclusive 

 of the handle, which is turned at the large 

 end. The face of the lever is about two inches 

 wide at the small, and three at the wide end. 



After the worker is scalded and cooled in 

 cold water and fastened firmly in a common 

 sink, with the narrow end akout lour inches 

 the lowest, the butter is taken from the churn 

 with a ladle and placed under the lever, at the 

 rate of ten pounds at a time. It is then re- 

 peatedly pressed and turned till the moisture, 

 (it can hardly be called buttermilk,) is thor- 

 oughly removed. 



Salt is then worked in with the lever, at the 

 rate of about three-fourths of an ounce to the 

 pound of butter, which is as much salt as my 

 customers will allow. More would be re(iiiired 

 if it were added while the miik n inaincd in 

 the butter, as much of it would run off with 

 the buttermilk, while working. 



If the salt could be worked into every par- 

 ticle of the buWer at this time, it might be 

 now ready to htamp for market and deliver to 

 the customers. But as salt' d butter is yel- 

 lower than frcbh, unlebs the salt is actually 

 distributed perfectly even through the whole 

 mass, it will, after standing a few hours, show, 

 on being cut, a streaked, spotted or maibled 

 appearance, — coarse or line. — according as it 

 was worked much or little after being salted. 



In warm weather I prefer to hang the but- 

 ter in the well to cool a few hours before put- 

 ting it through the mould ; again working it 

 evenly at this time, on the worker. 



This season, until July 1, my butter was 

 sold at fifty-five cents per pound; in July at 



