No. 10. 



The I) airy. 



307 



whatever bo their other dimensions; and if 

 the plan recommondnd al)ovc, of separating 

 the milk into two part?, ami of keeping each 

 cow's milk hy itself, shall ho followed, it 

 would bo convenient to have th'Mii made of 

 sucli dimensions as to contain about one atid 

 a half or two ^raJlons, Enijlisii. As soon as 

 the}' are filhxl they are to be placed on the 

 fihelves in the milk-iiouse, where tliey siioiild 

 be allowed to remain perfectly vindisturhed 

 till it h>? judjjed expedient to separate the 

 cream from them. 



The length of time that should elapse be- 

 fore the cream be separated, will depend upon 

 the degree of heat at the time, and the par- 

 ticular views of the owner of the dairy. In 

 a moderately warm temperature of the air, if 

 very fine butter be intended, it should not be 

 allowed to stand more than six or eight hours. 

 For ordinary good butter it may safely be let 

 stand twelve hours or more; but where the 

 dairy is so large as to afford a suiiicient quan- 

 tity of cream, and where the very best butter 

 is intended, (the milk being to be converted 

 to some other use, while yet sweet,) it may 

 be separated after standing only two, three, 

 or four hours. 



When the cream is to be separated, the 

 milk-pan should be taken from the shelf and 

 placed on the table. The cream is then to 

 be separated from the edges of the vessel, to 

 which it firmly adheres, by means of a knife 

 with a blunt edge provided for that purpose, 

 (the blade formed either of ipiirc silver or of 

 fine ivory,) vvhicli should be made to run 

 round the edges of the whole. The cream 

 is then to be carefully drawn towards one 

 side by means of a skiaiming-dish, and then 

 lifled up with great nicety so as to take the 

 whole without any of the milk, if possible. — 

 This requires a dexterity of manipulation* 

 that can be acquired by practice alone; but 

 it is of great importance to the success of the 

 dairy that it be well done, for if any part of 

 the cream be left, the quantity of butter will 

 be ditninished, and if any part of the milk be 

 taken, its quality will be debased. The 

 wooden skimming-dishes commonly employ- 

 ed, seem not to be so handy for this purpose 

 as could be wished. An improvement on this 

 apparatus might be suggested, but this I de- 

 cline at present to enlarge upon. 



When the cream is thus obtained, it ought 

 to be immediately put into a vessel by itself, 

 there to be kept till a proper quantity be col- 

 lected for being made into butter : and no 

 vessel can be better adapted for that purpose 

 than a firm, neat-made wooden barrel, in size 



* Tiiis may be afcoiiMt.;J a cramp word, but it ex- 

 prn?sf>: tliL' idea intcmicHl su miirli b'lter tliaii opcra'ion 

 or prnf<<:. or any other word in roiniiion us", tliat I 

 could no! think ot' rii.ji'CtlPir it; ami hoin? ,it will soon 

 come to be asgenurajly uoaJ as any otiior word in the 

 language. 



proportioned to the extent of the dairy, open 

 at one end, with a lid exactly fitted to close 

 if. In the imder part of this vessel, close to 

 the hottoui, should be placed a cock and spig- 

 ot, for drawing off, from time to time, any 

 thin serous part of the mdk that may chance 

 to be there generated; for should this be 

 allowed to remain, it acts upon the cream 

 in a powerful maimer, and greatly dimin- 

 ishes the richness of the quality of the but- 

 ter. Tlie inside of the opening of the bar- 

 rel should he covered with a bit of close fine 

 wire (silver) gauze netting to keep back the 

 cream, while the serum is allowed to pass; 

 and the barrel on its stand should he inclined 

 a little forward in the top to allow the whole 

 to run off. 



Many persons who have had little experi- 

 ence in the dairy believe that no butter can 

 be of the finest quality, except that which has 

 been made from cream that has not been kept 

 above one day ; but this is a very great mis- 

 take. So far indeed is this opinion from be- 

 ing well founded, that it is in very few cases 

 that even tolerably good butter can be ob- 

 tained from cream that is not more than one 

 day old. The separation of butter from cream 

 only takes place after the creatii has attained 

 a certain degree of acidity. If it be agitated 

 before that acidity has begun to take place, 

 no butter can be obtained, and the agitation 

 must be continued till the time that that sour- 

 ness is produced, after which the butter be- 

 gins to form. In summer, while the clinia- 

 ture is warm, the beating may be, without 

 very much ditficullj% continued until the 

 acidity be produced, so that butter may be 

 got; but in this case the process is long and 

 tedious, and the butter is, for the most part, 

 of a soft consistence, and tough and gluey to 

 the touch. If this process be attempted 

 during the cold weather in winter, butter 

 can scarcely be in any way obtained, unless 

 by the application of some great degree of 

 heat, which sometimes assists in producing a 

 very inferior kind of butter, that is white, 

 hard, and brittle, with very little taste, and 

 almost unfit for any culinary purpose what- 

 evpr. 



'ihe judicious farmer, therefore, will not 

 attempt to imitate this practice, but will al- 

 low his cream to remain in the vessel appro- 

 priated for keeping it, until it has acquired 

 that proper degree of acidity that fits it for 

 being made into butter with great ease, bv a 

 very moderate degree of agitation, and by 

 which process only very fine butter ever can 

 be obtained. 



How long cream ouirht to be kept bef^jre 

 it attains the precise degree of acidity ihat is 

 necessary to form the very best butter, and 

 how long it may be kept after that period be- 

 fore its quality be sensibly diminished, has 



