84 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



fore it is poured irxto the dishes will effectually remove it.* 

 When filled; the dishes ought to be set upon shelves or 

 dressers, ihere to continue till the cream is removed. This 

 should be steadily done by means of a skimming dish, if 

 possible, without spilling any upon the floor, because it will 

 speedily taint the air of the room; and the cream poured 

 into a vessel, till enough be obtained for churning. 



The Farmer's Assistant judiciously observes, ' If new milk 

 be kept as warm as when it comes from the cow, no cream 

 will ri;-e on it ; but when sufficiently cooled, the cream sepa- 

 rates from the rest and rises to the top. In order then to 

 effect this to the best advantage, the new milk should be 

 made as cool as possible, and the cooler it is thus made the 

 more suddenly and effectually the cream will rise. To set 

 milkpans made of tin in beds of salt would no doubt be use- 

 ful, where the cellar is too warm ; and to set all milk vessels 

 on a floor which is constantly covered with cold spring water 

 is also an excellent plan.' 



The following remarks relative to the best mode of making 

 butter are chiefly derived from Dr. Anderson's valuable Essay 

 on that subject. 1. The milk first drawn from a cow is 

 always thinner, and inferior in quality to that afterwards 

 obtained ; and this richness increases gradually to the very 

 last drop that can be drawn from the udder 2. The portion 

 of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and 

 greater in quantity than that which rises in the second equal 

 space of time, and so of the rest, the cream decreasing and 

 growing worse as long as it rises at all. 3. Thick milk pro- 

 duces a smaller proportion of cream than that which is thin- 

 ner, though the cream of the former is of a richer quality. 

 If thick milk therefore be diluted with water, it will afford 

 more cream than it would have yielded in its pure state, 

 though its quality will at the same time be inferior. 4. Milk 

 carried about in pails, or other vessels, agitated and partly 



* Mr. Yor.iiT has recommended the dairy-man to boil tv>ro ounces of 

 nitre in one qMrt of water, and to bottle the mixture; of which, when 

 cold, a large tea-cupful is to be added to ten or twelve quarts of milk as 

 soon as it comes from the cow. The quantity of salpetre is to be increased 

 as the turnips become stronger. The feeding of cows with the roots 

 alone will, as the earl of Ejremont found, prevent the milk from having 

 a bad taste. Another method of removing any ill flavor arising from the 

 cows having eaten turnips, consists in warming the cream, and after- 

 wards pouring it into a vessel of cold water; from which the cream is to 

 be skimmed as it rises to the surface, and thus the unpleasant taste will 

 be left behind in the water. 



