826 THE FARM. 



bicarbonate of soda or sal soda will reduce the acid and help the butter to 

 come, but the butter thus made is always inferior. The remedy is to chum 

 oftener, say every other day, or if the weather is a little cool, twice a week, 

 and to put in milk to make sufficient bulk for churning. The skimming, too, 

 should be done early— as soon as the cream is all up, or pretty near all up. 

 It is better to take in the top of the milk in which the last rising of the 

 cream lingers, than wait for the milk to get stale before removing the cream. 

 The practice which many people follow of letting the whey start on the milk 

 before slumming or on the cream before churning, is to a high degree detri- 

 mental both to the churning and to the quantity and quality of butter. If 

 easy churning is desired, the cream must be churned while it has a fresh 

 and new taste — not later than the first stage of sourness. 



The " blue or moldy-looking cream " is not peculiar to any breed, and it 

 occurs in the milk of all cows if they and their milk are improperly cai-ed 

 for. The cream of any milk may take on a dark or moldy appearance if too 

 long exposed to hgbt and to a damp atmosphere. It is more easily induced 

 in the milk of cows whicli, from any cause, have had their blood heated, or 

 by exposure to hot sun, by too fast or too much driving or from feverishness 

 by excessive feeding, etc. Milk inclined to have flecks in its cream is very 

 easily made to assume a moldy condition, for the dark color is derived from 

 an actual fungus which develops in the milk and cream. An tinusually 

 ready development of it is evidence that the cow'is in some way sick — from 

 over feeding or other causes. There is always in milk a variable quantity of 

 albuminous matter which turns dark-colored upon exposure to air and light, 

 but it is heavier than cream and heavier also than the serum of milk, and is 

 inclined to settle to the bottom. This has probably no connection \vith dark- 

 colored cream; it is more likely the result of unfavorable health and damp- 

 ness of cellar. 



To Keep Butter. — It is said that a compound of one part sugar, 

 one part nitre, and two parts of the best Spanish salt, beaten together 

 into a fine powder and mixed thoroughly with the butter in the pro- 

 portion of one ounce to the pound, would keep the butter in every respect 

 sweet and sound during two years. It is also said to impart a rich 

 marrowy flavor that no other butter ever acquires, and tastes very little 

 of the salt. 



ttreain and Cold. — It has been discovered by a French scientist that the 

 rising of cream is quicker, and its volume greater, the nearer the 

 temperature is to that of freezing water; further, that the jield ot butter 

 is gi'oater, and the skim milk, butter and cheese are all of the better 

 quality under like conditions. These facts should be worth the attention of 

 dairy keepers. 



"Waterproof Butter "Wrappers. — At the Pennsylvania State Fair in 

 1882 waterproof butter wrappers attracted considerable attention from 

 dairymen. Advocates of the waterproof paper claim for it that, being air- 

 tight, it preserves the freshness and flavor of the butter, and is about ono- 

 eixth as expensive as cloth. 



To Restore Rancid Butter — Rancid butter can be restored by first 

 •washing it thoroughly in cold water, tlien to every one hundred pounds add 

 two pounds pulverized sugar, two ounces powdered saltpetre, and salt ^ 



