32 Reports of Committees. 



crinkled ; then set them away for twelve to twenty-four hours according to the 

 atmosphere of the room, then repeat the heating process as before. Skim and keep 

 the cream in stone jars, as they are preferable to wood ; let the cream at every addi- 

 tion be well stirred, that it may be wholly mixed. Churn every other day in warm 

 weather, and twice a week in cold. If the atmosphere is excessively warm after the 

 cream is in the churn, put in a few small lumps of ice. Let the revolutions of the 

 dasher be uniform ; when the globules are broken and the butter appears in particles 

 and commences to separate from the butter-milk, put in two quarts or more, accord- 

 ing to the amount of butter, of water ; then move the dasher moderately for two or 

 three minutes, or until the whole adheres in one lump. Draw off the butter-milk, 

 and turn in half a pail of cool water ; move the dasher slowly for a few minutes to 

 work out the butter-milk, then draw off the water, and take the butter into the bowl 

 or tray, and put one ounce of salt to each pound of butter ; work it in carefully so 

 as not to break the grain of the butter more than is actually necessary. Let it re- 

 main for twelve hours that the whole may become completely incorporated, then give 

 it the second working, extracting all the butter-milk, and pack in stone jars. If to 

 be kept any length of time, cover the surface with a brine made from pure salt. 

 Butter will keep the sweetest in its natural color, as any coloring matter will have a 

 tendency to destroy that sweet, delicious, and peculiar flavor, that is palatable to all 

 butter eaters of fine, susceptible tastes. This was our system ; not that I wish to be 

 understood that we made a better article than many others, but I will say that our 

 butter was eagerly sought after by those who had tested its flavor. There is, how- 

 ever, one point in making good butter that seems to be overlooked ; that is, the in- 

 fluence of the food consumed by the cow upon the milk she produces. And hero 

 rests a large proportion of the secret of making good or poor butter. It is a matter 

 worthy of, and demands a very close investigation. The most natural food of the 

 cow is grass, therefore according to the quality of her feed, so to a greater or less 

 extent will be her milk. What is most desirable in a pasture is a variety of grasses 

 of fine, sweet, nutritious quality, and a constant succession of growth. It is the 

 noxious weeds, &c, that cows eat, which imparts bad flavors, and the sweet nutri- 

 tious food eaten which imparts that beautifully rich taste peculiar to prime, fresh 

 butter. For the fall and winter months let there be given a liberal allowance of 

 sweet fine hay, cut before the seed is developed, with a certain allowance of shorts, 

 together with roots. Eye and oats ground together will make more milk than shorts 

 or meal, though the two latter, mixed, make richer milk. Some butter-makers 

 assert that cream should be kept until it becomes soured before you churn it, or can 

 make good butter from it. From that theory I shall most emphatically differ. For 

 evidence, I will here state a case during our experience in the dairy business. Our 

 churning, for a time, was done by water power, and we frequently would take the 

 milk warm from the cows and churn it, (which would usually take about five min- 

 utes,) and I have yet to find that sweet, delicious flavored butter from sour cream or 

 any other, that we used to get from that sweet milk, from which it is evident that 

 that the sweeter the cream, the sweeter the butter made therefrom. The committee, 

 after a careful and impartial investigation in the discharge of their duties, award as 

 follows : 

 25 lbs. of butter, J. A. lloyce, Lee, #7 



