286 THE dairyman's manual. 



and then mixed, and the result was a "very marked loss 

 in the mixed cream. The loss was so enormous that 

 some error might be suspected, and at any rate nothing 

 has ever been found to support this stateinent. On the 

 contrary, it has been found many times that the cream 

 of a cow, which by itself required thirty minutes to 

 churn, was made into butter in twelve minutes when 

 churned with that of another cow whose cream always 

 churned rapidly. A great many trials of cow^s by churn- 

 ing their cream separately and then with that of others 

 never yet showed any loss. This result is reasonable; for 

 when we consider how butter is gathered in the churn 

 and one particle collects with itself other particles until 

 small granules of butter are formed, and these gather 

 into larger grains by their natural cohesiveness, it is 

 impossible to believe that the butter of one cow can re- 

 main in the churn by itself without mixing with the 

 rest, or that if it did it would not leave such very ap- 

 parent traces of itself in the buttermilk that it could 

 not be lost. If any cream is lost it cannot happen 

 in this way without palpable evidence ; but it is lost 

 frequently by mismanaging the cream in the manner 

 previously indicated. The cream is then found floating 

 on the buttermilk, but it is not in such a condition that 

 it can be made into butter of good quality. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



BUTTER. 



When the butter is brought to the granular condition 

 mentioned in the preceding chapter, it goes through 

 the first operations by which it is prepared for use and 

 market. The most important of these is the separation 

 of the buttermilk, which, from its character, is a very 



