CHURNING AND WASHING BUTTER. 243 



incorporate in excess, will, as a rule, be expressed during the 

 working of the butter a result due to its firmness. 



If the attempt is made to incorporate water by working 

 the butter in water after the salt has been added, while the 

 butter is in a hard, granular condition, it will usually appear 

 leaky. 



If cream is in a good condition, overchurning to a small 

 extent does not produce any bad results. The germs which 

 are present in pure and well-ripened cream are not deleterious 

 to the keeping quality of the butter. The amount of butter- 

 milk incorporated in the butter is not sufficient to cause any 

 bad effects upon its quality. If the cream is in proper condi- 

 tion it is difficult to incorporate any more than 3% of curd 

 into the butter. While overchurning is not to be recommended, 

 if it is at any time desirable, it should be done in the wash- 

 water rather than in the buttermilk. 



Churning Mixed, Sweet, and Sour Cream. When two lots of 

 cream are to be churned, one sweet and the other sour, they 

 should be churned separately. If the two lots of cream are 

 mixed together, the sour cream churns more quickly than the 

 sweet cream. As a consequence the churn is likely to be 

 stopped before the fat from the sweet cream has been com- 

 pletely separated from the serum. 



At some of the creameries conditions are such that the 

 operator may be tempted to mix the two lots of cream. Where 

 sweet cream arrives at the creamery just previous to churning 

 time, it is advisable not to mix the sweet cream with the sour. 

 It is, as a rule, better to carry the sweet cream over to the 

 next churning, or, if necessary, churn it separately. 



Difficult Churning. Difficult churnings in creameries are 

 not very common. In farm butter-making it is more frequent. 

 Especially is this so in the fall. At this time the cows are 

 usually well advanced in the period of lactation, and early in 

 the winter they are often fed on food which causes hard butter- 

 fat, as described under "Effect of Food upon Fat." In the 

 fall or early winter, a large portion of the milk is usually obtained 



