178 DAIRY FARMING 



handled without injuring its texture. Moreover, the but- 

 termilk can then be easily removed, so that when a plug 

 is taken with a trier the day after it is churned the brine 

 on it will be perfectly clear. 



2. Character of Butter Fat. The fat globules in 

 cream from different sources and at different times have 

 the proper fluidity to unite at quite different temperatures. 

 This is so because of the differences in the relative amount 

 of "soft" and "hard" fats of which butter fat is composed. 

 When the hard fats largely predominate the butter fat 

 will, of course, have a high melting point. Such fat may 

 be quite hard at a temperature of 60, while a butter fat 

 of a low melting point would be comparatively soft at 

 this temperature. For a study of the conditions that 

 influence the hardness of butter fat the reader is referred 

 to the discussion of the "insoluble fats" treated in the 

 chapter on milk. 



3. Acidity of Cream. This has a marked influence on 

 the churning process. Sour or ripened cream churns with 

 much greater ease than sweet cream because the acid 

 renders it less viscous. The ease with which the fat 

 globules travel in cream becomes greater the less the 

 viscosity. Ripe cream will therefore always churn more 

 quickly than sweet cream. Ripe cream also permits of a 

 higher churning temperature than sweet, which is of great 

 practical importance where it is difficult to secure low 

 churning temperatures. 



4. Richness of Cream. It may naturally be inferred 

 that the closer the fat globules are together the more 

 quickly they will unite with the same amount of concus- 

 sion. In rich cream the globules are very close together, 

 which renders it more easily churnable than thin cream. 



