314 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



colonies, and the South American States with this, for the future, im- 

 portant staple. 



BUTTEK-MAKINGr IN SWITZERLAND. 



The Brown Schwytzer cow is peculiarly adapted to butter-making, 

 because of the cream-globules being unusually large in the milk, which 

 rise more easily to the surface, and the cream is churned more easily and 

 quicker into butter. 



It is known that the fatty substance butter is not in solution in the 

 milk, but exists in the tiny drops, or globules. One pound of milk con- 

 taining 40 per cent, of butter should hold about 40,000,000 globules. 

 Every one knows that when milk is left to stand for a length of time 

 the cream rises to the surface and is easily separated, leaving the " skim- 

 milk" beneath. The largest of these little globules is estimated (in 

 cream) to weigh about .00000004 milligrams. These globules of fat 

 being lighter than milk, naturally seek the position which their 

 special gravity entitles. The larger globules rise the quickest and 

 first, the medium ones next, and so on. The average gravity of milk is 

 about 1.030. The difference between this and .985 brings the cream 

 to the surface under a slow process ; the very small globules never come 

 to the surface. In different breeds of cattle, with different kinds of food 

 and treatment, the quantity and size of the globules vary very much. 

 In visiting the Centrifugal Butter Factory at Wyl, in my consular dis- 

 trict, I saw milk being tested in a glass tube about 15 inches long and 

 4 inches in diameter ; after twenty-four hours 7 standing the cream ap- 

 peared to have risen perfectly, leaving a clear and blue line of " skim- 

 milk," but on an examination of the u skim-milk" there were found glob- 

 ules still in it, of the size upwards of ^ifo o of an in ch in diameter, show- 

 ing a wonderful richness of the milk of the Brown Schwytzer cow. 



As a rule, the Swiss dairymen hold to the old system of setting milk 

 shallow as the best and quickest mode of getting the cream. The ves- 

 sel generally used is made of wood, and is from 16 to 20 inches in cir- 

 cumference at the top and 8 to 10 inches at the bottom, with sloping 

 sides. 



Some advanced dairymen, however, disagree with this, especially as 

 regards wood, and are using the ordinary American milk-pan, claiming 

 that they can be kept cleaner and are not so easily impregnated with 

 taints, &c. 



The milk under ordinary circumstances stands from twenty-four to 

 forty-eight hours, when it is " skimmed " and turned into the churn. 

 Sometimes the Holstein barrel is used, and sometimes the old upright 

 piston churn with perforated holes at the end of the piston ; but the 

 churn generally used throughout the country is the revolving barrel, with 

 stationary dashers on the inside, very wide or large circumference, anc 1 

 revolves on its axis like a grindstone. 



The churn is filled about half full of cream, 'at a temperature, more 

 frequently guessed at than tested, of near 56 to 58 F., and churned 

 at from 30 to 40 revolutions per minute, according to the season. The 

 butter comes in twenty or thirty minutes. The churner should be care- 

 ful to listen to the slightest alteration in the sound, and when detected, 

 the churning should at once cease, and if, upon examination, small par- 

 ticles of butter, no larger than a pin's head, are found, the churning is 

 properly finished. The buttermilk should be drawn off through a hair 

 sieve. After the buttermilk has been drawn off the particles caught in 

 the sieve should be emptied back and the churn filled about half full o 



