Proceedings of the Farmers^ Club. 431 



for tlie separation of the butter globules from thesnrronncling fluid is 

 accomplislied by mechanical means ; and more than all as concerns 

 the agriculturist in its commercial aspects, for by the profits of its 

 sale farms are bought and barns and dwellings built upon thera. The 

 bearings of chemical knowledge upon the processes of butter-making, 

 of mechanical appliances upon its operations, and of the customs and 

 practices of butter-makers and dealers with regard to tlie value of the 

 article is the subject-matter of the present paper. 



No dairyman need be told that the source of all good butter lies in 

 good milk, and this carries us still further back to the herbage of 

 green pastures and the water of shaded streams. For the purposes 

 of the dairy the cow may be considered simple as a machine for trans- 

 muting succulent forage into milk. It is plain that the quantity and 

 quality of the milk must be in proportion to the quantity and 

 quality of the materials from which it is derived. Hence, when feed 

 is flush, so that cows may fill themselves quickly and have time 

 to chew the cud thoroughly, when shade is abundant so that they 

 may lie at rest in the heat of the day while the secretions are going 

 on ; when water is plenty, that they may not become fevered with 

 thirst ; when salt is given at due intervals that the soda of the bones 

 and the saline matter of the milk may be supplied, and when they 

 are taught to come of their own accord to the milking place instead 

 of being stoned from a back lot by boys or chased by a cur, the pro- 

 cess of transforming the food into milk will go on with speed and 

 regularity as does all of ISTature's operations when her laws are 

 respected. But neglect of these and similar essentials will make the 

 dairyman's profits small. Scant pastures will cause shrunken udders, 

 while continual exposure to the hot sun, or insufliciency of water, or 

 non-supply of salt, or fright and exertion as from being dogged or 

 clubbed, will each and all tend to fever and an impaired condition of 

 the health of the animal, and react at once upon the quality of the 

 milk. The same results occur from the browsing of tansy and other 

 weeds Avhich, when pastures are short, are sometimes eaten by cows, 

 although at other times they will not touch them ; from the drinking 

 of stagnant water, which in the autumn has been known to produce 

 the still more serious evil of abortion, and also from the injudicious use 

 of certain kinds of food, as for instance, turnips. The bad taste of 

 these last, it is said, may be avoided by liljeral salting, but it is doubt- 

 ful if it has ever been wholly overcome by this means. The better 

 way is to cook vegetables, which, when fed raw, communicate a bad 



