438 Tkansactions of the American Institute. 



ten and tliree-fonrtlis to fifteen and one-third, deficient portions 

 being dispersed as a greasy constituent ot the buttermilk. The time 

 occupied in churning was unconscionably long in both cases. The 

 apparatus employed may have been imperfect, but the process was 

 undoubtedly hindered in the one case by the low temperature, and 

 in the other by the ununiform rupture and agglomeration of the 

 unduly heated butter molecules. Let us now turn to the mechanical 

 aspect of the butter question, and consider the history, varieties and 

 desirable characteristics of 



Churning Apparatus. 

 In the veracious narrative of Capt. James Eiley, whose vessel, the 

 brig Commerce, was wrecked on the coast of Africa, and who, in con- 

 sequence, was taken prisoner by the Arabs, more than half a century 

 ago, is an account of the manner in which those people made butter 

 from camel's milk. This was probably the old original method by 

 which the article was produced in primitive ages, and consisted 

 simply in putting the milk in a skin, and lashing the latter fast on 

 the back of a camel at the commencement of a day's journey. When 

 the tents were pitched at night the skin was opened, and a pat of 

 fresh butter the size of a man's clenched hand taken out ; the agita- 

 tion of the milk by the rolling gait of the camel having sufficed to 

 chum it. The writer has somewhere seen a statement that among some 

 of the Indian tribes in the southern part of our own country, it was 

 customary to fill a skin with milk, hang it up by a string, and subject it 

 to a motion from two persons who pushed it alternately from one to 

 the other. These rude methods, by providing for the agitation of the 

 milk, would of course prove sufticient to bring the butter, but it is 

 hardly to be supposed that the product would be very firm in texture, 

 or very finely flavored. Even the crude ingenuity of ancient times 

 must have early found a substitute for such imperfect means, but of 

 their nature we have no certain knowledge. It is very likely, how- 

 ever, that some of the essential principles of construction found in 

 our modern apparatus may have been used many ages since. It is 

 commonly supposed that rotary churns are a recent invention, but in 

 Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, written more than 800 years, is men- 

 tioned a wandering princess, who took U})on herself the oflice of a 

 cheerful dairymaid, and who, the poet says was accustomed to sing the 



while — 



" The dulcet cream in cJiurns revolving rolled 

 Till firm the fluid fixed and took the tinge of gold." 



