Proceedings of the FaemeeiS* Club. 617 



stirrer made out of some hard and tasteless wood, (hickory is excel- 

 lent,) and keep it all the time in the cream. In winter, when, from 

 lack of green, succulent food, the butter loses some of its color, the 

 addition of carrots improves the color and taste. Grate the carrots 

 the evening before churning day, pour boiling water over the mass, 

 and let it stand till morning, when it is to be strained into the cream. 

 Five daj^s between the churnings is a good time, rather to be pre- 

 ferred to a week. The churns should be scalded out, leaving the 

 hot water in about one minute, but not so long as to warm the 

 churn too much. If the temperature of the cream is just right 

 (sixty or sixty-two degrees in very cold weather) the churn should 

 neither heat nor cool the cream. The milk room must be well venti- 

 lated, and never allowed to comedown to the freezing point — ours 

 being one adjoining the dining room, where a fire is always kept. 

 The milk never freezes, and probably never gets above fifty degrees. 

 No article that throws off much smell is ever allowed in the room. 

 This is a good rule, and perhaps necessary for No. 1 butter, but in 

 most families cannot be lived up to. "We consider clover, or clover 

 and timothy mixed, the best fodder for cows; corn stalks alone, with- 

 out any grain, the poorest. To make the most and best butter, grain 

 of some kind should be fed. "We prefer corn meal or corn 

 meal and bran mixed. Green food is not absolutel_y necessary 

 for making good butter. Regularity in qauntity and quality of food 

 is necessary for keeping up the flow of milk, but not' the quality. 

 Never let the flow of milk decrease greatly, because it is hard to 

 increase it in winter or spring. Feed most all the green food, such 

 as turnips, cabbages, rutabagas, etc., to your milch cows. At this 

 time of the year, I feed all such vegetables during the time of the 

 evening milking. It takes nine or ten hours for the smell of such 

 things to pass away from the cows. Great care should be taken that 

 the cows eat it up clean, and leave none to eat during the night. You 

 can hardly be too particular in feeding strong smelling food. 

 Observe the rule, viz., that none be eaten within ten hours previous 

 to milking. Our last seven churnings, except the fifth, which was 

 guess work, occupied the following time by the watch : First week 

 butter came in seven minutes ; second week butter came in six and 

 one-half minutes ; third week butter came in six and one-half minutes ; 

 fourth week butter came in five minutes ; fifth week butter came in 

 five minutes ; sixth week butter came in eight and one-half minutes; 

 seventh week butter came in six and one-half minutes. Total time. 



