238 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



butter produced by each churn to several parties, 

 they had all conceded that made in the Wilson 

 churn to be the best. He felt sure the difference 

 in the quality of the butter was in consequence of 

 the difference in the churns, the deeper color of 

 that produced in the Wilson churn coming obvi- 

 ously from the increased amount of oxygen which 

 the compressed air brought in immediate contact 

 M'ith the cream. Milk, said he, is white, but the 

 upper side of cream is yellow. It has taken its 

 color or coloring influence, from the atmosphere 

 in contact with it. The air-pressure churn brought 

 more than the natural atmosphere in contact with 

 the coming butter, and increased its yellowness. 



He accounted for the increased quantity pro- 

 duced by this churn over the thermometer churn, 

 from the same quantity of milk, by the proba- 

 bility that the pressure of atmosphere upon 

 every particle of cream caused each butter par- 

 ticle to separate from the milk, or burst its en- 

 closing sack, and thus obtained all the butter 

 from the milk. He said that the grain of the 

 butter was better when produced by the Wilson 

 churn. The thermometer churn, said the speak- 

 er, made of zinc, brings the cream and butter in 

 contact with that metal, and it is worthy of in- 

 quiry whether the metal has or has not a deleteri- 

 ous action upon the butter. The facilities for 

 raising the temperature by putting hot water 

 around the body of the churn, it is necessary to 

 use with caution, for unless the operator is very 

 particular, and a patient waiter, he will pour in 

 80 much hot water that by the time he has been 

 churning five minutes, his hot water and dasher 

 combined will have put the temperature in the 

 churn ten degrees higher than he intended it 

 should be, and Mr. Putnam said he thought 

 that one of the principal causes of poor butter is 

 churning it in contact with metal, and under an 

 undesigned and unsuspected height of tempera- 

 ture. 



From another experiment that had been tried, 

 he had been led to consider whether it would not 

 be possible by putting cream in an air-tight ves- 

 sel, and pumping in repeated supplies of com- 

 pressed air, to produce in butter the color to be 

 desired. The speaker said he strongly inclined 

 to the belief that much could be done in that di- 

 rection. When the feed, the weather and the 

 dairy-room are all right, the atmosphere, without 

 condensation, may give a perfect color to butter, 

 but there are times when nearly all butter-makers 

 would like a richer hue. 



Mr. Frekman Walker, of North Brookfield, 

 spoke of the great interest he felt in the subject 

 of discussion, as, within a few days, butter deal- 

 ers had told him there was scarcely a good tub 

 of butter to be had in the Boston market. The 

 material, said the speaker, Is the same, yet the 



price for good butter was now from 20 to 25 cts.» 

 while the greater portion in the market was dear 

 at half that price, and he could not name a more 

 objectionable article of diet than bad butter. 

 Some time since he had used both the old dash 

 churn and the barrel churn, and he considered 

 the first named the best, and although it required 

 more labor to produce the butter, yjet this was 

 compensated for in the increased quantity of but- 

 ter obtained. The farmers in his neighborhood! 

 were mostly engaged in cheese-making, and at a 

 future part of the discussion he proposed to speak 

 more particularly of this part of dairy farming. 



Mr. Wilson, the inventor of the air-pressure 

 churn, then gave an interesting description of his 

 churn together with the circumstances which led 

 him to experiment in the matter. He said the 

 air-pressure churn was valuable as a churner of 

 milk as well as cream, as a great deal of time was 

 saved in the operation, as by the present process 

 it requires an hour, while by the new churn it 

 could be done in eight or ten minutes. He would 

 advise farmers to churn their sweet milk, which 

 coming from the cow about 98°, is ready to churn 

 when it falls in temperature to GQ°. In New 

 England, he said, there were 50,000,000 lbs. of 

 butter produced from 180,000 cows, and he was 

 satisfied that more $5,000,000 were lost every 

 year to farmers in the depreciation of their butter. 

 Mr. Fisk, of Shelburne, had had some experi- 

 ence with cows, and he was astonished to see the 

 difference in butter. He had no interest in any 

 churn, and he cared little by what kind of churn 

 butter was produced, yet he thought that the 

 cows had more to do with the quality and the 

 color of butter than the churn. He had ten cows, 

 one of which was a Native, never having been 

 guilty of having been crossed, and with precisely 

 the same feed as the others, she always gave ex- 

 cellent yellow butter and milk, while another be 

 had gave butter as white as lard, and thin poor 

 milk. He insisted that the greatest cleanliness 

 should be observed in the dairy so as to keep the 

 milk sweet as long as possible. The great object 

 should be to get out the buttermilk entirely and 

 work it well, and there was no trouble in getting 

 good sweet butter, which with the dairy women 

 in his section was worth from 25 to 28 cents per 

 pound. He objected to artificial coloring, but 

 preferred the carrot coloring to the practice of 

 giving the cow cotton seed meal. He said the 

 farmers in his neighborhood found that they 

 could make 2^ to 3 lbs. of cheese to one pound of 

 butter, and if they could sell this from 10 to 12 

 cts. per pound, it would seem as though cheese- 

 making would be more profitable, yet it must be 

 allowed that in this case a most excellent feed 

 for pigs, the sour milk, would be lost. 

 Mr. Howard, editor of the Cultivator, said 



