148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



careful in washing butter to handle it with a ladle, so as not to affect the 

 grain; then put it away in some sweet, cool place, out of the reach of any- 

 bad odor which it might absorb. When it has stood long enough to get 

 its proper rich color, work it over and lay it down, and keep it with the 

 same degree of care. It would spoil in sixty days in a common farm cel- 

 lar, where meats, fish and vegetables are kept. 



" It would be a much easier task to teach a man to make a watch than 

 how to make the first quality of butter, as it is the most sensitive and the 

 most liable to injury of all the eatables extracted from the vegetable king- 

 dom. It is so sensitive as to partake of everything that can affect it that 

 comes in contact with it — as onions, carrots, parsnips, fish or anything else 

 that would make it unpalatable, either in the butter or the milk before 

 churning. Not only so, but the butter partakes of everything the cow 

 eats or drinks, and the longer it stands after being made the more percepti- 

 bly will the unpalatable things on which she fed make themselves manifest. 

 By this it will be seen that the most important thing for first quality of 

 butter is the food of the cow. Neither from roots of any kind, nor grain of 

 any description can first quality of butter be extracted. It must be from 

 something that imparts a sweeter and finer flavor. The cow must give 

 good rich milk, as first quality of butter cannot be made from poor pale 

 milk, for it lacks the essential quality of good butter." 



Good cows, sweet feed and pure water are the first requisites to the 

 manufacture of good butter. Good cows, that proper color and right con- 

 sistency be secured; sweet feed and pure water, that no flavor be imparted 

 to the milk which would render the butter unpalatable. Rest and quiet 

 are as important to a butter-producing cow as good food. She should 

 never be dogged, beaten, driven on a run, nor have her quiet in any way 

 disturbed. Dependent, however, as the quality of the article is upon the 

 cow and the goodness of the food, a proper degree of care and skill on the 

 part of the dairy woman is of much greater consequence. 



CHURNING, WASHING AND COLORING BUTTER. 



In spite of all the patented improvements, the old dasher churn still 

 holds its position, not only in families but among dairymen. The following 

 are A. B. Dickenson's directions for churning milk and working butter: 



" The churn should be as nearly straight up and down as possible, as 

 the dash should stir all the milk every stroke it makes, so that the butter 

 in the churn should all come at the same time. If the milk is too cold, the 

 only safe way to warm it is to place a pail of milk in a large boiler of 

 warm water, to bring it to the exact temperature, which is about 55 to 60 

 degrees — a few degrees warmer in cold than in warm weather. As soon 

 as the butter has come and gathered, take it immediately from the churn 

 in its warm state and put it into cold salt water; then commence pulling 

 the butter over with the ladle in so gentle and careful a manner as not to 

 affect the grain, for as sure as that is injured at the washing or working, 

 the butter becomes oily and can never be reclaimed. Every particle of 

 milk must be washed out, and then season with best Liverpool salt. Set 

 the bowl away until the next day, and when sufiiciently cool, work the 

 mass thoroughly, but not so as to make it oily, and on the third day pack 



