Chapter VI. 



Fat Globules-— Cream-Raising — Deep and Shallow Setting — Milk Tanks 

 and Coolers — Milk Aerators — Strainers — Weighing Cans — Various 

 Devices and Apparatus. 



The Process of Obtaining Butter. 



THE process by Which the fat of the globules in milk is extricated 

 and reduced to a form, adapted to domestic and commercial use, 

 constitutes butter-making. These globules) as we have stated 

 in another place, are almost inconceivably numerous ; yet, numer- 

 ous as they are, the discovery has been made that between each two 

 of them in fresh milk there is space sufficient for a third to pass 

 without touching either, which is a most important fact affecting 

 the rising of cream. In the ascending of these fat globules to the 

 surface of a vessel of milk as it cools, consists the rising of cream. 

 The fat of which, they are composed being lighter than the milk, 

 they act like miniature balloons, and seek the position to which 

 their specific gravity entitles them. They do not, however, all rise 

 to the top, by reason of some of them being so tiny that their fat is 

 not sufficient to float them ; and hence skim-milk has always a cer- 

 tain amount of cream in it. 



The Raising of Cream. 



On this subject we cannot better convey to the reader in 

 a concise form what we wish to impart, than to condense in a few 

 paragraphs the substance of what has been written by Professor 

 L. B. Arnold, one of the leading authorities on dairy matters in the 

 United States : — 



" Cream will continue to rise till the milk gets thick, be that time short or long. 

 The best part rises first. If milk is skimmed every twelve hours, and the cream of 

 each period churned separately, the product of the first period will be the highest 

 flavored and the highest colored, and the color, quantity, and flavor of each succes- 

 sive skimming will diminish to the last, but the keeping qualities will grow better. 

 The fourth and fifth skimmings will be quite pale and insipid. Where a high-col- 

 ored article is desired, it is not advisable to continue the process of creaming too 

 long. What will rise in forty-eight hours at 60° on milk four inches deep, is all that 

 is generally profitable to separate. What comes up after that is so white and taste- 

 (686) 



