"grain." These dashers are not really necessary, for cream dashed 

 against the sides of the churn which contains no sticks or paddles 

 will yield biitter in a very few minutes. For this reason the best 

 churns now made are barrels or boxes, without dashers, that either 

 turn over and over or swing back and forth while churning. 



Will it not be possible for you to get some information about 

 churns? Visit some of the butter-makers in the neighborhood and 

 learn what kind of churns they use, and see them in operation. Then 

 compare the appearance of the butter made in the different churns. 

 You may group all churns into two classes; first, those with dashers, 

 and, second, those without them. Can't you make a few observations 

 on these two points: First, which churn makes the best appearing 

 butter; second, which churn is most easily kept clean? It will also 

 be a good plan for you to see which is the easiest to churn with, one 

 of the old dash churns or a box or barrel churn. 



2(3. THE KIND OF CREAM. 



If your mother skims the cream from the top of the milk, and 

 takes with it some of the sour, curdled milk, little hard, white lumps 

 ■ called "curds," will occur in the butter and so injure its looks. These 

 lumps will also get rancid, and so spoil the flavor of the butter. The 

 only way to prevent this is to strain the thick cream through a fine 

 strainer, so that nothing but very smooth cream will pass into the 

 churn. 



Of course, from what has already been said, the cream must be 

 kept where there are no bad odors, otherwise it will be seriously 

 injured. 



Another thing that affects the butter is the condition of the cream 

 when churned, whether it be sweet or shghtly sour or "acid," as it 



is called. 



Here we have two nice opportunities for experimenting. In sum- 

 mer weather get your mother to allow several pans of milk to become 

 sour and clabbered before skimming. Have her skim some of the 

 thick top milk with the cream, as is so often done where milk is 

 skimmed by hand. Now divide the cream into two parts. One lot 

 chum just as it is, but the other pour through a wire strainer, so as to 

 remove all lumps. What is the difference in the butter from these two 

 lots of cream? 



You can carry on an interesting experiment by taking two lots of 

 cream, one of which is real sweet and the other slightly sour and 

 churning them separately. Which do you find churns easiest, and 

 which has the best fiavor? 



