2 BUTTER-MAKING AND COMPOSITION OF MILK 



when it was this was for tlic purpose of eiirichinp; other foods in 

 cooking. We are told it was stored in a melted condition, and 

 was ne\'er eaten when fresh. 



In the early methods of making butter, churning was brought 

 about by agitation of whole milk. In our own countr)- at the 

 present time, in some of the Southern States, the method of churn- 

 ing whole milk rather than cream is still followed by farmers' 

 wives. Some difference of opinion exists as to the early methods 

 used for creating agitation sufficiently to gather butter from the 

 milk. Such methods were used as j)lacing the milk in earthen 

 vessels and beating it with the hands until butter formed. 

 Later, wooden stirring sticks were used for the purpose of creating 

 agitation. The Arabs churned their milk by placing it in leather 

 bags and dragging them over the ground by means of a rope 

 attached to a horse's saddle. Another method used was that of 

 placing the milk in skin bags, fastening them to a tree and 

 swinging them back and forth to bring about agitation. (See 

 cut, Chapter XVII.) As time passed, more complete devices 

 or methods were adopted for churning, such as the daslr churn. 

 Following the dash churn came the square box churn — which was 

 used extensively in creameries about twenty years ago — and the 

 table butter worker. Now we have the modern up-to-date 

 combined churn. Setting milk in cold water and permitting 

 the cream to rise lessened the time of churning and brought the 

 manufacture of butter down to a science. 



The adoption of the centrifugal machine for separating 

 the fat from the milk was one of the greatest advancements in 

 butter-making. (See cut of first centrifugal machine in Chap- 

 ter XII.) The first centrifugal cream separator used in Iowa — 

 possibly the first used in America — was a power separator which 

 Jeppe Slipsgaard brought with him from Denmark in 1SS2, and 

 which was used in a Danish community near Cedar Falls, in 

 Black Hawk County. It is worthy of note that this machine 

 was so novel to the customs officers in New York that they held it 

 for two months before they could decide as to whether it was 

 constructed of iron or steel. They finally decided that it was of 

 steel construction and fixed the duty at $03- 



