234 BUTTER-MAKING. 



a small churning than from a large churning. It is safe to say 

 that if it were possible to maintain all conditions alike, especially 

 as to temperature and degree of churning, there would be no 

 difference in the moisture-content of the butter made from 

 churnings of different sizes. When there is only a small amount 

 in the churn, the atmospheric temperature is likely to raise or 

 lower the temperature of the cream. If the atmosphere is 

 warm, then the butter from the small churning is more Ukely 

 to be soft. A small amount of cream in the churn is also more 

 likely to be overchurned than a larger amount of cream. These 

 two factors would tend to increase the amount of water in the 

 butter. In mixing the salt with a comparatively large amount 

 of butter, less working is necessary. Much of the butter is 

 mixed in the churn without going through the workers, and con- 

 sequently less moisture will be expressed from the butter. With 

 the same number of revolutions of the churn the butter from 

 the small churning is worked correspondingly more than the 

 butter from a larger churning. Medium firm butter, to a cer- 

 tain hmit, loses about .2% of moisture for every revolution that 

 it is overworked in the absence of water. 



Degree of Ripeness. — The riper the cream is, all other con- 

 ditions being the same, the easier it will churn. Sweet cream 

 is viscous, and consequently the fat-globules will not unite as 

 readily. The acid developed in the cream seems to cut or 

 reduce the viscosity of the cream, although it causes it to become 

 thicker in its consistency. Cream in an advanced stage of 

 ripening is brittle, so to speak. That is, if a sample of the 

 properly soured cream is poured from a dipper it will not string 

 but break off in lumps. 



If very thin cream is overripened, the curd is coagulated. 

 When this thickly coagulated cream is churned, the sohd curd 

 breaks up into small curdy lumps. These small lumps of curd 

 are likely to incorporate themselves in the body of the butter 

 and injure its quality, and also its keeping quality. If thin 

 cream has been overripened, it should be strained well and 

 care should be taken not to churn it to such a degree as to 



