234 BUTTER-MAKING. 
a small churning than from a large churning. It issafe 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 likely 
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 limit, 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 solid 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 
