296 PRODUCTION OF BUTTER AND CHEESE. 



as a fact confirmatory of inferences which may be drawn from the character of the surface of 

 the county, its water and its grasses. 



But both butter and cheese may be spoilt in making ; good milk is not all that is required ; 

 the production of either is a chemical process, which, when performed without sufficient 

 knowledge of the character of the changes required, and of the circumstances which modify 

 those changes, will be likely to end either in a diminished quantity, or possessed of qualities 

 which will diminish their value. The state of the milk as to age, and as affected by the weather, 

 or as affected by artificial temperature, always has considerable influence upon the results, and 

 those who have determined, by exact experiment, the influence which these agents have, for 

 good or bad, will manufacture the best butter or cheese. Even the rapidity of moving the 

 churn-dasher, will affect the quality of butter. It is really surprising how much ingenuity and 

 labor have been bestowed upon this simple machine, the churn. The infinite number, almost, 

 of patterns and patents, and yet who can prove or demonstrate that among these numberless 

 kinds there is one which is better than the old fashioned dash churn. Many seem to have 

 adopted the opinion that the changes required for making butter are entirely chemical ; that 

 the agitation of the cream or milk is performed for the purpose of oxidation, whereas there is 

 no such process taking place, so far as the fatty or oily matter of the milk is concerned. No 

 doubt there are chemical changes ; they follow from the agitation of the materials : but the 

 globules of cream and the globules of butter are alike ; no difference can be observed in them 

 after the churning is finished from what they were before it began. 



The mechanical movement which is adapted to the collection of the globules of fat, which 

 when collected constitute butter, is a moderately rapid movement of the churn-dash, steadily 

 and as equally moved as possible. If the dash is moved very quick and fitfully at first, the 

 cream foams and swells, and the whole process is retarded ; this is particularly the case in cold 

 weather, when the cream has been frozen, and in this condition it is quite difficult to obtain 

 the butter ; the cream will remain a long time in a granulated state, apparently just on the 

 point of forming butter. The steady application of the dash will then be required for one or 

 two hours, and when the butter is collected and the process seems to be finished, the segre- 

 gated granules of butter remain disseminated through the butter-milk. There is thereby a con- 

 siderable loss of butter. Why the little segregated granules will not all cohere together in 

 one mass it is difficult to say. The use of the dash, or agitation, is to bring about this result ; 

 it is merely a mechanical change, not a chemical one. 



The temperature at which butter is most readily made is rather less than 60° Fah., between 

 55° and 60°. I have seen a total failure in producing butter by not attending to this fact, in 

 the atmospheric churn, as it is called. 



Another circumstance which should be attended to, is the acidity of the milk. When lactic 

 acid is just beginning to form, the butter will be more perfectly separated from the casein, and 

 that cheesey taste will be prevented, while at the same time the butter will keep sweet longer, 

 or remain free from rancidity for a longer period. When the butter is collected it requires 



