ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 167 



stir in all the frotb, wliicli, if not stirred in, becomes dry and 

 hard, and is liable to leave white caps in the butter, and it 

 don't all churn out, leaving fat in the butter milk. Second, 

 when the cream is in the proper condition (and this is one of 

 the times when experience and judgment count for more 

 than rules), it should be tempered. Allowance must be made, 

 in raising the temperature, for the length of time the cream 

 is to stand before being churned. Our cream stands twenty- 

 four hours and we heat it up to about 66 degrees and use 

 a starter. If the cream was to be held for forty-eight hours, 

 it would not want to be heated much. Of course in summer 

 we do not heat the cream at all, but cool it down as low as 

 possible. We use a cooler that works up and down in the 

 cream vat and we do not use any ice in the cream. We 

 find that ice injures the butter. Third, we churn at about 

 53 to 54 degrees. We churn 34 per cent, cream that 

 tests 38 acidity or 5 of Farrington's Tablets. By churning 

 thick cream at a low temperature, we get an exhaustive 

 churning. Fourth, salting, working and packing. We salt 

 as a rule, an ounce to the pound, more or less, depend- 

 ing on the condition of the butter. The salting and coloring 

 of butter is an individual fancy and what will suit one market 

 will not do at all for another. We cannot please all tastes, 

 but we should strive for a uniform color and at least see to 

 it that our butter is not mottled. Mottles and streaks are 

 generally caused by the uneven distribution of the salt and 

 are not often found in butter that is sufficiently worked. Our 

 worker makes four revolutions per minute and we work nine 

 minutes. Be sure that all the packages are clean and sweet 

 before you put the butter in. If you put butter in a package 

 that is not sweet the butter will be tainted and you will be 

 blamed for it. Be careful to keep the package neat and clean. 

 An untidy package is a poor recommendation for the contents 

 and is not a credit to either the butter-maker or his em- 

 ployer. 



These rules and figures that I have given, of course, will 

 not suit all conditions in all localities, nor do they always 

 suit here. One must change his methods to suit varying con- 

 ditions from day to day, and a skillful butter-maker must be 

 able to tell at a glance what kind of treatment is required. 



