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filling the cans, sink them in hot water up to the rim and keep it near 

 the boiling point by the addition of boiling water or a jet of steam. The 

 cream must be kept constantly stirred with a paddle of galvanised iron, 

 also thoroughly cleansed before use. When the thermometer shows a 

 heat of 80° C. (176° Fah.), the cans are at once removed and im- 

 mersed in ice water, and the cream is kept constantly stirred until it is 

 rapidly reduced in temperature to 35° Fab. or 36° Fah., and remains 

 now free, or nearly so from bacteria of all kinds, until it is convenient 

 to begin the fermentation. 



A few of the smaller farmers, however, do not artificially sterilise 

 their milk, but allow it to sour naturally, and may make thoroughly 

 good butter, provided the temperature is not too high, the milk is from 

 healthy animals, the stockyards, dairy utensils, store-room or cellar 

 clean, the air free from bad odours, (even those arising from cheese), 

 distant from dungheaps and stagnant waters, and finally if the mani- 

 pulation is perfect. But there are so many favourable conditions neces- 

 sary to ensure butter of first rate quality that it is necessary to adopt 

 the most modern methods of fermentation, and this practice is becom- 

 ing more and more general. In every case the temperature of the cream 

 should be raised to between 70° Fah. and 95° Fah. before the butter 

 milk or other ferment is added. The easiest way to do this seems to be 

 to immerse a can filled with boiling water in the cream, which should 

 be stirred, or else by means of a "fore- warmer," or by immersing the 

 cream can itself in boiling water. 



The methods of fermentation are — firstly, the addition of a portion of 

 the butter milk (taken from the churn immediately after the butter is 

 removed) to the cream barrel. The quantity differs according to the 

 quantity of fresh cream, the sourness of the butter milk, the season, 

 and also to the length of time the butter-maker desires to give to the 

 souring, the quantity may vary between 5 and 10 per cent. The objec- 

 tions to the use of butter milk are that if there is any defect in the 

 churning from which it is taken those undesirable qualities are of course 

 transmitted. In such a case it is a common practice to resort to a neigh- 

 bour for butter milk. It varies also much more in acidity than any 

 other ferment, and it is more difficult to manage the fermentation. In 

 the cool season, to prevent the falling of the temperature in the cream 

 barrel to too Iowa point whilst the souring is in progress, the room is 

 kept warm by a stove or steampipe, or the barrel is placed within a 

 larger one, so that it can be packed all around with hay and the lid 

 covered with a quilt. The proper degree of sourness being usually 

 reached within eighteen to twenty hours, the ferment should be added 

 about noon, when churning can commence at 6 o'clock next morning. In 

 the interval the cream should be thoroughly stirred twice or three times. 

 Secondly, a portion of the sour cream churned in the morning is occa- 

 sionally added at noon to the cream to be churned next day ; but this 

 practice is even less desirable than that of adding the butter milk. 

 Thirdly, it is best to make fresh ferment every week or two to prevent 

 its degeneration through using either of the two former methods. Usual- 

 ly it is made with half skimmed milk from a nearly fresh milking cow, 

 and which has stood no more than ten to twelve hours. This is heated 

 to about 100° Fah , and then allowed to stand at a temperature of about 

 70°. Fah. for twenty -four to forty hours according to the season, when 



