On the Production of Butter. 



69 



milky fluid lias been effected. This operation is a most uncertain 

 one ; its duration varying from 10 minutes to 12 and even 24 hours, 

 according to the temperature, the quality of the cream, the state of 

 the weather, the operation of the churn, and other circumstances. 

 The butter having " come " (to use the language of the dairy- 

 maid), the whey is drawn off for the pigs, and the butter is taken 

 out and well washed. It is then worked with the hand until the 

 buttermilk is thoroughly expressed and the air-bubbles are broken. 

 A portion of salt is mixed with about each half-dozen pounds ; 

 the manipulation is resumed : the lump undergoes a second wash- 

 ing, which carries off the surplus salt; and it is finally made up 

 into rolls or printed pats for the home-market, or, with an addi- 

 tional salting, is packed in clean tubs for the London factor. 

 . In Bucks milk is skimmed at the end of 12 hours, and this 

 process is repeated at the end of 24 and 36 hours ; and during 

 the winter it is subjected to the skimmer a fourth and even a 

 fifth time. In Devonshire, where much clouted cream is made, 

 it has been attempted to increase the proportion of butter from 

 cream by scalding the milk ; but on this point Mr. Acland, in 

 his Report on Somersetshire, furnishes some conclusive facts. 

 Mr. Acland had 12 quarts of raw milk tested against as many of 

 scalded milk, and it was found that not only was there loss by 

 evaporation (as might have been expected), but that the quantity 

 of cream and the weight of butter were less from the scalded than 

 from the raw milk ; and an analysis by Professor Way shows 

 that the largest proportion of pure butter was found in the latter. 



The primal condition of excellence in butter-making is purity. 

 Milk is in the highest degree susceptible of taint. Milk in the 

 udder may be poisoned by the cow eating improper food. " Milk," 

 says Dr. Taylor, in his work on Poisons, " is rendered bitter 

 when the cow feeds on wormwood, on sow-thistle, and the leaves 

 of the artichoke. Its taste is affected by the cabbage, the carrot, 

 and all strong-smelling plants, and the effects extend to butter 

 and cheese, and all articles of food prepared with milk." Milk 

 may even be poisoned without the cow being affected, in proof of 

 which the same writer refers to the case of some inhabitants of a 

 district in North America, where a disease called the cow-sickness, 

 symptoms of having been poisoned, and even death itself, were 

 caused by the milk of cows fed on unwholesome herbage. With 

 so sensitive a fluid, therefore, the utmost care is required, not 

 sim.ply as regards the milk itself, but also the food which the cow 

 eats and drinks. Cows are sometimes permitted to drink from a 

 barton-pond, which the drainings of liquid manure had made, to 

 use a common expression, "as black as a hat." Others, again, 

 are allowed to slake their thirst in the waters of stagnated ditches, 

 or in ponds which have been slowly decomposing animal or 



