38 



Production of Butter. 



if smartly churned the butter will " come," sometimes within the 

 hour, and rarely, if set at the above temperatures, will it exceed 

 one hour and a half. In Lancashire machinery is occasionally em- 

 ployed for churning, and was found advantageous so long ago as 

 1793. Mr. Thomas Wakefield, of Brook House, near Liverpool, 

 employed a horse machine for this purpose, by which he effected, 

 with a horse and boy to drive, in one hour and a quarter, what 

 was usually the labour of two men for five hours. 





Quantity of Butter by 



Quantity of New Milk. 



hand churning. 



quarts. 



lbs. 



6,471 



364 



6,644 



397 



6,995 



348 



.20,110 



1,109 





Quantity of Butter by 



Quantity of New Milk. 



Machinery. 



quarts. 



lbs. 



7,261 



469 



7,675 



. . : . 482 



8,120 



574 



23,156 



1,525 



The a])ove quantities of milk were the produce of six suc- 

 cessive fortnights. 



If 20,110 quarts yield 1,1 09 lbs. of butter, how many pounds 

 will 23,056 quarts yield? Answer 1271; thus showing 254 

 lbs. of butter additional produced by machinery. This favour- 

 able action of machinery is owing to the greater number of 

 plunges made within a given time, particularly when inanimate 

 power like a steam-engine is employed, in which case the exact 

 number to every minute can be regulated to the greatest nicety ; 

 forty plunges a minute is found to be the most judicious rate. 

 In large dairies in South Lancashire small steam-engines for driv- 

 ing churns are by no means uncommon, the same power being 

 also very serviceable for cutting chaff, roots, &c. 



It has already been shown that milk is composed of casein, 

 butter, sugar, water, and a small amount of inorganic salts ; it 

 has also been stated that the covering of the fatty globules of the 

 milk is dissolved by acetic or lactic acid ; seeing this, it is easy 

 to conceive that cream or milk, a little acescent, will "^zVe" the 

 butter with less labour in churning than when the milk or cream 

 is void of acidity. Milk, like the juice of fruits, such as the 

 grape, apple, pear, &c., contains the principal ingredients requisite 

 for the vinous fermentation, viz., sugar, and a protean compound 

 — soluble albumen — the latter liable to enter into rapid changes 

 when exposed to the influence of the oxygen of the atmosphere ; 



