158  Dairying  in  Denmark. 
accurate  record  of  what  I have  seen  done  on  many  Danish 
farms. 
The  milk  is  weighed  as  it  is  brought  into  the  milk-cellar,  the 
produce  of  each  cow  being  weighed  and  entered  separately.  It 
is  then  put  into  the  cans  or  other  vessels  in  which  it  is  to  be  set 
for  cream.  As  a rule,  deep  cans  plunged  in  ice,  or  a mixture 
of  ice  and  water,  are  used,  especially  in  the  summer,  their  place 
in  winter  being  in  some  dairies  taken  by  the  shallow  round 
wooden  tubs,  known  as  the  Holstein  system.  There  are,  however, 
“ running-water  dairies,”  where  the  deep  cans  are  plunged  in  a 
tank  through  which  cold  water  flows  continually.  Other  dairies, 
again,  are  furnished  with  the  rectangular  shallow  “ Destinon  ” 
troughs ; but  until  recently  the  Swartz  system  was  steadily 
driving  all  other  methods  out  of  the  field.  Now,  however,  the 
centrifugal  cream  separators  are  competing  with  the  Swartz 
system,  and  probably  most  new  dairies  will  be  fitted  with  these 
machines,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  means  of  obtaining  cream 
from  milk.  The  Swartz  cans  were  originally  long  and  narrow 
with  rounded  ends,  and  these  are  still  seen  in  dairies  which 
have  been  specially  fitted  with  tanks  appropriate  to  this 
system.  But  in  other  dairies,  into  which  the  system  has  been, 
as  it  were,  imported,  cylindrical  cans  are  used  and  plunged  in 
huge  tubs  filled  with  ice  and  water.  If  large  cans  are  used,  it 
is  calculated  that  1 lb.  of  milk  requires  1 lb.  of  ice  to  keep  it 
at  the  required  temperature  for  12  hours  ; but  with  cans  of 
a smaller  diameter  | of  a lb.  of  ice  is  sufficient  for  1 lb.  of 
milk. 
In  the  best  dairies  the  cream  is  taken  off  after  12  hours  standing, 
and  the  milk  is  skimmed  a second  time  after  remaining  another 
12  or  24  hours  ; but  the  two  skimmings  are  never  mixed  together. 
The  cream  first  taken  off  is  used  for  making  butter  for  market, 
and  the  second  skimming  for  household  purposes,  or  an  inferior 
quality  of  butter.  Each  skimming  of  cream  is  weighed,  and 
the  quantity  duly  entered  by  the  chief  dairymaid.  It  is  then 
put  to  sour — a process  which  varies  much  on  different  farms. 
The  most  usual  practice  is  to  warm  the  cream  to  about  63°  F.  and 
then  to  add  from  2 per  cent,  to  3 per  cent,  of  buttermilk,  which 
is  well  mixed  with  the  cream.  Some  dairymaids  add  only  1 per 
cent,  of  buttermilk,  and  some  as  much  as  5 per  cent.  ; but  pro- 
bably the  temperature  of  the  milk-cellar  and  other  circumstances 
necessitate  variations  in  this  as  in  other  dairy  practices.  Not 
a few  dairymaids  prefer  to  save  some  sour  cream  from  each  day’s 
churning:  to  mix  with  the  sweet  cream  to  be  soured  for  the  next 
day  ; and  others  again  prefer  a mixture  of  sour  cream  and  sweet 
milk  ; but  in  these  cases  the  quantity  used  is  not  so  large  as 
when  buttermilk  is  employed,  generally  not  more  than  from  4 per 
