CATTLE. 
139 
it is left twenty-four hours, when the cream is collected by skimming, 
or the thin milk is let off by taking out the plug in the troughs. All 
the cream is put into a deep earthen jar, which should be glazed, but 
not with lead ; stone-ware is the best. More cream is added every day, 
till there is a sufficient quantity to churn, which in moderate dairies is 
every two days. It is usual to stir the cream often, to encourage a 
slight acidity, by which the process of churning is accelerated. This 
acidity is sometimes produced by the addition of vinegar or lemon-juice; 
but however this may facilitate the conversion of the cream into butter, 
the quality is decidedly injured by it, especially butter which is to be 
salted. It has been asserted by some authors that butter will not separ- 
ate from the buttermilk until acidity is produced, and, no doubt, there is 
more or less of lactic acid in all buttermilk ; but perfectly fresh cream, 
which has stood only one night and is churned early next morning, will 
generally produce excellent butter in a quarter of an hour or twenty 
minutes in summer, and no acid taste can be discovered in the butter- 
milk. The change by which the butter is separated in a solid form is 
accompanied by the development of heat in churning. 
TABLE CHURN. 
Churn. — As to the form of churn there may be a variety of opinions. 
The ultimate object is to secure that form which will facilitate a rapid, 
steady, and shaking pressure of the contents ; and this is effected either 
by a flapper, driven through the cream, at a considerable rate, by means 
of a piston with a perforated base ; by a perpendicular motion, raised 
up and down in a cylindrical or similarly formed vessel ; or, what is 
more common, and by no means the worst form of churn, a cylinder 
studded with per orated beaters, fastened to its inner surface, and re- 
volving round its two axles, admitting of one handle or two, according 
to the quantity 01 the cream. By this means the specific gravity of the 
cream, as well as the force and impetus of the machine, are both brought 
into play to excite the heat, th pressure, and the agitation necessary to 
the proper and speedy deve' pment of the butter. To this horse or 
