JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
42 
[ January 12, 1882. 
obtain fairly good home-made butter, unless we make it ourselves, 
under the most favourable circumstances ; and as we had butter 
made upon our farm for nearly forty years, we can say from 
experience that the causes are numerous which must be combined 
to make first-class butter. For a full and detailed statement of 
this matter we must refer our readers to our article upon the 
management of a butter-making dairy given in this Journal, 
April 11th, 1878. Still, as many of our readers may not be able 
to refer so far back, we will give in a concise form a few obser¬ 
vations including the most important points to be adopted. 
First of all we would select one-half shorthorn cows and the 
other Jerseys, especially for summer butter. The pastures, how¬ 
ever, need not be of the richest quality like the best which will 
fatten a bullock without any assistance from cake-feeding, but 
those containing a good mixture of herbs and “ Sweet Vernal 
Grass,” which gives the butter the best flavour, are to be pre¬ 
ferred. In winter the mode of feeding is still more important 
and complicated, and should consist of sweet pasture hay, whole 
Wheat meal or bran, the large red Cattle Potatoes, or Savoy 
Cabbages. The next point to be considered is the cowsheds, 
stalls, or boxes, the latter being best because the air will be quite 
pure if properly managed with an earth floor. Again, it is not 
only necessary as regards the milking of the cows that the milker’s 
hands should be perfectly clean, but that the cow’s udders should 
be clean also ; that the time in milking should not be too long, 
but that the last drop of milk should be carefully stripped, as the 
largest portion of cream leaves the udder last. The milk when 
obtained must be cooled by a refrigerator or cooler, Lawerence’s 
being considered the best, for if properly managed it will imme¬ 
diately bring down the temperature from 90° as it leaves the cow 
to 50° or 60° according to the state of the weather; indeed in very 
hot weather ice is frequently used to keep the water at the 
desired temperature. 
We have now, after having stated the points which have in the 
best-managed butter dairies been acted upon for many years, to 
state some of the great improvements which have taken place, 
especially on the continent, in making butter. The implements 
and processes which are of comparatively recent adoption we 
shall notice in connection with those shown by Mr. G. M. Allender, 
and used at the time of his butter-making exhibition at Derby. 
These, however, vary in name and capabilities in certain countries 
abroad, which characterise and give them separate names by 
which the processes are known. Take first, for instance, the 
cream-separating machinery, the best of which are reduced to 
three in number, although there were shown as butter-making 
and working machines for the entire process eight in number 
altogether. Taking the three cream-separators first, which were 
used in one section ; they were called the Laval (Swedish), the 
Lefeldt (German), and the Neilson Petersen (Danish). The 
Laval separator is pretty well known since its exhibition at the 
Kilburn meeting of the Royal Society, and is described as follows 
—“ Separation in all cases is the result of gravitation. The 
cream-globules, being of less density than the watery parts, rise 
to the surface. Tho action of the machine is to expedite the 
process by submitting the milk to rapid centrifugal motion, which 
causes the heavier ingredients to be thrown to the outside of the 
circle, whilst the cream occupies a more central position close 
round the axis of rotation. In actual work the milk as it comes 
from the cow is placed in a milk can, and delivered by means of 
an ordinary tap into the top of a hollow tube which terminates 
near the bottom of a spherical vessel of about 10 inches in dia¬ 
meter, which, encased in a cast-iron casing, rotates at a very high 
velocity—viz., six or seven thousand revolutions per minute. An 
instantaneous separation takes place. The heavier portion, which 
represents what we call skim milk, is thrown to the outside of the 
vessel, and forced up a bent perforated pipe which communicates 
with an open space, whence the milk is delivered into the middle 
of two block-tin trays or covers which are provided with an out¬ 
let pipe. The rapidity with which the milk enters the centrifuge 
must be regulated according to the velocity with which it is 
driven. The cream remains near the centre, rises round the out¬ 
side of the inlet pipe, and delivers itself into the upper tin tray, 
where it is discharged through an outlet pipe. The rotating vessel 
and shaft are of forged steel in one piece, tested by a pressure of 
250 atmospheres.” It is generally thought that as far as sepa¬ 
ration goes this Laval machine, described as above, is nearly 
perfect. In a recent experiment the skim milk from this machine 
was tested without a trace of butter being obtained, and several 
experiments serve to show that Laval’s process will give a 
superior result to the celebrated “ ice method.” We cannot 
further enlarge upon this machine, as we have others to describe 
and compare. 
(To b3 continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Ploughing for the winter fallows is still being 
continued, but the sooner it is everywhere completed the better. 
We noticed to-day three horses and a driver ploughing upon a Wheat 
stubble, the soil being a dry loam on gravel. We name this because 
the home farmer must expect to obtain a profitable result of his 
horse labour, to receive any advantage in farming, and under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances the land ought to be ploughed a fair depth, 
say 8 inches, with two horses in the winter months. Later in the 
season when dry, such land may be ploughed with the double-fur¬ 
rowed implement with two horses attached, if the horses are strong 
and active and well fed ; but they should not be under lGj or 17 hands 
high, and then they will do the work with ease to themselves, and, 
with only one man to manage them, with profit to their employer. 
We notice in many cases that the teams are employed in carting 
manure from the stables and street sweepings from the towns, and 
we fail to see how this can be profitable. Under our plan of manuring 
we always used artificial manures in preference to town manure, 
requiring as it does such heavy carriage from some miles distance, 
and in consequence for twenty years our waggons returned from the 
towns without loading with stable or other bulky manures. The 
last lot which fairly represented the article we had analysed by Dr. 
Yoelcker, and quite satisfied us that manure possessing so little of 
the essentials would never pay for the carriage. In consequence we 
have preferred to load back with artificial manures or feeding mate¬ 
rials, such as linseed oil cake or cotton cake. We notice that some 
farmers are carting out long fresh manure from the cattle pens, 
stables, or pig pens, and ploughing it under directly. This is a good 
plan, very economical when the ground is clean ; for whether the next 
crop is intended to be Mangolds or planted with Potatoes, it not only 
keeps the horse labour in a forward state, but the full value of the 
manure is obtained upon all dry loamy soils. 
Hand Labour .—Even on wet days work should be always found for 
the men, and women too, under cover, such as breaking and bagging 
guano, screening chalk, ashes, &c., in the manure house or barn 
mows, or wherever it may be deposited ready for use in the spring. 
When the weather is fine the men are employed in cleaning out the 
ditches and clearing away any deposits likely to choke the emptying 
tiles of the draining work. The women are forking out the lumps of 
couch in the Swedish Turnip fields, as the leaves have now fallen 
sufficiently for the bunches of grass and other root weeds to be 
seen. The cutting of underwood is still going on, but we have 
directed the agent to mark with red paint all the heirs which are 
to be saved, whether of Oak, Ash, or Elm ; to prevent the wood¬ 
cutters, however, from destroying the timber heirs, we have it 
done in advance of them. The water meadows now require con¬ 
stant attention, so that the water during heavy rains should not 
be allowed to be flooding any portion beyond the usual time. We 
have some handsome and well-grown quick hedges which in time 
become rather overgrown ; these are now being cut back to the 
required dimensions as to height and width. But where possible we 
remove these fences, drain the dykes, and then form the fields into 
such sizes as are convenient and desirable in the case of steam culti¬ 
vating. This, however, applies only to arable land, for we never allow 
our sheep to lie under hedges for shelter on arable land in summer or 
winter, because where they retire for shelter there they drop their 
manure. 
Live Stock .—The lambing folds should have been prepared for the 
past fortnight, for Hampshire down ewes are now beginning to drop 
their lambs, and at this busy time for the shepherd assistance should 
be generously afforded him. If the lambing fold is not near his 
cottage one of the houses on wheels properly furnished should be 
allowed him, as by this plan when the ewes are lambing at night in 
cold frosty weather many weakly lambs will be lost unless they can 
be placed near a warm stove, with which travelling or moveable 
houses should be furnished. Medicine or other articles will also be 
required more or less at the lambing fold, even when the stock is 
ever so healthy. Drumhead Savoy Cabbages are the healthiest green 
food which can be given to ewes just before and after lambing ; but 
under any circumstances cut Swedes in troughs should be avoided, 
for we have known serious losses occur to ewes which have eaten 
largely of them at such a time. Sweet hay is good for the ewes 
whilst feeding on Cabbages after lambing, but not before. We know 
some very thoughtful farmers who, instead of feeding ewes in lamb 
with hay, prefer to lay up some healthy down or dry parkland after 
July, so that the autumn growth of glass may be available for the 
in-lamb ewes. 
The wether sheep or tegs have not improved very fast lately, the 
weather having been wet, but yet where the sheep receive all food in 
troughs they can eat their food with cleanliness and little trouble. 
When the roots are cut and placed in troughs with cake or meal 
strewed over them the sheep are sure to do well, especially if they 
get the hay cut into chaff and given in troughs also. We object, 
however, to the cake or cracked beans or peas being mixed with chaff, 
for the animals are sure to search for the best food and rout the chaff 
out of the troughs. Our young cattle are now doing well in the 
boxes, where they receive about 50 tbs. of cut Carrots or Swedes 
daily, with 4 tbs. of cake meal strewed over them in the feeding 
manger or boxes. All the animals now about two years old which 
have been fatting from the time they were calves should now be 
pushed forward, so that they may come ready for the butcher in June 
