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82 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. r January 26 , issa. 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
MAKING FIRST-CLASS BUTTER. 
( Continued from page 63.) 
In previous observations relating to butter-making we omitted 
mention of using a small quantity of fine white sugar at the same 
time as the salt is applied, but in rather less quantity. Sugar has 
been used with good effect both in summer and winter, as it not 
only improves the flavour in some cases, but it also acts as a 
preservative. Its use is, however, most important in the winter 
months, because it improves the flavour by counteracting any 
prejudicial effect arising from the cows feeding on roots. It is 
also of some consequence as applied to the butter when made 
from cream which has been some days collected before being 
churned. 
Under some circumstances the farmer may be unable to obtain 
sufficient of the best fresh butter in winter ; and it is somewhat 
important that during the summer or early autumn months some 
provision should be made of preserved butter, in order to sup¬ 
plement the supply when it may be inadequate to the require¬ 
ments of the establishment. In potting the butter we employ an 
earthenware cream pan, or pot glazed white inside ; and if the 
butter is made from fresh cream daily, and placed in the pot with 
as little sugar and salt as when made for present use, being 
placed in one layer each time of making, it needs no other salting ; 
but each layer should be covered with well-prepared and perfect 
brine, which, however small in quantity, should be poured off 
before the next layer of butter is placed in. If this process is 
continued until the pot is full, and a covering of brine about half 
an inch deep is applied, the butter will then be ready for use, and 
even after many 'months it is almost equal to the best fresh butter 
at the time of making, and does not possess any unpleasant 
flavour which sometimes arises from the butter being oversalted. 
This has been our practice for many years. There is one im¬ 
portant matter to be considered when the butter is first cut for 
use, and it is this—that when any portion is removed for con¬ 
sumption the brine which had covered it should be allowed to 
flow into any incision or hollow, and still be allowed to prevent 
the air reaching any remaining portion. Without this is attended 
to some would turn rancid. In separating the cream the plan 
now pursued is the reverse of ours formerly in use, for we used 
to consider that the most cream was obtained by placing the milk 
in wide and shallow milk pans. The improvement now consists 
in the use of narrow and deep pans. This circumstance alone 
ought to show the home farmer that with all the care and trouble 
bestowed upon making good butter he may still have something 
to learn. 
The kind of churn or machine to be used in churning will de¬ 
pend to some extent upon the quantity of cream to be made into 
butter at one operation. For churning about 20 lbs. of butter or 
less we should choose an ordinary machine turned by hand, and 
which has been in use for upwards of thirty years, or otherwise 
a small tumbler called Hathaway’s Little Model Barrel Churn. 
If for larger quantities we cannot do better than use the large 
barrel tumblers which have long been employed in large dairies, 
for they are perfect in operation, the butter is readily removed, 
, and the barrel easily scalded after use. 
We now approach one of the most important points to be con¬ 
sidered in the whole process—namely, the working or beating of 
the butter on its coming from the churn, in order to make the 
mass solid and press out any remaining buttermilk. The old plan 
was for the dairymaid to take a portion of the butter on a trencher 
and beat it by hand ; but this cannot be so well for the butter, 
especially in hot weather, as when it is manipulated by a process 
where the hand never touches it. For this purpose we recom¬ 
mend for use what is termed the “ Embr^e Butter-worker,” an 
American invention shown in work at the Royal Meeting at Derby 
last July. It is worked by turning a handle, and consists of a 
revolving circular table sloping from the centre to the circumfer¬ 
ence, on which the butter is placed and pressed with a fluted roller 
by hand. The expressed moisture passes by gravitation to a 
channel round the edge of the table and runs away by an opening 
provided for the purpose. The attendant keeps moving the butter 
with a couple of wooden “ hands ” or beaters to the roller, which 
in a short time squeezes out all the buttermilk and consolidates it. 
After it is taken from the workers it is consolidated into a large 
lump ; it is then immediately made up into half-pound pats, or 
1 or 2 lb. portions as desired. Half a pound having been taken 
and carefully weighed is placed on a round mould, which is pressed 
upon it once or twice to give it its stamp, and the edges are 
dexterously turned on the fluted edge of the board to give a finish 
to the whole. Being then placed in a small basket enveloped in 
muslin it has a very neat appearance, and a large quantity made 
at the Show was bought by visitors and carried away by them 
direct from the dairy. There was also exhibited the “ M M Butter- 
worker,” which is a hand machine working on a similar principle, 
and intended for smaller dairies. It is quite obvious that machines 
of this kind are destined to supersede the old methods of hand¬ 
working in all dairies where the finest class of butter is desired. 
We must now call attention to the fact that if the dairy room 
is situated so as to be under the influence of foul air and odours it 
is quite useless to expect first-class butter, even after all cleanli¬ 
ness has been used in the process of making. If the milk 
is tainted by cows being fed with objectionable materials, or 
affected at the time of milking in the presence of bad smells, 
whether arising from the pig pens being near, or even the imper¬ 
fect condition of the cow pens, the results cannot be satisfactory. 
We knew a case where the cream was taken from the cow pens to 
the gentleman’s dairy and made into butter by an experienced 
dairymaid, but it was uniformly ill-flavoured, although the cream 
was churned every other day. When asked what we considered 
the cause, we pointed out the effect of ordinary brick floors at the 
cow stalls ; for, although they were washed down twice a day, the 
bricks were so impregnated with urine that they continually gave 
off ammoniacal odours which we considered affected the milk. 
This proved to be the case, for upon removing the brick floor in 
the cow pens, and using only an absorbent earth floor, the air of 
the stalls was always pure, and the butter good. 
We cannot conclude this subject without referring to the breed 
of cows adapted for the produce of milk best suited for yielding 
cream of the required quality. It is usual to expect rather poor 
milk from the Shorthorns, Devons, Herefords, and some others, 
whilst the Channel Island cows, whether of the Guernsey, Jersey, 
or Alderney varieties of stock, usually furnish a rich yellow milk ; 
and therefore whenever it is required to make first-quality butter 
the Channel Island cows should form a portion of those kept even 
in the summer months. In the winter months, however, these 
cows alone may be kept with advantage. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—This is a dull time unless the weather should be 
favourable and the land dry enough for ploughing. We do not mean 
fallow-ploughing for roots, as that should have been done by the 
close of the old year, but we allude to the ploughing of firm land, 
such as corn stubbles for pulse crops, as Beans, Peas, and summer 
Vetches. We do not like to plough the land beforehand for any of 
these crops, because we have frequently found that pulse crops do 
best, as evidenced by the headlands when they have been ploughed 
after the ridges for some time and seeded at the time of ploughing, 
for then the young plants have invariably grown more quickly than 
on those parts of the field which may have been ploughed earlier, 
and therefore we propose to drill the grain as described by us last 
week at the time of ploughing. We also prefer to mix our crops, 
especially in cases where the soils vary in different parts of a 
field. The mixture we prefer is Beans and the late Maple Peas, or 
Beans and winter Tares, and we choose the late Peas and winter 
Tares because they ripen at the same time as the Beans. The benefit 
to be derived from these mixed crops is that very seldom both crops 
suffer from blight or attacks of the green or the black aphides at the 
same time, for these insects are not prevalent in the same kind of 
weather. We have often found the Beans to pod well when the Peas 
were deficient, and vice versa; but a further advantage of a mixed 
crop of pulse is that as soon as the first work is completed between 
the rows of plants, the Peas or Vetches very quickly spread out from 
