1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
219 
the dairy is kept, and upon its condition as to cleanli¬ 
ness and freedom from taints and odors of every descrip¬ 
tion. If a cellar is used, it should be a dry one, and per¬ 
fectly clean to the remotest corners, having no hidden 
remnants of decayed vegetables or fruit, or anything 
which could possibly offend the most delicate olfactories. 
If a room in the dwelling-house is used, or a milk-house, 
built separately, which is, perhaps, better, it should not 
be situated near a hog-pen, stable, or anything of the 
kind, nor should anything likely to impart its odor to the 
milk, as smoked ham, codfish, onions, or even potatoes, 
be allowed a place in the room. Nothing will receive a 
taint more easily than milk or cream ; and all bad odors 
absorbed by the milk, are certain to be concentrated in the 
butter, they not having the accommodating disposition to 
run off with the buttermilk. We have known butter to 
be spoiled in consequence of the milk standing in the 
room with a smoky furnace, and it is sometimes sensibly 
affected by the smoke of burnt grease and other unpleas¬ 
ant smells from the cook-room. So if a milk-room com¬ 
municates with the kitchen, the door should be kept 
closed. 
Temperature .—The milk, whether in a cellar or in a 
room above ground, should be kept cool in the summer, 
never being allowed to reach a temperature above 00”, 
though it may fall below that without detriment. Milk 
should be set upon racks, rather than shelves, so that the 
air may circulate freely under it, as well as over and 
around it. Racks are made in various ways ; the most 
convenient we know of is constructed as follows: Take 
a 6x6 pine post, of a length suited to the higlit of the 
room, place it upright upon a pivot so that it will revolve, 
and nail slats of half-inch stuff to each side of the post, 
at such intervals as will give room for the pans or other 
vessels used. Two such slats nailed to opposite sides of 
the post, will support two paus of milk, one on each side 
of the post. The rotary arrangement enables one to 
stand in the same place to skim a whole rack full of milk. 
If pans are used, the seamless ones are best, but deeper 
vessels, either of tin or earthen-ware, are perhaps prefer¬ 
able, provided the milk is cooled before being set. 
Washing the Utensils .—The greatest care is requisite in 
cleaning these vessels, of whatever material or form, as 
also of all the other utensils employed in butter-making. 
This is a matter of much greater importance than many 
suppose, as the smallest neglect in regard to it is sure to 
tell upon the cream and butter. The pans and pails 
should be washed thoroughly, in two waters, each time 
being made as clean as possible with the water used; 
they should then be scalded thoroughly with boiling 
water. It is not sufficient that the water should be toler¬ 
ably hot,—that it should steam in the kettle, or anything 
of the sort; it must “dance as well as sing.” The 
churn, butter-bowl and ladle, or butter-worker, if one is 
used, should be washed and scalded with equal care, and 
all should be carefully wiped and dried, unless some 
arrangement is made for drying in the sun, which will do 
very well for tin and earthen-WAre, and save the labor of 
wiping. In summer it will be necessary to see that all 
utensils hre cooled perfectly, before using them. 
Skimming .—The milk should be skimmed as soon as 
all the cream has risen, and before the milk has thick¬ 
ened. The exact time required for the cream to rise, 
will, of course, depend upon the temperature, but a little 
experience will enable one to tell. At the time thecream 
should be removed it will have a bright, healthy appear¬ 
ance, a rich, yellow, uniform color, and such an ad- 
herency of particles as will enable one, sometimes, to 
remove the entire cream at one dip of the skimmer. If 
allowed to stand too long without skimming, both the 
quantity and quality of the cream will be seriously affect¬ 
ed. The surface will become discolored, blotched and 
knobby, while underneath, the cream is rapidly yielding 
to the corrosive tendency of the acid in the milk. The 
thickest cream may be as surely destroyed by standing 
on the milk, as would be the firmest fabric in a bath of 
sulphuric acid. When thus destroyed, the cream is re¬ 
placed by a thin, watery substance, having no resem¬ 
blance to cream or milk. These facts, which may be 
easily verified, show how essential it is that the cream 
should be taken off before the milk has acquired any 
great degree of acidity. Yet, in order to make the 
largest quantity of butter, care must be taken not to re¬ 
move the cream too soon. Many neat, thrifty house¬ 
wives make a practice of “ skimming up ” all the milk 
at stated intervals, so as to be through with the job. 
This is, of course, very pleasant, but it involves consid¬ 
erable loss ; as they do not get the full cream from the 
newest milk. The milk should all be skimmed at the 
same age, provided it has had the same conditions as re¬ 
gards temperature, etc.; it follows, then, that some milk 
should be skimmed every night and morning. 
Winter Treatment.— It will be found that in winter, 
milk and cream require somewhat different manage¬ 
ment. The effort must now be to keep the milk warm 
enough rather than to keep it cool; and a failure in this 
respect will very materially aflect the quality of the but¬ 
ter. If the milk is very much too cold, it will have to 
stand so long for the cream to rise, that it will become 
bitter, often long before it becomes sour, and the quality 
of bitterness will be still more apparent in the butter. 
To prevent this, the milk should be kept at a tempera¬ 
ture of 60”, if possible; if not, the milk may be scalded 
as soon as strained, and the cream will then have a fail- 
start before the milk has parted with this extra heat, 
unless the place where it is kept is very cold. If scald¬ 
ing is not found sufficient, two or three spoonfuls of sour 
milk (which has soured quickly and is not bitter) may 
be added to each pan of milk when it is set away. This 
will help to sour the milk and cause the cream to rise 
quicker, thus making it less liable to become bitter. It 
may also help to prevent bitterness to salt the cows 
often, and see that they do not eat decayed vegetables or 
any substances which may impart a bad taste to the milk. 
The Cream should be kept at about the same temper¬ 
ature (60°), and should bo well stirred as often as new is 
added. It should not be kept too long before churning, 
never more than a week—four or five days is better. 
Churning.— The cream should be churned at a tem¬ 
perature of 62” or 63”. A great deal of experience may 
enable one to guess at this temperature with tolerable 
cleverness, but it is better to use a thermometer and be 
sure. This temperature will be increased during the 
process of churning, to 68” or thereabouts, when the 
butter will come. If it should be hard and granular, re¬ 
fusing to come together well, throw in a little warm wa¬ 
ter, churning all the while, and the butter will soon be 
gathered and ready to take up. 
Sweet cream should never be mixed with sour cream 
just before churning, as sweet cream is much longer com¬ 
ing, and hence, likely to lose itself in the buttermilk. 
To salt the cows once a week is generally believed to 
facilitate the process of churning. In case they have 
not been thus salted, some put a little salt into the cream 
before churning; but we think that in most instances 
where butter is very long coming, it is owing to the 
temperature of the cream. It may be so cold as to re¬ 
quire churning all day to bring the butter; a tax upon 
one’s patience and strength, if performed by hand, equal 
to the cost of a dozen thermometers. 
Coloring. —As a rule, it is absolutely essential in the 
winter to color butter, in order to make it marketable, 
or at all attractive as an article of table use at home. 
There may be a possible exception to this rule, in cases 
where cows are fed largely upon yellow corn-meal, 
pumpkins, carrots, etc., but this does not lessen the im¬ 
portance of the rule. Of the various substances used in 
coloring butter, we think that carrots (of the deep yellow 
variety) give the most natural color and the most agree¬ 
able flavor. Annatto, however, is principally used, and 
with most satisfactory results. Some of the most cele¬ 
brated butter-makers in the country color their butter 
with pure annatto, giving it a rich, deep orange color. 
They do not aim to produce the color which is natural to 
summer butter, but one considerably richer; coloring it 
both summer and winter. If carrots are used, they 
should be grated, the juice expressed through a thin cloth, 
and put into the cream just before churning. A small 
quantity of annatto, dissolved in warm water or milk, 
may be used in the same way, and with similar results; 
but a richer tint is produced with annatto by coloring 
the butter directly. To prepare the annatto for this pur¬ 
pose, steep it in butter for some hours over a slow fire, 
then strain through a fine cloth into a jar and keep in a 
cool place. When ready to work the butter, melt a 
small quantity of this mixture and work it in carefully. 
A small proportion of turmeric is sometimes mixed with 
annatto and prepared in the same way. With this meth¬ 
od of coloring, an inexperienced hand is in danger of 
working the butter too much, in the effort to produce 
the same shade of color through the entire mass, which 
is, indeed, a difficult attainment for a novice. Coloring 
in the cream obviates this difficulty entirely, the butter 
being of a uniform color when taken from the churn. 
Salting and Working. —While salt is not to be un¬ 
dervalued as a preserving agent, it must be remembered 
that too much of it destroys or overpowers the fine flavor 
and delicate aroma of the best butter. Be careful to pre¬ 
serve all the sweetness of the fresh butter, salting just 
enough to remove its insipidity. It is important to use 
the best salt. “ Ashton’s Factory Filled,” has great 
fame, and is extensively used. But any one can test the 
purity of salt, and perhaps other brands of Liverpool salt 
may be found equal to Ashton’s. Pure salt is perfectly 
white and destitute of odor. It will dissolve in cold 
water without leaving any sediment, or throwing any 
scum to the surface, and the brine will be as clear ns 
pure water, and entirely free from any bitter taste. Prof. 
Johnson says in the American Agricultural Annual. 
1868, that the “ ‘Onondaga Factory Filled’ must take rank 
second to none, provided the ingenious processes of Dr. 
Goessmann which were employed in Syracuse, a few years 
since, are still in use.” The buttermilk should be nearly 
all worked out and the butter well washed, before salt¬ 
ing. Washing may abstract somewhat from the flavor of 
the butter, but it is, nevertheless, a necessity, if the but¬ 
ter is expected to keep long, as it completely removes 
the cream and casein of the buttermilk, a part of which 
might otherwise remain in the butter. 
Butter should stand but a short time after salting, be¬ 
fore it is worked enough to remove nearly all the water, 
when it may be resalted If necessary; there should be 
sufficient salt left in the butter at this time to make a 
strong brine of the little water that remains. It may 
then stand until the next day, when it should be worked 
and paCjkefl. On no account should butter be allowed 
to stand long before working, as it is apt to become 
streaked, often so much so as to necessitate working over, 
in order to restore a uniform color. Besides, if neglect¬ 
ed too long at this period, a tendency to rancidity will 
be rapidly developed. 
We realize the difficulty of giving explicit directions 
for the second and last working of the butter—its final 
preparation for packing. If not worked enough, every 
one knows that the butter will soon spoil; if worked too 
much, it is spoiled already; though the danger of its 
being overworked is less. A great deal of judgment and 
discretion and somewhat of experience, are requisite in 
order to determine when it is worked just enough; the 
virtue of stopping, in this, as in many other cases, being 
second only to that of doing. There tire some sugges¬ 
tions, however, which may prove valuable, particularly 
to those having little experience. 1st. The butter should 
not be too warm when worked, nor should it be so cold 
as to make working difficult. Immerse the ladle fora 
few minutes in boiling water, and cool perfectly in cold 
water; then, if the butter in the bowl is warm enough 
to admit of putting the ladle through the whole mass 
without difficulty, and dividing it up without crumbling, 
and still hard enough to cut clean and smooth, not the 
slightest particle adhering to the ladle, then it is in the 
right condition to work. 2nd. It should be worked with 
careful and gentle, yet telling pressure , and not by a 
series of indiscriminate stirrings and mashings and 
grindings against the sides of the bowl. The butter is 
composed of minute globules, which are crushed by this 
careless handling, thus rendering the butter greasy and 
sticky, whereas it should retain its clean, solid individu¬ 
ality, up to the time of packing, always working clear 
from the bowl and never sticking, in the least, to the 
ladle. 3d. The butter should not be worked until it is 
perfectly dry. When ready to pack, it should have a 
slight moisture about it, a sort of insensible remains of 
the clear brine which has been working off, and at the last, 
enough, so that when a trier is thrust into it, a drop or 
two of brine will ooze out around it, and the trier itself 
be slightly wet, as if by a light dew. Overworking de¬ 
stroys all the beautiful consistency of the butter; makes 
it dry and sticky ; greasy in summer, and tallowy in win¬ 
ter ; gives it a dull appearance, and a tendency to become 
rancid. Altogether, overworked butter is very disagree¬ 
able, if not positively bad. 
Packing and Marketing. —Butter should be packed 
solid, leaving no interstices for air, and should complete¬ 
ly fill the firkin, tub or pail, as the case may be, leaving 
a flat surface. It is common to put a cloth over the top 
and a layer of salt on the cloth. Some think it better to 
wet the salt, making a brine. The cover should then fit 
tightly, leaving no room for air between it and the but¬ 
ter. Some butter also, goes into market in the form of 
rolls, some pineapple, and other fancy forms for the table, 
etc. Every person should bo guided by circumstances in 
his choice of styles for putting up butter, always being 
careful to give it a neat and attractive appearance. If 
living at a distance from market, and the dealers at his 
market-place buy for New York, he should pack in fir¬ 
kins or tubs, so that the butter can bo safely kept through 
the season, and the whole lot disposed of at once, in the 
fall. If at a convenient distance from New York, fresh 
tubs or pails may be sent in at intervals, all through the 
season, or the whole kept through, as he chooses. Or if 
in the vicinity of any city, good chances offer in the way 
of supplying hotels, restaurants, etc., the butter should be 
put up in a style to suit the customers. Some, who are 
hundreds of miles away, make shipments of butter to 
New York on their own account, instead of selling to 
buyers at home, in which case, if their butter is really 
superior, they will not be long in making a reputation, 
and will soon be able to secure a high price. Some few 
have a stamp of their own, and labor assiduously to es¬ 
tablish a value for it, as a trade-mark. It is said that the 
best butter-maker in the vicinity of Philadelphia (who 
never sells for less than a dollar per pound), uses a stamp 
inherited from his father, and that “ not a pound of in¬ 
ferior butter ever went to market with that stamp upon 
it.” If you would attain to a goodly fame, then, as a 
butter-maker, and reap a rich reward for your pains, 
attend carefully to the minutest details in making, and 
never sell any but good butter, put up in neat packages ; 
never allow your “trade-mark” to lose its value. 
