460 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 4,1891. 
It may be well to remind our readers that care, watchfulness, 
and a regular system, combined with scrupulous cleanliness, are as 
necessary to success as close attention to detail in every part of 
dairy management. Watch results closely, and if they are not 
entirely satisfactory do not rest till they are so. That results are 
often puzzling there can be no doubt, as, for example in the case 
of “ Perplexed,” who says, “ Our churn is without dashers ; we 
stop churning when the butter is in grains, it is then well washed 
until the water is quite clear, and is then worked with a Brad¬ 
ford’s butter worker, but the butter will not keep good, and ‘ goes 
off’ in a day or two.” With the cows entirely upon grass as they 
are now, and such careful churning, the butter ought not to lose 
quality. The cause must therefore be sought for in surroundings 
of the butter after it is worked and made up. We have repeatedly 
known butter to “ go off ” so much in a day or two in a grocer’s 
shop as to be practically unfit for table ; and there can be no 
doubt that in that brief space of time it absorbs enough of the 
thousand and one odours given off by the goods around it to 
spoil it. Bacon, cheese, Spanish Onions, tobacco, spices. Oranges, 
and all the multifarious stores of an enterprising grocer and 
provision dealer are there. Can we wonder therefore that a 
substance so sensitive to taint as butter is should under such con¬ 
ditions “go off ” and become unpalatable quickly ? 
Precisely the same thing happens in a private house. The 
cream may be well managed, the churning well done, the butter 
worked and made up in an entirely satisfactory condition, but if 
it is then suffered to come in contact with impure air, so surely 
does it lose quality. Clearly, what we have to ascertain is the 
reason of atmospheric taint, and to remove it at once. It may come 
from anything, from the store-room itself, the walls, the floor, 
woodwork, or drainage ; but much more frequently is it from other 
food, or the general contents of the store-room. It may safely 
be laid down as a general rule that butter should never be placed 
in or upon anything that is not quite sweet and clean. One of 
the most simple, inexpensive, and efficient store-rooms for butter 
we know is that of Lord Spencer’s dairy factory at Harleston, 
which is just a square room with perfectly clean walls and floor, 
without a single article of furniture or utensil of any sort in it, 
jiothing but iron brackets on the walls. As the butter is made 
up in the adjacent dairy it is placed upon common rooflng slates, 
which, as they are filled, are taken into the store-room and 
placed upon the brackets, where the butter remains till it is 
packed for despatch to market. The drainage, be it said, is 
entirely upon the surface, so that as the floors of the store-room and 
other parts of the factory are washed the water passes quite away 
from the buildings at once. The importance of this is obvious, 
for it must not be forgotten how often foul air enters the dairy 
by the drains and windows, and in more than one instance have 
we known the windows of a farm dairy to open upon a yard 
full of manure reeking with foul odours. 
Predisposing causes of failure must also have attention. The 
use of Carrot juice as colouring matter is objectionable, because 
such vegetable matter quickly decays and spoils butter. Then, too, 
there is the importance of thorough cleanliness of utensils and all 
the surroundings of the cows. Objectionable as is the exposure of 
the cows on Leicestershire farms, yet the practice in force there of 
milking out on the pasture and the use of bright clean tin utensils 
precludes the possibility of tainted milk, except it be from the 
hands of the milkers, which we fear are not always perfectly clean. 
A dry clean hand for milking and a clean udder are alike impor¬ 
tant. It is when cows are milked in dirty cowhouses by dirty cow¬ 
men in dirty pails that the milk is tainted. It is also when cows 
drink foul water or eat improper food that milk is tainted, neither 
of which causes ought to be possible now that the cows are out alto¬ 
gether upon pasture. 
With a full yield of milk from grass-fed cows good butter ought 
to be a certainty ; if it is not so, then let every detail in cowshed 
and dairy be looked closely into, and faulty practice in some form 
or other will certainly be detected. The remedy is not difficult ; see 
that it is prompt and thorough, and in future be always on the 
alert to prevent recurrence of such faults. We regret knowing 
that there is so much carelessness and negligence on the part of 
those having charge of cows and dairy ; nor is this always the 
negligence of servants, but very frequently of farmers whose losses 
by the death of valuable animals and the low prices realised from 
the sale of inferior produce so often mount up to a ruinous extent. 
We have striven to formulate no strict set of rules in these 
articles, but rather to jot down hints for general guidance as they 
occurred to us. To any of our readers having dairy difficulties which 
they are unable to overcome, we say Try, and send us full particulars 
at once, and we may probably be able to indicate safe lines of 
possible improvement. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
The calving of old cows and heifers is almost at an end for this 
season, and dairy work is daily on the increase. The low temperature 
and frequent changes of weather has made it an anxious time for cheese 
makers, and they are fortunate who have a well arranged dairy with an 
efficient heating apparatus for keeping the cheese room at a steady 
temperature of G0°. Butter making has also required an extra amount of 
care and forethought under such trying changes of weather; but by 
strict attention to details there has been a steady improvement in the 
appearance as well as in the quality of the butter. With hand churns 
it is of much importance to have an experienced churner. A raw hand 
will dash away without rhyme or reason, and soon spoil the butter. 
Churning should always begin slowly, and the speed should increase to 
a steady uniform rate, rather fast while the weather continues cold, and 
slow with warmer weather. Churning should be simply agitation, and 
butter-working pressure; in neither thing should there be excessive 
friction. Any tendency of the cream to swell in churning is e&.sily 
checked by the addition of a little salt; but if powdered saltpetre is 
used in the cream work there should be no trouble with cream swelling. 
The cows have required very close attention, and a certain amount 
of contrivance has been requisite to house the calves and keep them 
clean and comfortable. We altogether object to any exposure of young 
calves, and they are never by any chance let out of their warm dry 
quarters at this season of the year. Delicate cows low in condition are 
still having the mixed dry food at milking time at the rate of 4 lbs. 
each time, which tends to improve condition and promote a full flow 
of exceptionally rich milk. Milk of high quality is all-important at 
every home farm, and it is only exceptionally good old cows that are kept 
long in the herd. Those of moderate quality are got rid of before there 
is a material falling off in quantity or quality of milk, sound young cows 
being altogether preferred, and our number is well sustained by bringing 
some heifers into the herd every spring. Keep no inferior cows ; they 
consume as much food and often require more care than really good 
ones. The way to insure this is to retain every heifer of promise, as 
heifers not wanted are easily sold at prices which afford some margin 
of profit. _ 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUABB, LONDON. 
Lat. 61° 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAT. 
A ®'' cS 
253 S-J 
Hygrome- 
9 • 
n+a • 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
0 
1891. 
© 
o ^ 
ter. 
Pi 
wr* 
perature. 
Temperature. 
M 
May. 
S ft 
y ^r^ 
la 
On 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Qo 
Max. 
.Min. 
sun. 
grass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday.... 
29.635 
47.9 
46.8 
N.E, 
49.8 
50.2 
44.3 
61.1 
37.6 
0.510 
Monday.... 
29.725 
43.6 
41.4 
N. 
48.7 
49.9 
40.4 
83.8 
40.7 
0.021 
Tuesday .. 
.. 26 
29.722 
61.1 
44.7 
S.W. 
48.0 
57.4 
40.3 
106.8 
36.2 
0.042 
Wednesday 
.. 27 
29.614 
48.7 
45.6 
s.w. 
48.3 
56.7 
39.4 
88.5 
84.2 
0.024 
Thursday,. 
.. 28 
29.680 
60.6 
4'>.4 
S.W. 
48.7 
59.7 
42.9 
107.4 
37.3 
0.062 
Friday .... 
29.793 
61.1 
49.3 
S.E. 
49.0 
62.3 
45.0 
104.3 
40.0 
0.119 
Saturday ,, 
.. so 
29.789 
51.3 
50.4 
K. 
49.9 
61.3 
49.0 
85.6 
47.4 
0.017 
29.708 
49.2 
46.2 
43.9 
56.8 
43.0 
91.1 
39,1 
0.793 
REMARKS. 
24th.—Wet from 6 AM. to 130 P.M., and 8.45 to 10 P.M.; thunder and lightning at 
intervals from 4 to 9 P.M. 
25th.—Overcast, with frequent slight showers. 
26th.—Bright early, and at times during the day; rain at noon and from 4 to 5 P.M. 
27th.—Variable; a good deal of bright sunshine, but frequently threatening, and 
occasional showers. 
28th.—Fine and generally bright in morning; frequent showers with sunshine between 
in afternoon. 
29th.—Bright early; wet from 8 to 9. A.M., then bright again; generally cloudy in 
afternoon, and wet from 5 to 10 P.M. 
SOtb.—aioomy and drizzly all morning; fair afternoon with some sunshine, 
A cold damp week with very little sunshine.—Q. J. SYMONS.; 
