THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
comparisons, I could not detect any difference 
in the results as regards the quality and quan¬ 
tity of the butter made; but there was a very 
great difference in regard to convenience. In 
the use of the shallow pans a regular tempera¬ 
ture must be maintained and this requires 
constant supervision, the use of ice in the sum¬ 
mer and of heat in the winter. The milk is 
also exposed to the air to a much greater ex¬ 
tent, and corresponding attention is needed to 
preserve it from injury. There is more labor 
in washing pans and more room is required in 
the dairy than in tank setting. Where there 
is not a cold spring available to keep the water 
fresh and one must frequently replenish the 
tank and supply it with ice, the shallow setting 
is, I think, to be preferred. 
Where a running spring is available and ice 
can be procured without buying it too dear¬ 
ly, the deep setting system is preferable. The 
milk is kept in pure air because the running 
water removes atmospheric impurities, and 
the milk is not exposed to voluminous cur¬ 
rents. The temperature is easily regulated 
and the labor of cleansing cans is greatly re¬ 
duced. One important advantage of deep set¬ 
ting is the sweet skimmed-milk which is avail¬ 
able for feeding calves or for sale or use in 
making cheese. All these items have to be 
considered on either side in comparing the 
two methods. 
No doubt where a sufficient number of cows 
are kept to warrant the expense, a centrifuge 
to be operated by hand or by horse power will 
be found the most convenient and economical. 
The labor is reduced to a minimum; there is 
no washing of pansor deep pails; the skimmed- 
milk is sweet and fresh for any use, and the 
cream is fresh and can be subjected to 
the ripening process to prepare it for 
churning, in the most satisfactory man¬ 
ner. This is a matter of cost against work. 
The machine will cost three or four times 
as much as a deep-setting apparatus, but 
a much less costly dairy building will be 
needed. Considering, however, the cost 
of the machine (over $100) of the smallest 
size for hand or horse-power against the 
saving of other apparatus and labor, it is 
a matter to be decided if the expense or 
the work is the more onerous. 
FROM L. S. HARDIN. 
While it is undoubtedly true that a fine 
article of butter may be made by almost 
any method, however cumbersome and 
unphilosophic, yet it is equally true that 
there is a best method when all things are 
considered, and it behooves all farmers to 
work toward that method. We will take, 
for instauce, the farmer who represents 
the largest class of butter makers, who 
carries, on an average, from six to eight 
cows through the year and sells the butter 
he makes in the neighboring village or 
city; which way should he “set” the milk? 
His present method is to set it in crocks 
or small, shallow tin pans. These are 
placed either in the cellar, an out-rooiu or 
in a cupboard in the kitchen. This method 
of setting the milk exposes, as he intends 
it should, as much surface of the milk to 
the influence of the surrounding atmos- . 
phere as possible. 
A thermometer in this room in 24 hours 
would show fluctuations of temperature— 
hot and cold, then hot and cold again. 
It is a simple fact proved by the condensing 
of water from the air on the outside of a 
pitcher of ice-water in summer, that whenever 
the milk becomes colder than the air, the va¬ 
por of the air is condensed into the milk. This 
will, of course, carry all the impurities of the 
air into the milk. Thus we see the prime ne¬ 
cessity for having perfectly pure air around 
tne milk. Now, what is the condition of the 
air that surrounds the milk? You, with your 
blunted sense of smell, enter the room and de¬ 
clare it pure and free from taints; but take a 
hungry hound iuto that room and if he could 
talk he would tell you what people were cook¬ 
ing in the kitchen; in what direction the stable 
and pig stye were, and if the window was 
open and a dead animal lay on a hillside a 
mile away and the breeze was blowing from 
that direction, he could go directly to it. All 
of these things in some measure go into the 
cream and thence into the butter, and ac¬ 
count in a great measure for the very low 
price obtained for it in market. 
With these open pans there is no attempt to 
regulate the temperature of the milk aside 
from opening and shutting windows that for 
all practical purposes might just as well be 
let alone; for with proper skill all the cream 
can be gotten at any temperature between 00 
and 90 degrees, and the cream cannot be se¬ 
cured from open pans below 60 degrees, and 
above that requires so much time that the 
cream becomes very sour, making it very 
difficult to make good butter from it, and 
when the churning is delayed for several days 
it is impossible to make a fairly merchantable 
article. Those farmers who make fine butter 
from open, shallow setting, as a very general 
rule, skim at such a short time after setting 
the milk that they lose a large percentage of 
the cream, thus losing in quantity while they 
gain in quality. 
The prime objects with the economical but¬ 
ter-maker should be, first, to secure all the 
cream and then to make the very best quality 
of butter from it. Common sense teaches us 
that milk being such a perishable article, 
must be preserved just like fresh meat or new¬ 
ly gathered berries, and this suggests the use 
of some degree of refrigeration along with ex¬ 
clusion, as far as possible, of the surrounding 
air. This suggests the propriety of putting 
the milk in cans, say 12 inches deep, with 
close-fitting lids, if the milk can be immediate¬ 
ly reduced below 50 degrees Fahr; but if these 
cans must be set in water above 50 degrees, 
then no lids must be put on them,and the skim¬ 
ming must be done before intense souring sets 
in, with a certainty of losing ten per cent, or 
more of cream. In winter these cans with 
lids may be placed in a corner of an out-room 
and covered well with clean blankets and they 
will not freeze, while all the cream can be 
secured. They require only about one-third 
of the labor in handling and cleaning that shal¬ 
low pans ueed. 
The foregoing suggestions only refer to 
the practical results of deep and shallow 
setting from my own experience and from 
observation while conducting hotly contested 
trials between deep and shallow setting in 
many parts of the country where I was in¬ 
troducing the deep, cold setting method. 
Why one should be better than another, aside 
from the reasons given above, I know not. 
near the ceiling. His pans were large enough 
for each to contain a whole milking from 40 
cows, the milk standing not over two to four 
inches deep, according to the season of the 
ye r and the yield of the herd. The pans stood 
on a rack just high enough to work around 
with comfort, with all sides exposed to the 
cold air in the room. With this method of 
open shallow setting the cream may be 
skimmed off with a skimmer shaped something 
like the ordinary dust-pan used by the sweeper 
around the household, or the milk may be 
drawn from the bottom into a vessel, or, better 
still, into an open spout running through the 
wall to a receptacle outside, leaving the cream 
in the pan. It is a good idea to have au out¬ 
side strainer connected with an open spout 
which runs to the pan to receive the milking 
of fresh milk just drawn from the cows. 
Why? Well, because the double walls, win¬ 
dows and doors, with the ice-box near the 
ceiling, enable the dairyman to keep a cool, 
even temperature in the milk-room. The 
milk being set shallow, insures a perfect sepa 
rating of the cream. In cold air, the milk 
cools slowly, securing a gradual rise of the 
cream, which is exposed, in a broad, thin 
sheet, to the action of the atmosphere, which 
is always moist from the evaporation of wa¬ 
ter from the melting ice. This exposure of 
the cream to the air gives it a chance to com¬ 
pletely oxidize by a! sorption of oxygen from 
the atmosphere. This enables the cream to 
ripen with only a very slight acidity—just 
enough to convert the milk-sugar into 
lactic acid and prevent this fermeutive change 
in the butter. Oxidation of the cream se¬ 
cures the fullest butter flavor. It has been 
shown, by experiments made at Cornell Uni¬ 
of the air on the surface of the cream never 
takes place ; but if there are auy bad odors of 
any kind in the room, the fats of the cream 
will absorb them and they will appear in the 
flavor of the butter. In deep, open setting 
in cold water, the milk soon gets colder than 
the air in the room and then the vapors of 
the air, with whatever impurities they may 
contain, are more or less condensed on the 
surface of the cream. In submerged setting 
this is avoided, but no odors that may be al¬ 
ready in the milk can escape. There is strong 
testimony, however, to the claim that the wa¬ 
ter absorbs these odors. 
I have given the mode of setting milk for 
cream raising, which 1 should prefer, with the 
reasons why; but it may not be practicable for 
many. It requires a dairy-house, or at least 
a separate milk room. So also does deep 
open setting. But with the submerged system 
the creaming tank, which is tightly closed, i 
besides covering the milk with water, may be 
set almost auy where, and is a great econom¬ 
izer of room. There are bureau and other 
creamers which occupy little space and cost 
less than a dairy-house, or even a separate 
milk-room. Then persons with small dairies 
and small means may use open cans in a half¬ 
barrel or water-tight box, set in the shade and 
filled with cold water, iced, or otherwise, the 
water being occasionally changed, as it gets 
warm when ice is not used. So milk may be set 
in the old-fashioned tin-pans, in the buttery on 
the shady side of the house, as our mothers and 
grandmothers used to do. This gives a good 
oxidation of the cream ; tne milk should not 
be over two inches deep, as it soon sours, and 
perhaps before all the cream has risen. But 
some of the best butter ever made has been 
made by this method. Prof. Arnold once 
related to me an instance of a lady who 
took the first premium at a fair with some 
exceedingly fine-flavored butter. Ho 
asked her bow she made it. “Well,” she 
replied, “I usually make by the submerged 
system, as it is less work and satisfies my 
customers; but when I want to make 
something really fine, as in this instance, 
1 get out my old-fashioned tin-pans.” The 
oxidation of the cream which she thus 
secured imparted the delicious flavor. 
zp 
s' 
QUINCE TREE AS PRUNED FOR A LARGE YIELD. Fig. 242. 
I am free to confess that in my opinion) 
the philosophy of cream-rising has never 
been developed. Many expounders talk 
learnedly on the subject about gravita¬ 
tion, contraction, serum, etc., but why it 
should require cream globules 48 hours to get 
through one inch of milk at 70 degrees, while 
they will travel 24' inches in 12 hours at 
40 degrees, and will not pass through the 
milk at any depth between 50 and 60 degrees, 
surpasses my comprehension. 
FROM T. D. CURTIS. 
There are many things to be taken into 
consideration—such as the size of the dairy, 
the surrounding conditions, the pecuniary cir¬ 
cumstances of the farmer, whether butter is 
made for a special or general market, the 
skill of the butter-maker, etc. What is best 
for the man with plenty of means may not 
be practicable for the man of small means, 
who must get along with few conveniences, 
by bestowing more care and work on his bus¬ 
iness, in order to obtain the best results. Fine 
work, by great painstaking, may be done 
with few and poor tools; and so fine butter 
may be made, under unfavorable conditions 
and with few conveniences, by great care 
and skill. 
All other things being right, I should prefer 
shallow setting in cold air, after the manner 
of the late Hon. Harris Lewis, of Frankfort, 
Herkimer County, N. Y. His dairy-house was 
entirely disconnected from all other buildings. 
The milk-room had double walls, double win¬ 
dows and double doors. The ceiling was low, 
and in one corner of the room was an ice-box, 
versity, that no butter flavor develops without 
oxidation of the cream. In most cases, and 
always in deep setting, the ripening of cream 
is attended with excessive acidity, or else there 
js a lack of flavor. This excessive souring pro¬ 
duces a very positive lactic-acid flavor, which 
is generally mistaken by consumers for the 
real butter flavor, which is more delicious and 
also more delicate. Most of the high-flavored 
butter in the market has the flavor developed 
by excessive souring. I know of a maker of 
fancy private dairy butter who says he churns 
his cream “twelve hours after loppering.”* In 
no other way can he get the flavor demanded 
by his customers, because he practices deep 
setting. The flavor of all the creamery butter 
is the result of acid development, there being 
very little real butter flavor about it. 
But the public palate is used to it and 
likes it. The milk-room, in case of shal¬ 
low setting in open air, as above indi¬ 
cated, should be entered as little as possible, 
and then early in the cool of the morning, or 
late in the cool of the evening—so as to avoid 
as much as possible all exhalations from the 
human body and clothing. At these times 
the doors and windows may be opened, so as 
to give the room a good airing. It should be 
properly ventilated all the while. As the air 
in the room is colder than the milk, the latter 
gives off vapor, which is condensed in the air 
and goes off through the ventilator. In this 
way, the milk is purified. As the milk cools 
and the cream collects on the surface, this 
purifying process diminishes. But as the milk 
never gets colder than the air of the room, the 
reverse process of condensation of the vapor 
FROM HENRY E. ALVORD. 
1 believe the best way of creaming milk 
in the home dairy, is to set it in shallow 
vessels—tin, stone or glass—and let it be 
vi ell exposed to light and air. Of coiirse. 
the air must be of the purest, as the 
greatest surface of milk is thus exposed 
to absorption and taint. And the tem¬ 
perature of the room, air and milk (after 
cooled) should be very even, not outside 
the range of 50 to 60 degrees, Fahrenheit; 
and this irrespective of season or tempor¬ 
ary changes of weather. It is evident 
that these conditions are not easy to obtain 
and preserve, and it is only provided they 
cau be secured that I regard this method 
of treating milk as the best. Under such 
favorable conditions I believe butter is 
produced which is nearly perfect in 
flavor, grain and color, and as much 
in quantity as can be obtained in any 
other way. But the difficulties are so 
great in securing the several conditions 
above described as essential to success 
in the shallow-setting system, and where 
there is auy large quantity of milk the labor 
incident to the shallow vessels is so great, that 
I believe the safest and most economical way 
of creaming milk on the farm, is by the deep- 
set method. Here the temperature can be 
absolutely controlled by the use of ice or cold 
running water; the cream can bo all separa¬ 
ted and removed before the milk sours, and 
the care of the deep pails, cans, crocks or 
jars, is much less. Tanks, with covers, can 
be easily and cheaply constructed, in which 
the cooling and creaming are done, and expo¬ 
sure to contamination is reduced to the mini¬ 
mum. No special dairy room is necessary. 
There are patent appliances or creamers for 
sale, adapted to either system; they are aids 
but not essentials. 
farm 
SUPERIORITY OF MAIZE (INDIAN 
CORN) AS A FODDER CROP IN ENG¬ 
LAND. 
Professor Long, in a lecture on “Profit¬ 
able Summer Dairying,” says he prefers maize 
for his cows to clover, trifolium, vetches, 
lucern, sainfoin, rye grass, rye, sorghum, and 
cabbage. This shows the merit that is begin¬ 
ning to be accorded to Indian corn for soiling 
in England, for it. is only two or three years 
since any particular attention was given to this 
crop there for green fodder. But in adopting 
it, the growers have unfortunately chosen the 
