VOL. XXXVIII. No. 19. | 
WHOLE No. 1528. ! 
NEW YORK CITY, MAY 10, 1879. 
IFRIUE FIVE CENTS. 
[ 82.00 PER. YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1879, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.! 
PLAN FOR A CREAMERY. 
A correspondent asks for a plan for build¬ 
ing a creamery, with information as to appli¬ 
ances, furniture and method of working. Just 
now there is considerable attention given to 
this subject on account of the low price of 
milk and cheese. We consider it of doubtful 
utility to “ change horses when crossing a 
stream,’' and just now farmers are certainly 
in the water up to their chin, and some are in 
danger of golug under. Perhaps it might be 
well to consider how far greater economy and 
effectiveness in the management of present 
business might avail to better one’s condition, 
rather than risk the hazardous experiment of 
a change just now. But there are doubtless 
many who could well consider economy and 
effectiveness in connection with the use of a 
creamery, as there is certainly no other meth¬ 
od of handling milk and cream for butter¬ 
making so cheaply and efficiently as in a 
creamery. 
A creamery will cost from $1500 to $3,000 
fully furnished for 150 to 600 cows. It is 
obvious to one with but inconsiderable expe¬ 
rience, that the cost is iu a smaller ratio the 
larger the creamery may be ; a small one 
may cost $10 per cow, while one four times 
the capacity may cost but $5 per cow. 
The building may be plain, but should be 
made with double walls having an air-space 
between them for the purpose of keeping the 
temperature even, although with the present 
methods of keeping milk iu refrigerator vats 
or coolers, the temperature within the factory 
may become of secondary account. A house 
with a wing would probably be the most con¬ 
venient, as it would furnish room for the 
creamery in the main building and for the 
cheese factory and store-room iu the wing. 
The upper floor of the main building would 
serve as living apartments for the dairy peo¬ 
ple. The plan would be something- like that 
shown at flg. 1. The main building (a) would 
be 75 feet long by 25 feet wide for a large 
creamery, aud 50 by 16 for a small one. and 
the wiug Qj) 50 by 25 feet with an engine-house 
(c) as shown. A covered drive-way (e) is at 
the front, where the wagons deliver the milk. 
The milk is received on to a platform where it 
is sampled and weighed, and then run through 
a long tin spout iuto the vats in the milk-room 
(a). It is necessary to sample the milk of each 
patron, so that it may be tested as to its quali¬ 
ty each day in the usual test 
glasses, or cream gauges. It is 
obvious that in a creamery the 
value of the milk is regulated 
by its richness, more or less, in 
cream. 
Wheu in the vat the milk is 
cooled and left for the cream to 
rise. It is then skimmed and 
the cream taken to the churns 
in the butter-room (d), where 
it is made iuto butter in what¬ 
ever churns may be selected, 
these being operated by a belt 
from the engine iu the room e, 
in the rear. A rail track is laid 
around the milk-room and into 
the butter-room d, upon which 
a light car can be run for the 
conveyance of the cream to the 
churns. Two churns should bo 
provided, li the common dash 
churns are chosen, these aro 
operated by a rocking arm at¬ 
tached to a craulc; if rotary 
churns are used, a pulley ou a 
shaft placed between the two, 
as shown, will convey the re¬ 
quired motion. After the milk 
is skimmed, it is pumped in¬ 
to the yats iu the cheese-room, 
where it is curded, and where the curd is pre¬ 
pared for the press. An elevator is placed in 
one corner of the room by which the cheeses 
aro conveyed to the curiug-room above. An 
ice-honse (/) is to be provided and supplied 
with a sufficient stock of ice for use iu the 
summer. This should have a communication 
ances and the most effective processes for se¬ 
curing quality in the product. It is in the 
proper use of these that the advantages lie, 
which turn the balance to the side of profit. 
For instance, in a recent ease which comes to 
our knowledge, a part of the milk which was 
operated under the best of the ordinary meth- 
xce 
rtQ.L 
CREAMERY.—GROUND PLAN. 
with the milk-room for convenience in pro¬ 
curing ice, and the rail track may be laid to 
the door. The elevation of a building suitable 
for the purpose is shown at fig. 2. 
A three or four horse-power engine and 
boiler are sufficient to furnish steam tor heat¬ 
ing, and for doing all the mechanical work. 
The methods of operating a creamery and 
cheese factory, which should be worked in 
conjunction, are varied according to circum¬ 
stances, and the amount of capital that is in¬ 
vested. The most economical and profitable 
methods include all the labor-saving appli- 
ods, returned $1.21 per 100 pounds, while the 
remainder worked up under an improved pro¬ 
cess, returned more than $1.50 per 100 pounds. 
It is obvious that we cannot here describe these 
different processes; but those whom it may 
concern can easily become acquainted with 
them by- visiting a few of the best creameries, 
which can be pointed out if required hereafter. 
For before investing iu a new enterprise in 
which skill is needed to make capital pro¬ 
ductive. one should always seek the practical 
information obtainable only by inspection of 
similar undertakings successfully conducted. 
Sairj 
THE RAISING OF CREAM. 
O. S. BLISS. 
CREAMERY.—Elevation. 
Several days ago my attention was directed 
to an article in the Rural of the 29th ult., en¬ 
titled ‘‘The Raising of Cream," but the pres¬ 
sure of more immediate duties has prevented 
even the reading of it till this sitting. I can 
ill afford the time for a discussion of the sub¬ 
ject, and but that a very earnest appeal has 
been made to my duty to the daily interest to 
do so, I should insist on being excused from it. 
The writer truly says there has been a great 
striving to understand the true principles of 
cream rising, and a detailed account of the 
labors and studies in that field would supply 
matter for the dairy columns of the Rural for 
more than fifty-two weeks. 
A fundamental error of most of these “ striv¬ 
ings” is indicated by the term “ cream rising’’ 
or the “ rising of cream.” There is no such 
thing as “cream rising,” Cream in common 
with all other matter is inert and cannot act or 
move except as it is impelled by some external 
force. Cream does not rise but is raised. The 
ohject of these '* strivings” should be to de¬ 
termine what force does actually raise the 
cream and what influences may economically 
be brought to bear upon it to render it effica¬ 
cious. 
One prominent source of error resulting from 
experimenting in this department, is the stan¬ 
dard of judgment in testing results. To illus¬ 
trate : I am reported as saying at one of the 
Utica meetings this winter, that I always used 
the same quality of milk in making my experi¬ 
ments. I did not say any such thing. But, in 
answer to the question how many pounds of 
milk it would take to make a pouud of butter 
by a certain described process, I said that I 
never applied that test on account of the 
variable quality and condition of milk, depend¬ 
ing upon breed, feed and other circumstances; 
that I esteemed it, with possibly one exception, 
the most fallacious of all tests ; that in all my 
operations the test was applied to the quality 
of the residuum; that this was not deter¬ 
mined by setting the skimmed milk aside to 
see if cream would rise on it after it had been 
treated for cream, and often so treated, that the 
cream could not rise, however much there 
might be of it; but by the most exact scieutifia 
method available to practical men in their own 
dairies—the determining of the specific gravity 
by actual weighing in a properly- 
adjusted bottle and with a deli¬ 
cate balance. This test covers 
the whole ground, whereas the 
amount of cream or hotter pro¬ 
duced, however large, may still 
be only part of the whole, and 
lead to erroneous conclusions. 
The writer of the paper under 
consideration asserts that “pure 
cream is simply uugathered 
butter," and that the mechani¬ 
cal gathering of the cream 
makes butter. There are chem¬ 
ists aud microseopists who hold 
to the same opiuion; but the 
preponderance of opinion on 
the part of this elass ot observ¬ 
ers, is very largely in favor of 
the theory that the butter glob¬ 
ule is surrouuded by a pellicle 
of nitrogeuous matter. The va¬ 
rious specific-gravity determi¬ 
nations of milk, cream, butter 
and butter-milk, strongly cor¬ 
roborate that view, and the qual¬ 
ity of the butter-milk fully con¬ 
firms it, If the merely mechan¬ 
ical gathering of the butter 
were the whole of churning, 
there would be no material 
