1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
7o3 
AN UP-TO-DATE CREAMERY. 
BUTTERMAKING AT BAINBRIDGE, N. Y. 
How the Business is Conducted. 
Part IT. 
THE CREAM.—Twenty-five to 30 hands are em¬ 
ployed in and about the creamery, including all its 
departments. When a thoroughly good man is found 
for any particular line of work, he is retained year 
after year, if possible. The man in charge of the 
separators tells me that he has experimented in 
separating till he knows thoroughly what he can do. 
He says that he gets the best results when separating 
at a temperature of 76 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and 
that he has tried it at all temperatures up to 110 de¬ 
grees. The skim-milk sometimes shows as low as .03 
per cent of butter fat, and scarcely ever over .05 per 
cent, but to secure such results the machine has to 
be run at a 10-per-cent higher speed than is usual. 
The cream comes from the separators with a very 
high percentage of butter fat, running from 48 to 50 
per cent. As it flows from the machines it passes 
directly into and through a Pasteurizing device, where 
it is brought to a temperature of 165 degrees, and is 
thence forced by a steam pump into a cooler, which 
lowers it to 60 degrees, and from there the pump 
carries it to cream vats in an adjoining room. This 
room and the cream are maintained at a temperature 
of 48 degrees by means of the cold-storage machinery 
in Summer, and in Winter by ice, if needed. The 
skim-milk is taken to vats where it is coagulated, not 
by rennet extract, as in cheese making, but by the 
addition of acid. Formerly sulphuric acid was used 
as it is the cheapest, but since the sugar refinery be¬ 
gan using the whey muriatic acid has been substi¬ 
tuted. The process in some of its details is understood 
to be covered by patents, but I have not learned the 
methods of handling, there being more or less of a 
secret respecting them. 
STARTERS AND BUTTER.—The buttermaking de¬ 
partment interested me much. It has already been 
stated that the cream, after being Pasteurized, is 
cooled to 48 degrees. This temperature is maintained 
till time for churning, the ripening process being con¬ 
tinued and the cream churned without raising the 
temperature. It should be noticed, however, that a 
“starter” is added to the cream soon after it reaches 
the cream vat. Now you know these are days of bac¬ 
teria. Whenever anything unusual happens, or any¬ 
thing of the usual order is more carefully studied, 
they commonly tell us there is bacteria at the further 
end of the examination. So we are not surprised that 
a special variety of “friendly” bacteria is introduced 
into cream, and that its rapid multiplication there is 
just what is needed to produce the finest flavor in the 
butter. This is the so-called starter, and is made by 
selecting a lot of milk that in its con¬ 
ditions, surroundings and treatment is 
as nearly the ideal as possible. Such 
milk is carefully handled and skimmed 
whenever a fresh starter is needed: 
and when it has reached the proper 
development, it is added to the cream 
in the vat. Buttermilk from each 
churning is saved for a starter until 
it is found that a fresh starter is 
needed. Pasteurizing is for the pur¬ 
pose of destroying the greater portion 
of bacteria, so as to give new arrivals 
a better chance, just as a farmer culti¬ 
vates his soil to destroy weeds so as 
to let the plants that he wishes to 
grow have a better chance. It is the 
development of bacteria that ripens 
the cream. Some people who know a 
good deal about bacteria, tell us that 
these little vegetable germs do not de¬ 
velop or reproduce themselves to any 
appreciable extent at so low a tem¬ 
perature as 48 degrees. But those 
used in the cream do not seem to be 
of the slow kind, for they do multiply 
and ripen the cream even in the short 
time of less than 20 hours. I am told 
that this low temperature for ripening 
and churning is by no means uncom¬ 
mon in these days. The acid test, 
which will be further described. Is 
brought into use to determine the hour and almost 
the minute when the churning should begin. 
THE BABCOCK TEST has become all but indis- 
pensible in a modern creamery, whether the milk is 
purchased on the test or not. Here, every patron’s 
milk is frequently tested, for it is good policy to know 
all about the milk as it comes, and not infrequently 
the patron is anxious to know how his milk tests for 
the year, or at some particular time when he is chang¬ 
ing feed. But the use of the test that took my atten¬ 
tion most completely is this: Soon after the separa¬ 
tors stop running samples of the cream are taken 
and tests are made. From these tests the product of 
butter for the following day is calculated, and it fre¬ 
quently happens that the butter from the churn 
weighs within one pound of the amount calculated. 
That for 30 tons of milk is pretty close calculation 
as well as good evidence of the accuracy of the test 
when properly handled. 
THE MILK.—Upon inquiry as to what changes 
have been noted in the production and condition of 
the milk, I was told that there has been a gradual 
falling off in butter fats. Not in every instance, but 
as a whole, although more grain is fed than formerly. 
This would seem to be tfie inevitable result of pur- 
A LOAD OF CREAMERY MILK. Fig. 267. 
chasing milk by the quart. One is tempted to inquire 
why the milk is not purchased on the Babcock test. 
Mr. Hovey assures me that it would have been im¬ 
possible to get anything like the present number of 
farmers to patronize his creamery had he purchased 
milk on the per cent of butter fats, yet he is con¬ 
vinced of its fairness and is anxious to see the time 
when all milk shall be sold in that way. If I mis¬ 
take not, the management is gradually drifting to¬ 
wards the test method, for this Summer a graduated 
scale of prices was put out at the time of the so- 
called “strike” by the Five States Association. It is 
based on Borden’s prices, but either demanding Bor¬ 
den’s conditions or else calling for a 4.4 per cent milk, 
with prices ranging above and below as the per cents 
of butter fat range. I should say that some milk 
from a few Jersey herds is bought on the Babcock 
test, and has been from the start, as the owners of 
those herds prefer that method. Payments for milk 
are made regularly on the twentieth day of every 
month for the milk of the previous month. As a re¬ 
sult hired men are promptly paid, and the local deal¬ 
ers find their accounts do not run nearly so long as 
formerly. One of the dealers in town said his ac¬ 
counts do not stand to exceed 38 days on an average, 
and the greater part of his business is for cash. If 
we stop to consider tfie progress that has been made 
in the last 10 years i almost any line of manufactur¬ 
ing we are filled with wonder that the ingenuity of 
man can so rapidly devise new modes and processes, 
but it would seem that the advancement in methods 
of handling milk and its products is scarcely out¬ 
done by any other line. 
• It would hardly be proper to close this article with¬ 
out mentioning the small army of men who, with per¬ 
sistent courage, bring in the vast amount of milk, 
through the snowdrifts of Winter, the mud of Spring, 
and the intense heat of Summer. Fig. 267 is from a 
photograph of one of their number, who is an old 
veteran of the milk routes, as weh as of the Civil 
War. He is considerably crippled, having been 
wounded in the right arm but that does not deter 
him from making this five-mile trip to the creamery 
and oack every day. No matter how cold the Win¬ 
ter’s morning, nor how hard the Summer’s rains, he 
never hurries the old team. Were one to juage from 
the picture, he would consider milk-drawing a de¬ 
lightful occupation, but the appearances are de¬ 
ceptive. There are hills to climb, the sun and the 
storm to endure, and rough stony roads at almost all 
seasons of the year. The “good roads” movement 
hasn’t reached these parts yet. n. h. l. 
COW PEAS IN INDIANA. 
The photograph from which the picture at Fig. 266 
was made was sent us by Mr. L. C. Breyfogle, who 
wrote: 
“I enclose you a picture of cow peas sown June 16. 
and plowed under August 31. They show only three 
feet high, but had I been able to take the picture a 
week sooner, before they began to settle, they would 
have shown more than 3V 2 feet in height. I send 
this just to show you that Center Township, Lake 
County, Ind., can grow cow peas with any of your 
readers.” 
Writing again with reference to the variety, Mr. 
Breyfogle said: 
“We sowed the Whippoorwill variety of cow peas, 
wishing to get as much vine as possible for plowing 
under, in the shortest time. For plowing under we 
used a steel beam, 16-inch plow with what is called 
a trash coulter, fastened on the beam with a clevis, 
same as a sod coulter is fastened. We also fasten a 
log chain to the end of the doubletree, behind the 
horse in the furrow, tying a couple of knots in the 
chain even with the middle of the mold-board, and 
tying the other end of the chain up to the plow 
beam. In this way we have no trouble, except once 
in a while a bunch at the corners. There were many 
furrows wnere one could walk 100 to 200 feet and 
not find a leaf in sight. We had only five acres of 
the cow peas this year, but expect to have eight acres 
next year.” 
TRIALS OF BUSINESS MEN. 
We have a letter from a reader, stating that he and 
his neighbor sent a shipment of poultry and eggs to 
a commission man in this city, and could not get any 
returns. On the outside the case looked like the 
usual fraud we have run across so many times; but 
on investigation, we found that the man to whom 
the produce was billed had moved to another part 
of the city, and a party occupying part of the old 
store received the goods in his name, but without 
any authority for so doing. When the man who 
ought to have got the produce learned this, he went 
for the other man, but has not been 
able so far to get any satisfaction out 
of him. Before this, all of the express 
companies had been notified not to 
deliver any more goods to the old ad¬ 
dress, but one or two took an unusual 
position, stating that they did not feel 
warranted in delivering the goods to 
any other address than the number 
given, even though the person who 
should have received them had moved. 
It seems to us that it would be Just 
as sensible for the postoffice authori¬ 
ties, after being notified that John 
Smith had moved from New York to 
Baltimore, to continue to deliver his 
letters to the old address to any un¬ 
scrupulous party who would take 
them and pocket the money they 
might contain. Even though there 
were no fraud, and the goods had 
reached the proper man after a time, 
the delay of a few hours in a declining 
market, or with perishable stuff, 
might materially injure the sale, and 
call down the wrath of the shipper on 
an innocent man. There is no good 
reason why express companies should 
not give as efficient service as Uncle 
Sam does in the mails. Their careless¬ 
ness is only exceeded by their inso¬ 
lence when complaints are made, and, 
when found in any way amenable to law, the screws 
should be put on without mercy. In the case men¬ 
tioned above the express people, after being consid¬ 
erably crowded, acknowledged their error, and there 
is now a fair prospect that the shipper will get pay 
for his produce. 
NEW YORK POTATOES.—Potato dealers are offer¬ 
ing $1 per barrel, holding about 244 bushels; market un¬ 
steady. Yield not an average one; early crop rusted 
badly. The late crop is better, but also suffered by 
rust, and consequently is light. Most growers are hold¬ 
ing their main crop, but a few are selling as fast as 
dug. Kebron, Clark’s Seedling and Michigan are grown 
for early. Delaware, R. N.-Y. Ne. 2, White Star and 
Sir Walter Raleigh for late, m. t. w, 
Sandy Hill, N. T. 
