182 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
June. 
Ck §)air|K 
Milk and Butter. 
In compliance with the suggestions of several of our 
subscribers, we propose hereafter to devote a page or two 
a month, to this important branch of domestic economy; 
and we solicit communications for this department from 
all those engaged in the dairy business. In the mean 
time, we believe we cannot render our dairymen and 
women a better service than to copy the annexed article 
on Milk and Butter, recently written by Dr. Lyon 
Playfair, well-known as one of the most thorough 
and practical scientific men of the age, for the “ Cyclo¬ 
pedia of Agriculture,” a work of rare merit, now in 
course of publication in London: 
The preparation of butter from milk has been much 
studied by scientific men, and the results of their re¬ 
searches are of practical interest. Milk contains 87 per 
cent of water, in which are dissolved caseine, sugar of 
milk, and certain inorganic salts; in this solution is sus¬ 
pended, in the form of an emulsion, about 4 per cent of 
butter. The suspended butter is in the form of little 
globules, which seem to be surrounded with a little shell 
or skin, supposed to consist of coagulated caseine. The 
theory of the formation of butter is very simple; the 
little globules are broken by agitation, and the butter 
coheres together in a mass; but it is well known that, 
in the practical carrying out of this process, considerable 
difficulties arise, which modify the results of the process. 
The variations in the result depend, ujfcm chemical 
transformations suffered by the other constituents of the 
milk during the process, and these changes must be fully 
understood before the dairy farmej can have an intelli¬ 
gent knowledge of the important and delicate opera¬ 
tions entrusted to him. The first point to be considered 
is the changes which milk experiences by exposure to 
the air at different temperatures. 
Caseine, or the cheesy part of milk, being a soluble 
nitrogenous body, is apt to run into putrefaction. All 
nitrogenous substances have this tendency in a greater 
or less degree, and rapidly suffer the change when un- 
.der the influence of other bodies in the act of decay. 
For example, if a fresh piece of flesh be placed in a per¬ 
fectly new vessel, which has never contained flesh pre¬ 
viously, it will often keep for weeks in hot weather, if 
there be no decaying emanations in the air; but a piece 
of the same flesh kept in a vessel which has contained 
bad meat, will in a few days enter into a putrid state. 
The exciting cause of change may be almost infinitely 
small, but it still acts just as yeast does on sugar, and 
and produces effects on the whole mass: this kind of 
chemical action frequently occurs in the dairy. Any 
decaying emanation, which may either proceed from a 
drop of spilled milk, or from some external source, com¬ 
municates to fresh milk a tendency to pass into the same 
state, and when the condition of change has once begun, 
it is extremely difficult to arrest its progress. The ef¬ 
fects may not at first be perceived; butter may be made 
from milk with this putrefactive taint in all apparent 
goodness, but it soon acquires a bitter taste, and loses its 
original quality. The first practical lesson then to be 
attended to in the dairy, is the preservation of absolute 
cleanliness. The vessels containing the milk must not 
be porous, even the walls and shelves should be non¬ 
absorbent ; cleanliness even to affectation should be in¬ 
sisted upon. The dairy should be away from the farm 
yard, distant from open drains or sewers, and should be 
cleansed with water quite free from organic matter. 
When milk is spilled it should be immediately removed, 
and the place on which it fell should be washed with 
fresh portions of spring water. The neglect of these 
seemingly excessive precautions, is the principal reason 
of the inferiority of the butter of many districts. There 
are, however, two kinds of change to which milk is lia¬ 
ble, either under the influence of decaying matter or 
by being kept for some time. One of them is known as 
putrefaction, the other as decay. Putridity in milk en¬ 
sues when the caseine enters into the state of change to 
which all nitrogenous bodies are subject in limited ac¬ 
cess of air. As the result of this transformation, am¬ 
monia, butyric, capric, caproic, and caprylic acids, and 
various badly smelling gasses are produced. This state 
often results in winter, when a diminished temperature 
prevents the coagulation of the caseine by the lactic 
acid, and the consequent removal of the former from 
the immediate action of the air. 
In summer the temperature induces the speedy for¬ 
mation of an acid, which, uniting with the alkali that 
holds the caseine in solution, precipitates it in an inso¬ 
luble state, and therefore withdraws it from the influ¬ 
ence of the air. The primary action, both in this state 
of decay and putrefaction, is in the absorption of oxy¬ 
gen by the caseine, winch, being once put into action, is 
sufficient not only to continue a state of change in it¬ 
self, but also to effect transformations in the other in¬ 
gredients of milk. When the caseine has been render¬ 
ed insoluble by the acid formed in the way described, it 
enters with difficulty into the former state of putrefac¬ 
tion, anc>is therefore less liable to act upon the butter 
with which it may be mixed. These general remarks 
will suffice to explain the precautions used in preserving 
milk for the purpose of making butter. 
The theory of making butter, either from cream or 
from mik is the same, with only slight differences due 
to their state. Cream consists of the oily globules 
which, from their lightness, have risen to the surface, 
but still covered to a great extent with their cheesy 
skins, and still swimming in a solution of sugar of milk. 
It is the presence of these ingredients that enables cream 
to become sour. The explanation of churning is, there¬ 
fore the same, whether cream or milk is used, the only 
difference being in the labor required to effect the sepa¬ 
ration of the butter. During the process of churning, 
the skins of caseine surrounding the globules of butter, 
are broken by the mechanical agitation, and the butter 
itself being brought into contact, coheres together into 
a mass. The air introduced during this operation, ex¬ 
erts a primary action on the caseine, causing it to form 
lactic acid from the sugar of the milk, and as a result of 
these affinities, the temperature rises several degrees. 
The acid thus formed, aided by the increased tempera¬ 
ture, produces a coagulation of the caseine, and thus 
renders easier the coherance of the butter, by aiding in 
the withdrawal of the covering of the globules, and by 
altering the character of the liquid which had suspended 
them in the form of an emulsion. The fatty matter 
thus obtained, (butter) is not pure, but still contains 
foreign matter, especially caseine, which is the ingredi¬ 
ent that produces its rancidity. Pure butter from the 
cow was found by Bromeis to consist of: 
Margarine,... 68 
Oleine,.. 30 
Butyric, capric and caporic acids, with gly¬ 
cerin, . 2 
100 
But ordinary butter, besides varying in the proportion 
of margarine and oleine, according to the nature of the 
food, and the period of the year, always contains in ad¬ 
dition to these ingredients, cheese, water, and sugar of 
milk, together amounting to from 10 to 16 per cent. It 
is very difficult to get rid of all the cheesy matter, as it 
is now in an insoluble state, but it may be removed to a 
very great extent, by washing the butter in repeated 
portions of water, and decanting off the particles of ca¬ 
seine which suspend themselves in it. In the best kinds 
of butter, the cheesy matter rarely amounts to more 
than 1 per cent; in the inferior varieties there is often 
several- per cent present. As a general rule, the more 
caseine that is left in butter, the more is it apt to become 
rancid. To render this intelligible, attention must be 
given to the normal ingredients of pure butter. Mar¬ 
garine and oleine consists of margaric and oleic acids, 
united to an organic base called oxide of lipyle. Mar¬ 
garic acid consists of 34 equivalents of carbon, 33 cqiri- 
