8 The Colorado Experiment Station 
a 500 pound capacity machine and an 18-cow herd a 900 pound 
capacity one. Don't make the mistake of getting a machine that 
is too small, as it will take too much time to skim the milk. 
collecting the churning. 
Cream should be churned at least twice a week during cold 
weather and three times a week during warm weather. The fre¬ 
quency of churning will depend largely upon the conditions under 
which the cream is collected and kept. Enough has been said to 
show that the kitchen is not the proper place in which to collect and 
keep cream, although it may be necessary, at times, to take it there 
for ripening. 
As soon as the milk has been skimmed, the cream should be 
cooled by setting it in a cold place or by running cold water around 
it. It should be kept in as nearly sweet condition as possible until 
enough has been gathered for churning. After thoroughly cooling 
each skimming of cream, it can be added to the previous skimming. 
In no case should warm cream be added to cold cream, both should 
be equally cold and then they may be put together and thoroughly 
mixed. Every time a new skimming of cream is added to that 
already gathered it should be thoroughly stirred into the cream 
below. None of the cream should be allowed to stick to the sides 
of the cream can or jar above the surface. 
Do not add fresh cream to a batch of older gathered cream 
later than twelve or sixteen hours before churning, as it will not 
ripen or churn uniformly. 
A refrigerator is a poor place in which to keep cream which 
is being collected for a churning. In the first place, it is usually 
used for keeping a little of everything and a mixture of odors are 
found in it, which will flavor the butter and at the same time give 
it a characteristic refrigerator aroma. Again, the refrigerator 
does not contain enough pure air for cream. About as good a 
method as any, is to place the cream can in a tank of cold water 
and give it plenty of pure fresh air. Keep the cream as cold as 
your well water until within about 12 hours of churning time when 
it may have to be warmed somewhat for ripening. 
RIPENING THE CREAM. 
In order to ripen cream, the temperature must be made favor¬ 
able to the development of the lactic acid bacteria (those that pro¬ 
duce the lactic acid or sour the cream). This temperature is 
usually somewhat above 6o° E. The object of ripening or souring 
the cream is to produce the flavor and aroma in the the butter, to 
make the cream churn easier and to improve the keeping qualities 
of the butter. The process of ripening largely controls the quality of 
the butter, therefore it must be considered as the most important 
step in farm butter making. 
