38 
THE OX. 
THE HAIRY. 
the churn is moved round, or the axle with its arms is moved, the churn remaining stationary. Of the two kinds described, the 
best is the plunge churn, which may either be moved by the hand, or be on the larger scale, and driven by machinery. 
The best temperature for churning is about 56° of Fahrenheit, the heat of the milk rising 4° by the action of churning; and 
in the warmer season of summer, the most suitable time for performing the operation is in the cool of the morning. In winter, 
when the weather is cold, the temperature of the milk should he raised to 60° or more, by the addition of warm water. The time 
required for churning by the hand varies from about an hour and a quarter to two hours ; and in winter to three hours. The 
process should be begun gently, so as to break the coagulum, and then continued equally and without intermission. 
The butter being formed, is collected and removed from the churn. It is then worked to and fro on a board, or smooth 
slab, so as to express the serum, dried with a cloth, or moderately washed with water. The operation of kneading may be per¬ 
formed by the hand, but it is better done by wooden spatulee, the contact of the hand injuring the butter. When the butter is not 
designed for immediate use, the pressure and washing should be so performed as that all the serum shall be separated, any portion 
of it remaining causing the butter to spoil in a short time. When the butter is intended for sale, it is mixed with a little pure 
salt, and formed into lumps or rolls, usually of a pound or half a pound each. It is kept cool, but in no case under water. When 
the butter is not designed for present consumption, it is more or less impregnated with salt, in the proportion of an ounce or less 
to the pound. The salt being worked into the butter, the latter is put in jars or casks. The casks should be of lime, or other 
hard wood, carefully seasoned by being boiled for several hours before being formed into casks, and afterwards by being exposed 
to the air, and well soaked in cold water or brine previous to use. The cask being rubbed in the inside with salt, the butter is 
pressed into it, and in seven or eight days a quantity of melted butter, or a saturated solution of salt and water, may be poured 
in to fill up any vacuity between the butter and the wood ; and the whole being then covered with a layer of salt, the top of the 
vessel is put on. With the salt employed in curing may be mixed a proportion of purified nitrate of potassa, and sometimes a quan¬ 
tity of sugar, which preserves the butter without communicating a saline taste. 
The other method practised consists in churning the milk and cream together. In this case the milk, as it is brought from 
the Cows, is put into the cooling vessels, as before, in order that it may cool down quickly to the temperature of the milk-house. 
When this has taken place, or even without the preliminary cooling, the whole milk is emptied into a barrel, where it remains 
until it becomes acid and coagulates. This will take place in a week or less, according to the temperature of the air. It is then 
put into the churn, and gently churned for a few seconds, so as to break the coagulum, and mix its parts \ and then a little hot 
water is added, so as to raise the temperature to 70° or 75°. The addition of hot water is not necessary, but it saves labour by 
causing the butter to separate more readily. The process of churning is more laborious than when the cream alone is used ; and 
therefore machinery should be employed to move the churn. In the larger dairies the churn may be made to contain sixty or 
seventy gallons or more, and this quantity of milk may, by means of a small pony or slight water-power, be churned in an hour 
and a half. 
When the cream alone has been used in churning, the residuum after removal of the cream is skimmilk. This substance 
still retains the caseum of the milk, and may therefore be employed for the making of cheese. But it is not so well suited for this 
purpose as the entire milk, because the cream, which adds to the richness of the cheese, has been mostly withdrawn. It may be 
used for human food, and is perfectly nutritious, containing both the caseum and sugar of milk. Over a large part of England 
it is chiefly employed for the feeding of Hogs, which is a great misapplication of a substance fitted for human aliment, and prac¬ 
tised in no other country in Europe. 
When the milk and cream are churned together, the dairy affords no skimmilk. But in place of it there is the buttermilk, 
which is a greatly more nutritive substance than that which is obtained when the cream alone is churned. It is merely, in truth, 
the milk deprived of its butter. It is subacid and cooling, and is used for food in some of the western counties of England, largely 
throughout the west of Scotland, and all over Ireland. It may be coagulated, and cheese prepared from it; but the cheese of but¬ 
termilk is of little estimation. When buttermilk is kept, it partially undergoes the alcoholic fermentation, and becomes intoxicating. 
The consumption of butter in the British Islands is prodigiously great. It is used by all classes in the solid form as a grateful 
food; and is applied to the innumerable purposes of household economy, in which oil is used in the countries of the olive. Notwith¬ 
standing the vast internal production, a large importation takes place from other countries, chiefly from Germany and Holland. 
The principal district of the butter dairy in England is the southern and south-eastern counties. Butter is brought to London in 
the fresh state from the distant provinces; and even when salted, it is the practice of the dealers to wash out the salt, and sell the 
butter to the inhabitants as fresh. 
The other product of the dairy is Cheese, which may either be produced by curdling the entire milk, or by separating the 
cream and coagulating the milk alone. The first process is the preparation of the coagulating medium termed runnet or rennet, 
