PRACTICAL PAPERS—BUTTER FACTORIES. 
211 
Some prefer diluting the cream with water and passing it 
through a sieve before putting it in the churns, in order that 
the particles of cream may all be of uniform size ; since if the 
butter does not come evenly, but is mixed with small particles 
of cream, it will soon deteriorate, and will not make a prime 
or fancy article. This point is considered of great importance 
by the best butter makers, and it is claimed that the method of 
setting the milk in deep pails, by which a thin cream is ob¬ 
tained, rather than the thick leathery masses skimmed from 
milk set in pans, renders it more eveuly churned, and thus se¬ 
cures a better product. It is partly on this account also that it 
is preferred to have the churning occupy from half to three- 
quarters of an hour, since it has been found that when the 
butter comes too quickly it is more or less injured. 
In warm weather ice is sometimes broken up and put in the 
churn to reduce the temperature of the cream; but it is deemed 
better to churn without ice, if the cream does not rise above 
64 deg. F. in the process of churning, as butter made with ice is 
more sensitive to heat. It is, however, a less evil to use ice 
than to have the butter come from the churn white and soft. 
In churning, the dashes are so arranged as to go downwards 
within a quarter of an inch of the bottom of the churn, and to 
rise above the cream in their upward stroke. 
The temperature of the cream, while being churned, should 
be kept below 65 deg.; for if at the close of the churning the 
butter-milk should be at that temperature or above it, the 
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flavor and color of the butter will be injured. In cold 
weather, the temperature of the cream, when ready for churn¬ 
ing, is a little higher than in warm weather, about 62 deg. being 
considered the right point. Faotorymen prefer that the churn¬ 
ing should occupy on an average about forty-five minutes ; an 
half-hour being the shortest space of time, and an hour the 
longest, that should be employed in this operation. When the 
butter begins to come, the churn is rinsed down with cold 
spring water. The butter should come of a firm or solid con¬ 
sistency and of a rich yellow color. 
