December 15, 1906. 
The Dairy 
Essentials in Good Butter- 
Making. 
Particularly for Summer Months 
By R. Sriva Jonzs, Dairy Expert. 
During the summer. heat considerable 
difficulty is always experienced by dairy 
farmers in making a really good market- 
able butter, and these few points are pen- 
ned to help those, who often through 
want of a little knowledge on the subject 
especially in the heat of the summer, suf- 
fer far more inconvenience they should. 
Although I do not wish to infer that 
without means of artifical cooling. hard 
and firm butter can be made throughout 
the summer, I am certain that if these 
suggestions are followed, the bother and 
inconvenience of soft butter will be re- 
duced to a minimum, and the quality of 
the article made will be most decidedly 
improved. In many cases the quantity 
will also be increased, as, under the pre-. 
sent conditions, tests go to show a consid- 
erable amount of waste in the method of 
ng. 
“fag and foremost the buildings or 
rooms in which the butter is made should 
be thoroughly well cleaned up and should 
‘be well white-washed at least once a year, 
preferably it ought to be done at the be- 
ginning of each butter season which, is as 
-arule, in December. For ‘an ordinary 
farm dairy, from an economical and from 
a working point of view I consider a 
pbuilding on the hut principle, if pr operly 
made, and nicely finished off on the inside 
will answer the purpose admirably. I 
noticed a very nice arrangement the other 
day in a farm dairy on the hut principle. 
The floor of half the hut was cement 
and the other hslf was boarded; the 
cemented half was used for the churning 
 ete,, and the boarded half for the making 
up and packing on. This arrangement 
being so much nicer for those working 
with the butter. The dairy itself should 
be exclusively used for the eream ripening 
and butter making. Nothing else ought 
to be kept in the room not even the separ- 
ator. It is much'better both from the 
point of view of cleanliness and also for 
easy working, that the separator should 
have an apartment quite to itself. Insome 
cases a corner of the milking shed is diy- 
- ided off for this purpose and in other cases. 
it is done in an adjourning room, but 
wherever it is done, it will be found that 
_ anywhere other than in the dairy itself 
 wili be preferable, as the dairy must be 
kept scrupluously clean, and with the 
separator therein it necessitates the tramp- 
es ing of a large amount of dirt and dust in- 
_ to the dairy besides the smell of oil, and 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
I renee 
in the summer it will be found easier to 
keep the temperature lower on account of 
there being less traffic in and out. 
The only objection to the separator be- 
ing away from the dairy, and perhaps in 
the shed, is the accommodation for hot 
water for washing up on completion of the 
work. But this small objection is [ think 
easily over-ruled by the consequent advan- 
tages gained, 
It must be fully understood at the out- 
set by butter makers that the quality of 
the butter to be made is obtained during 
the process of cream ripening, and it be- 
hoves everyone therefore to pay very 
particular attention to this process, as the 
churning is purely mechanical. 
cream is put into the churn there is every 
possibility of getting a good butter out, 
but if indifferent cream is put iuto the 
churn it is unlikely, in fact it is impossible 
for a good butter to be the result of the 
churning. In order to obtain this object 
it is essential that the cream should be 
taken from the separator as thick as is 
consistent with perfect separation. For 
this the milk should be separated as soon 
as possible after it is milked to prevent 
the temperature falling. During the 
winter months the crevm can be separated 
a little thinner, in fact it will be found 
better to thin down a little as soon as the 
‘cold weather sets in, or loss of butter may 
be the result from imperfect separating. 
One hundred pounds of cream should pro- 
duce from fifty to sixty pounds of butter. 
- One censiderable error that is generally 
made is that the cream bucket containing 
cream from a previous separation is placed 
under the cream spout to receive cream 
from subsequent separations. This especi- 
ally during the sumwer, isa fatal mistake, 
No cream must be mixed until such time 
as the new or freshly separated cream has 
stood and cooled to nearly or close to the 
temperatare of the old or previously sep- 
arated cream. The reason for.this is ob- 
vious. During the summer months cream 
often becomes over ripe, which must in 
turn tell against the butter produced, and 
the repeated addition of a warm cream to 
the bulk helps this overripeness, whereas 
if it be allowed to col first and is then 
added to the bulk, the tendency to this 
overripeness, which often develops into 
partial decomposition, is reduced to mini- 
mum, and the benefit of this practice will 
evidence itself at once 
The nex’ and equally important as the 
previous process is the thorungh eration 
of the creani itself. ‘The benefits derived 
from this eration may be summed up as 
follows, that is, of course, together with 
complete the seration :— — 
The exposure of the cream to the air 
_the occasional stirring of the cream to. 
_ permits of the free passage of the natural- 
ly cow-like smell which belongs to fresh 
‘warm cream. By being exposed to the 
air while it is cooling down, this will pass 
away. The air ayain is responsible for 
bringing out the natural color of the but- 
ter and prevent the cream from ripening 
If good — 
impossible to get them out. 
. churning, 
are at hand to reduce it, 
duce the temperature in summer to aslow _ 
aye Tat 
unevenly and produciag butters of a dif- 
ferent character from the same bulk of 
cream. The continual stirring, say at 
least morning and evening, brings a dif- 
ferent portion of cream to the surface and 
allows the whole toripenevenly. By this 
stirring should the cream not be suffici- 
ently thick and milk being present in the 
eream which must be avoided if possible, 
the coagulation of such milk will be bro- 
ken down and the term may almost be 
applied that it has the tendency to liquefy 
such coagulation. This cream will then 
pass away with the buttermilk, but if it is 
not stirred the milk at the bottum of such 
receptacle holding the cream will coagulate 
into a mass and deteriorate the cream and 
when the whole is thrown into the churn, 
the churning process will break the coag- 
ulated milk into small lumps which will 
become mixed with the butter and it is 
The butter 
will then be full of white spots which will 
soon start to decompose and naturally will 
carry the butter with it and soon become’ 
uneatable. No cream must be added to 
the bulk, at less than twelve hours to the 
or streaky butter will result 
therefrom, Aa a 
It will therefore be seen how important 
it is first of all not to allow any milk in 
_ the cream, and shouid by any mistake any » 
milk become mixed with it, how by con- 
tinual stirring its ill effects may be reduc- 
ed. The cream to ripen is best put into 
any vessel very open mouthed ordinary 
milk dishes are best, but if the amount of. 
cream is large, they are cumbersome. 
When large, buckets are best, enamelled 
preferably, if the enamel is not chipped. 
They should be immediately discarded for — 
cream as soon as they chip. Whatever is 
_used should only be covered over with 
butter cloth—no lid of any kind that ex- 
cludes air should be used—and to stir the’ 
cream with a wooden spoon will be found 
better than anything else. | When the 
cream is ready for churning—i.e. suffici- 
ently ripe; which can only be gauged when 
the cream should be distinctly acid to 
taste, but still retaining its sweet smell, 
The cream so treated will undoubtedly be 
found far too thick for churning. It should 
then be thinned down with fresh clean 
water—on no account should 
used—until the milk runs easily off the 
stirrer. If this isnot done the cream is 
apt to ‘bong’ or ‘froth up’ in the churn 
and make the process of churning very 
laborious: te 
The temperature of the cream is the 
next important item to notice. 
The temperature of churning naturally 
varies in accordance with the time of the 
year, and as a gederal standard 60 Fahr, 
may be taken as the churning degree to 
be varied in accordance with the sur- 
rounding temperature in winter up to as 
high as 62 or 64 Fahr. but in summer 
down to 56 or 58 Fahr., if that temperat- 
ure can be got, where no artificial means ‘ 
milk be 
In order to re- 
