| flavour of the butter.” 
988 
ter appears from him to be a secret in certain 
families, and to require practice and dexterity to 
conduct it with success. 
Still, however, we are disposed to believe that 
some pastures are more favourable to the pro- 
duction of good butter than others. Certain 
plants, such as turnip, wild garlic, hemlock, 
rough-leaved dandelion, charlock, the butter-cup, 
and may-weed, are known to affect milk with a 
disagreeable flavour, and there may be many 
others which, to a certain degree, impair its good- 
ness, though their effects are by no means so 
evident. Far more, however, depends on good 
management than on this circumstance, or even 
on the species of cow we feed; for that some- 
thing, likewise, is owing to this, is equally well 
| ascertained. Cows have been found whose milk 
could not be brought to yield any butter at all. 
It has been long remarked, that the butter in the 
| Highlands of Scotland, when properly made, 
possesses a peculiarly rich and delicate flavour ; 
and this has been almost universally attributed 
to the old grass on which the cows feed in these 
remote glens. But what more common error 
than to mistake a concomitant circumstance for 
a cause? Dr. Anderson, by his experiments on 
milk, has shown that the excellence of the High- 
Jand butter may be very reasonably ascribed to 
a quite different cause. He has proved that the 
cream of a given measure of milk constantly in- 
creases in quantity, and still more in quality, 
from the first drawn tea-cupful, to the last drop 
that can be squeezed from the udder at the time. 
“Probably,” says he, “on an average of a great 
many cows, the proportion of the cream obtained 
from a given quantity of the last drawn milk, 
may be to that of the cream obtained from 
an equal quantity of the first drawn, as ten or 
twelve to one; but the quality of the cream of 
the last drawn was still more superior than its 
quantity. The cream of the first drawn tea- 
cupful of the milk was only a thin white film; 
in the last, it was of a thick butyraceous con- 
sistence, and of a glowing richness of colour, 
such as no other cream possesses. It is, there- 
fore, observes Dr. Anderson, of much more im- 
portance than 1s commonly imagined, to milk the 
cows well; for on the cream of the last drawn 
milk depends entirely the richness and delicate 
Now, in the Highlands 
of Scotland, where they rear almost all their 
calves, the common practice is to admit the calf 
to suck the mother always for a certain time be- 
fore milking. And when the dairy-maid judges 
the calf has had enough, it is removed to the pen 
or cruzve, from which it had been brought. In 
this way, the latter drawn parts of the milk only 
are obtained for the dairy; and the cream pro- 
duced from it being of a superior quality, the 
excellence of the Highland butter seems to be 
accounted for. In the higher districts of Gallo- 
way, a similar mode of management prevails, and 
BUTTER. 
It has been likewise ascertained, that the cream 
which first rises after the milk has been depo- 
sited in the dairy-pans, is both much greater in 
a given space of time, than that which rises in 
an equal space several hours after, and of a 
greatly superior quality; that thick milk throws | 
up less cream than thin, but of a richer quality ; 
and that milk that has been much agitated by 
carrying, and cooled before it is put into the 
milk-pans, never throws up so much cream as 
that which is immediately deposited in them 
after milking. It is also known, that the milk 
is not at the best till about four months after the 
cow has calved; and that the degree of heat most 
favourable to the production of cream from milk, 
is from 50 to 55 degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermo- 
meter. “If the heat of the milk-house,” says 
Dr. Anderson, “be too great, the milk suddenly 
coagulates, without admitting of any separation 
of the cream ; or it is so quickly turned sour, as 
greatly to mar the operation. If, on the other 
hand, the milk be exposed to too cold a tempera- 
ture, the cream separates from it slowly, and 
with difficulty ; it acquires a bitter and disagree- 
able taste; the butter can scarcely be made to 
come at all; and when it is come, it is so pale in 
the colour, so small in quantity, and of such hard 
and brittle consistence, so poor to the taste, and 
of so little value in all respects, as to bring a very 
low price at the market, compared to what it 
would have produced had it been preserved in a | 
proper degree of heat.” The same judicious 
writer states it as his opinion, formed from ex- 
perience and attentive observation, that since | 
neither cream nor butter can be produced from 
milk till some portion of an acid be evolved in it, 
the last drawn half of the milk only should, in 
general, be set up for producing cream, and be 
allowed to stand till it throw up the whole of its 
cream, even till the milk tastes perceptibly sour- 
ish; and that if this cream be afterwards judi- 
ciously managed, the butter thus obtained will | 
be of a greatly superior quality to what can be 
usually got at market, and its quantity not con- 
siderably less than if the whole of the milk had 
been originally set apart for producing cream. 
“This, therefore,” says he, “is the practice that 
I should recommend, as most likely to suit the | 
frugal farmer ; as his butter, though of a superior 
quality, could be afforded at a price that would 
always insure it a rapid sale.” ; 
The degree of heat during the process of churn- 
ing has a far more powerful influence on both 
the quantity and the quality of the butter than 
is commonly supposed. In the portion of the 
Highland Society’s Transactions published in 
November 1828, appears a report of five experi- 
ments by Dr. John Barclay and Mr. Alexander 
Allen, as to the temperature at which butter can 
be best procured from cream. The following 
table exhibits the mean temperature of the cream 
used in each experiment, the time occupied in 
their butter is observed to be rich and delicate. | the different churnings, the quantity of butter 
