Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1875 — Management of Milk for Making Butter. [ARTICLE]

Management of Milk for Making Butter.

Judging from the immense cargoes of miserable grease-butter that are sent to market, there is much to be learned with reference to the proper management of the milk. In a recent address, S. E. Lewis, a dairyman of Chenango County, N. Y., said: . . 1 think that there is no branch of in dustry so ilniversal as the handling of milk, and so little really known about it as the rising of cream upon milk. Few are aware of the very sensitiveness of milk to atmospheric changes. Mercury itself is not much more so. It is a question among many as to what depth milk should be set to get the most cream upon a given quantity of milk. It does not make so much difference as to the depth of the milk as it does the protection of thq milk from the acid or souring. As soon as the acid commences to develop itself in the milk the cream ceases to rise. Many of you have seen milk sour and whey off in from ten to twelve hours’ time, and in such cases there is as much cream on milk two inches deep as there is on milk six -inches deep. The reason of this is that the acid commences to develop itself in the milk before the animal heat leaves it; hence there is little or no cream of any value, without regard to depth. With a clear, dry atmosphere the cream will rise clean in the milk; but in that condition of the atmosphere that hastens the acid in the milk the cream will not rise clean, but seems to hang in the milk, and this even \vhen the milk is protected from the acid by being placed in cold water.

The advantages and benefits arising from setting milk in cold water are that it facilitates the rising of the cream and protects the milk from 4he acid until the cream has time to rise in an unfavorable condition of the atmosphere. For cream to rise reftdily on milk set in water the atmosphere in the room should be warmer than the water, provided the water is. cold enough to protect the milk from the acid. There will as much cream rise on milk set ten inches deep in cold water m one hour as there will on milk of the same depth not set in cold water in twenty-four hours. When milk is set in cold water the cream commences to rise at once from the bottom of the milk.

— —~ but on milk not set in water the cream after a few hours commences to form upon the top of the milk and gradually grows thicker. To those who wish to set their milk in water, if they do not wish to make cheese, I would recommend tire large pans, and to those who wish to make cheese in connection with their butter to use the long coolers, nineteen inches long and eight in diameter, for the reason that the cream can be skimmed clean from the coolers at any time, -while the cream cannot be skimmed a. clean from the pans until the milk thickens or the cream hardens. Those who do not have running water should have the pan for holding the water some ten inches longer than the pan for the milk; then ice can be put in the end of the pan; the water will equalize its own temperature. In skimming the cream off from the milk, there should always be milk enough skimmed in with the cr„eam to give the butter when* churned a- bright, clean look. Butter churned from clear cream, little or no milk skimmed in with it»,will have an oily or shiny look to it when it comes, which shows that the grain of the butter is destroyed. Cream skimmed from different milkings, if churned at the same time in one churn, should be mixed eight to ten hours before churning—long enough for it to assimilate and all to become of the same chemical condition. Then the butter will all come at the same time—otherwise there will be a loss, a part left in the buttermilk. Cream should -be churned in its first acid, as near as may be. After the acid has developed itself to a certain extent it will begin to eat up the cream and injure the quality of the butter.—#. Y. Herald.

—Susan B. Anthony has been an untiring attendant at' the bedside of her brother, D. R. Anthony, of Leavenworth, during his illness resulting from Embryos pistol-shot; and if the wounded man recovers it trill be due largely to Miss Anthony’s skill and attention. Every particle of food eaten by the Colonel was prepared by her hands, and for the time, at least, the stroiigminded worn an was merged in the loving sister. —C. C. Williams, of Petersham, Mass., has recently had a piece of granite one and a quarter inches long, and weighing half an ounce, taken from the back of his head, where it has lodged for nineteen years.