Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-01-05
farmers Department.
Important Facts in Butter Making.
4e Editor Of The Netc lork Tribune.

To te Editor Of The Netc lok Tribune.
Sra / have before me your paper of the
27th Oct, which contains a communication
from a practical farmer of Wheattand, Meil-
roe Couatv. IN which IL Is anN2U> 10 test Dv
q fait tria! tie ~!6"trinc lad Gown w myself
at the State Fair, in Flmira,. that no first
quality of butter can be made on limestone
land where the water with which the butter is
washed is hard. q
Your correspondent seems anxious that O
trial should be made this Fall, after the 9th
November, as we'll as in June as In August
next. ! here desire to lazy down what l re-
gard as another truism, that there never was,
and never can be, one pound of first quality
butter made after a heavy frost has killed the
grass-which in this region is as early as the
9th of October. The grass becomes insipid
and bitter, and butter partakes of the favor
Of the food on which the cow feeds, for sweet
ness, richness, and solidity, in the same ratio
as cows which feed partly on garlics, wild
onions and ru~tabagas, afford butter unfit for
table use and with the same result as to keep
ing. The longer this kind of butter is kept
the more offensive it becomes while butter
made when the COW gets nothing but the sweet
high-fayored grasses will improve, if we'll
i1;tilllIiCluttu, utlGll L 10 lIpt. "IAIA VI" ~ II
from three to four months. ... ..... sr
I am rather inclined to think that your cor
respondent is not a good buttermaker for a
hard water country, | fancy his wife is the
huttcr-maker, and if he will take the trouble
TO inquire, she will inform him that no first
quality of butter can be made either in Nov.
or August. While the one is too cold with
frost-bitten grass, the other is quite too warm;
and without ice it is impossible to make first
quality butter. And even with ice, | believe
l hazard nothing in saying it is so difficult a
task that a package containing 100 pounds
has never been found in the market.
Now if hard and soft water lands are to
have a fair test. so as to decide which is best
adapted to making first quality butter, the
TRIAL certainly should take place at the season
when first quality butter can be made. May
and September are the two best months in
this latitude, with part of June, something
depending on the season.
In this communication it is not my purpose
to say whether | believe that grasses as well
adapted to the production of first quality but
do not grow on hard water land as on soft,
but do mean that it is just as indispensably
necessary to have soft water to wash the milk
from butter, as it is to have soft water to wash
fine linen, or to water rot fax to make the
hurl soft, or to water plants. BY this | do
wish to be understood as saying that hard wa
ter lands are not best for some crops, or even
that hard water is not better for some purpo-
ses. Eggs may be kept for years in lime-wa-
ter properly prepared, which would spoil in
soft water in twenty days.
And it is by no means invariable that in a
lime stone country the springs or streams are
OF hard water, though usually they are. In
some localities they are Just as soft as the rain
that falls from the clouds, and which was alb
sorbed within a mile distant, from some hard
water lake, or pool, or the ocean itself.
1t may be said that many Of the best but
ter makers do not wash their butter. Of this
fact | am quite well aware, and in the vicinity
of Philadelphia, where they make as good but
ter for immediate use as anywhere, they never
wash their butter, nor do / believe that it
would be improved for immediate use there or
here, by washing but | do mean to say, and
Oh this point | wish to be distinctly under
stood, that to work butter sufficiently to sepe-
rate every particle Of milk, so that it will keep
a year, would destroy tue grain and render 1t
oil. A'fer kecT r. n few months j.. wooid ryhi-
Di9 The bal a@ff,.t, all ..e j. --r't sA,u.d DC
the f.or" Ic'repri3lg Injurious all that effect
lie.
The plan which your correspondent propo-
seS, at your suggestion, to test the question, is
practicable and fair, and should be tried. !
will see that some butter made from soft W.
ter land by a fair test is forwarded in March
or April, 1857, as the butter cannot be made
until SO.
Meantime | think | can suggest a plan
whereby butter makers on hard water land, if
skeptics, can satisfy themselves fairly. In
May, when grass is good, work one crock,
without washing, in your best manner then
take rain water and wash, as soon as your
%churning is completed, all the milk from the
butter. BE careful in washing to pull the but
ter over with a ladle SO as not to affect the
grain then put it away in some sweet, cool
place, out of the reach of any bad influence
of which it can partake, until it has assumed
its proper color then work it over by hand
and lay it down in your crock and after it is
laid down the anne care must be taken to keep
it through the season. 4 common farm-cel-
lar, with meats, fish, and vegetables, would
spoil in sixty days the best package of butter
ever made. Then III like manner, or in your
own way, wash another with water that you
know to be hard, as some springs that are
hard in dry weather i'll the rainy seasons are
nearly soft lay down and keep both parcels
as near alike as possible, without salt, as but
ter does not require salt to preserve it any
more than lard does. Salt is only necessary
for the purpose of ~favoring anything that is
not palatable. Salt can be worked in at cnv
time. Then pursue the same course with three
more packages sailed with Liverpool salt, and
observe the result. You will probably be as
well satisfied as | am that hard water Injuries
butter. A. b. Dickinson.
Horribly, NeW-York, Dec. s, 1865.