The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-07-31
A PENNSYLVANIA Dairy.
Butter and Cheese making in susgue-
hanna County.

the New York World, had the pleasure
of visiting the largest dairy farm in this
county, which is scarcely less noted
than your own Orange County, for the
superior quality of its butter. always
have had fancy to see dairy farm,
having notion that should see neat
ness brought to an ideal perfection
besides 1 have an appetite for all the
shapes and forms milk can take upon
itself, whether it be fresh from the COW,
in the form of buttermilk, or that (to
mel most. delicious edible cottage
cheese, otherwise Dutch cheese, other
wise-but here my ignorance of the
proper photography may lead me into
Embellishments Neither cham
pagne nor its rival, the Washington
Spring at Saratoga; F; neither terrnpin
nor soft-shell crabs can rival butter
milk and cottage cheese in my estima-
tion. Quite depraved taste, isn't it !?
l was not at all disappointed in the
farm visited, although we descended
upon Mr.. Abner Griffis and his family
i'll the most unexpected manner on a
rainy afternoon. Mr.. Griffis has in one
piece about 700 acres; he keeps 100
cows, and lie and his wife and daughter
not only personally superintend the
butter making, but do large share of
the work themselves. Only eighty-f -four
COWS are milked now, and every milk
ing yields between $50 and 300 gallons
of milk, or between GO and 70 pounds
of butter. When we first drove up we
saw the calves, forty-fve in number,
being put in position to have their even
ing meal placed before them. They
stood in one lot, and their heads were
put between the stanchions, just out
side of which, in another lot, was
! placed the trough, into which the feed
was poured. had never seen calves
so fed, so had the matter explained
The stanchions are movable palings.
An upright paling is moved to one
side, so as to admit a calfs head be-
tween it and the next paling. When
fairly in the paling is secured by
peg at the top, making it impossible
for the calf to withdraw his head.
| The troughs for the feed are followed
out of a log, and each calf has his own
separate trough which no other calf can
reach. The calves are taken from the
cows as soon as they come into the
world ana are taught to feed in this
manner. Milk only is given them at
! first, and after awhile, when they grow
older, mush made of corn meal is
! stirred in. Mr. Grifliss stock is mostly
! Devon, though he has good milkers
who are ordinary brindle cows.
The butter is churned by a horse, who
stands on a chcular platform, some
what inclined, and by constantly step
ping causes the platform to revolve and
II wheel i'll the centre to turn, by means
of which n crank is worked commuui-
eating with beam in the milk-room, to
whose arms the dashers of the churn
are affixed. The beam is horizontal,
and turns from side to side when
worked by the crank, thus raising the
dashers up and down. The beam has
six arms and can work six churns, but
generally only four are used. Between
the room where the machinery is used
and the milk-room, is n shed over a
stone pavement. On table here the
pans and pals not III use are aired after
being thoroughly cleansed with Il brush,
soap, and hot water. Water plays as
important part in butter-making as
milk itself, and must De more plenti-
fully supplied. Beneath the same shed
above mentioned is the penstock, or
hydrant. where the water brought from
IA well-supplied spring, 100 yards dis
tant, overfows into a half hogshead,
or when turned off there is carried to
the barn-yard for the cattle. In build.
ing close at hand is the furnace, on
which stands q vessel of hot water
always ready. The eighty-four cows
are milked by about seven men, who
bring in two pals at time attached to
ii neck-yoke worn by the bearer. The
milk is strained and divided out into
pans which hold about four gallons
each. The room where the milk is kept
is spotless place. The floor, milk-racks
&C., are painted in buff the beam which
works the churns and the churns them
selves are blue. The furniture of the
room consists of two rows of milk racks,
on which between sixty and seventy
pans are set, twelve on tier, and there
IRE five tiers, or six counting the top
tier. There is passage-way between
the racks. Each rack represents q
milking and is duly labelled; as for in
stance one bears a card, Monday A. NJ
another Sunday, P. NJ. The milk is
used as the weather directs. In warm
weather it is necessary to churn often,
, in cold the reverse is necessary. The
cream is skinned from an inch to an
inch and half below the surface, is
thick and leathery when ready fol
churning, and should be at the temper
ature of sixty-four degrees. Every
; effort is made to keep the milk-room al
, an equal temperature and thoroughly
well ventilated. 1t occupies building
r by itself, raised about two feet from
2 the ground. 1t has a double wall al
around, with a space between the outel
and inner wall, or in other words, al
, air wall, which serves to equallze the
+ temperature III all seasons. The win
: dows are used only to give light; thu
? air comes in through Stats in the floor
t and escapes through openings in tn,
t ceiling. thermometer i'll prominen
place gives warning of overmuch hea
or cold. In the winter a stove in tn,
centre of the room has to be used. TIL,
churns are large, barrel-shaped, woodei
: vessels, which hold about forty-fiv
gallons, but are never more than hal
: filled for churning, it being necessar,
: that the dasher should work in the nj
above the cream and force the air down
as we'll as to work beneath the surfac
of the cream. 1t requires about al
hour for the butter to come from churn
ing. If the cream is below the prope
temperature for churniug warm waite
is poured into the churn with it
| above, cold water is used.
: The butter-worker works thirty-fiv
or forty pounds at time, and we say