The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1874-03-12
for the farmer.
BUTTER-MAKING IN COLD Wealth
Ell.

sou,. farmers' wives who have excellent sue
cess with their butter during the warm months,
have more or less trouble with their Cummings
as the weather becomes colder The cream Is
thin and vstery and if comes to butter at ALL it
NAV he hours about il, and the butter is white
and moor at that. Cream collected in November
in cold room. instead Of being firm, yellow, and
grainy, like June or September cream, seems
more like the white of eggs-it is sticky, thin
and rOpey.
of course, there are reasons why cream acts in
that way at this season, but they are not gene
rally well understood.
The secret of the beneficial effects of scaidiug
milk before % ting for the cream to rise, is not
in keeping il warm longer time, but in des-
troying the seeds Of putrefaction that it msy con-
tain. The more healthy the cows are, the bet
ter their food, the purer their water, and the
cleaner their quarters can he kept, the less will
be the tendency 70 putrefsction in the milk, and
the lese need there will be for scalding il.
We have never practIced scalding, because We
believe more butter can be made from unscslded
| than from scalded milk. We have fed the best
| of hsy, with liberal quantity of grain, and sup
| piled our cows with pure water, and kept their
stablrs clean and wholesome. But after sll these
precautions, we find it necessary to treat cream
differently at this season from what we do in
| summer weather. In summer the cream sours
and thickness readily, and when put in the churu
looks grainy, and is as unlike November cream
as a boiled egg is unlike raw one.
We know of no more expressive word to use
| in describing the condition that cream should be
in at the time it is put in the churn, than ripe
ness. If il is ripe, and at the proper tempera-
tnre, it will come to butter after a reasonable
amount of churning; but if it is thin. sticky, and
bitter, aud does not gradually and steadily thick
Ell up by churning, il is unripe and churning
will De labor lost, and probably the cream will
be lost too.
1t used to be the fashion, and now is OIL some
farms, to have two three pretty serious spells
| ut churning every fall. The churH will some
times stand around the stove week or more,
| furnishing "kutting work" for every member of
the household. A hundred and fifty years ago
| the trouble was laid on the witches. Nowadays
| il is "too cold" ''too warm" and cold and hot
| water are poured in alternately with equal I'M
favorable results, Finally after every member
! of the family is both exhausted and Disguised.
| the whole mess goes 10 the pigs. 1t is no wen
| der that farming under such difficulties is any
| thing but attractive 10 the young people.
To avoid all this trouble and loss, we simply
ripen our cream before putting it in the churH.
| From twelve to twenty-four hours before
| churning we set our pals of cream in a kettle
of water and heat il up stirring the cream all
| the time to prevent any portions from melting.
We let the thermometer rise in the cream Ms high
as from 20 to 30 degrees. If the water is pretty
hot il takes but a few minutes to warm up cream
enough for forty pounds Of butter.
This we do simply to.hasten healthy develop
ment of Tactic acid, which is produced faster aud
much more safely under high than low tenn
perature. No fresh cream is added after heating,
as that would tend to retard the churniAg, or it
would he lost in The buttermilk. At 80 degrees
cream is not melted or injured in the least, but
it is all mixed and made alike in every part, aud
it will after standing in moderately warm
room, be ripensd. When it reaches sixty-four
degrees, il is right to churn. lift has stood over
night aud become much Glider than that, it is
again put in the kettle of water and brought up
to the right temperature by the Thermometer.
Under the system We have described We feel
sure of q mess of sweet butter in thirty min
utes after the churn is started, as we do in June
OF September. The heating and standing after
wards changes the appearance of the cream al
most as much as cooking changes the Looks of an
egg. After little practice and observation, one
can tell at glance whether cream is ripe OF not.
If it is not ripe il should not be churned lift is
ripe, and all the attending circumstances are as
they should be, good butter can be made with
certainty in fall OF winter every time.