The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-11-02
Experiments in Dairying'

We publish by request the following,
written by DR.. Hoskins for the Yer
mont Chronicle, and published by that
paper.
Mr.. Douglas has done an important
work, in his lectures and addresses up
on dairying, in insisting upon the i'm
portance Of observing carefully all the
conditions of successful butter manu-
facture. He has very properly given
us line upon line, and precept upon
precept, all bearing directly upon the
necessity of adhering ~ correct princi-
pies in the selection of cows, the care
ofcalves. The management and feeding
of dairy stock, the care of milk and
cream, the churning, sailing, packing,
keeping and marketing of butter.
There is a correct way of managing ev-
cry one of these details, and he has sed-
ulously insisted that not one of them
should be neglected, or indeed, can be,
without materially impairing the quail
ity and value of the product, or its
amount In no particular has Mr..
Douglas been more specific and earn
est than in the matter of temperature.
Asthe advocate ofthe principle of deep
setting, he has declared, over and over
again, that unless the temperature is
right, the result will not be satisfacto-
nv. He has hundreds of times, in va
rious parts of the state, and in other
states where he has been invited,
called The attention Of his hearers to
this matter of temperature. and has
said, truly, that in deep setting. the
quantity of cream was entirely depend
ent upon maintaining the milk in the
pals al q temperature of not less than
sixty degrees, ranging from that to six
ty-five degrees. Below sixty, the full
yield of cream cannot be raised, as he
has determined by numerous trials.
Notwithstanding the continued en-
phasis laid upon this matter by Mr..
Douglas, we constantly see records of
what are called experiments in deep
setting" in which the temperature is
entirely unconsidered unless, indeed,
as we have been sometimes led to fear,
the "eXperlment' was preuestineu 10
result, in the interest of the large pan
patents, never very favorable to deep
setting.
We are led to these remarks by find
ing the following in the Vermont Far
mer
"The Bucks county, Pa, Farmers Club made
the following experiment in deep and shallow
setting Four hundred seventy-six pounds of
milk (half the mess from eight cows for week.,
was set in deep cams, sixteen inches deep, in
vat of water at ffty-eight degrees, and the same
quantity, being the other half, after it had been
thoroughly mixed, was set three inches Deep in
old-fashiOned pans, and set on the stone floor of
milk-cellar, at sixty degrees After setting
forty-eght hours it was skinned. That set deep
gave forty-six pounds Of cream and made fifteen
pounds ten ounces Of butter. That set shallow
gave ffty-seven pounds of cream and made TWEEN
ty-one pounds, six ounces Of butter, q gain of
over twenty-five per cent. in quantity, in favor
the shallow pans. The butter from the deep set
milk was pronounced by some trife the best,
though both would rank as strictly first class
1t will be seen that the milk in deep
cans was set in water at the tempera-
ture of fifty-eight degrees, while the
milk III pans was set at sixty, on eel
lar floor where the air must have va
ried more or less with the outside tenn
perature, and was probably above that
of the cellar bottom, The water in
tank sixteen inches deep, if at q tenn
perature of fifty-eight degrees at the
surface, will, in all probability 1--WE
speak from oxperience), be at least four
degrees lower at the bottom.
Now what foolish experiment this
is; and yet it is the type of every So
called test" of deep setting that we
have seen, where the result was favor
able TO shallow pans. 1t was arace be-
tween deep milk at about an average
temperature of fifty-six, with shallow
milk at temperature of sixty or over,
to see which would throw up the most
cream in forty-eight hours. There
was no need of trying this Mr.. Doug
las has repeatedly stated that all the
cream cannot be got from milk twelve
inches deep Ito say nothing of sixteen
inohes) in forty-eight hours, at tenn
perature below sixty degrees. His sys-
tenn, therefore, cannot be overthrown
by such experiments" as this. But
the patent nilk-pan men are filling
the papers and the public mind with
the idea that shallow setting is the on
ly way to get all the cream, and such
trials as the above find very general
circulation. On the other hand, deep
setting has no interested advocates, but
resting upon its merits. in the hands of
careful and skillful men alone, is not
likely to make much progress, except
with that class of dairymen. With
such, we think, it will grow more and
more in favor, as they come to under
stand its economy of space, time and
labor, and its perfectly comfortable and
uniform results.