The Portland daily press., 1877-11-05
THE PRESS.
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Winter Butter.

out Oh season always brings greatly ehhanc-
ed price. There are always purchasers Tor
good things put up in attractive form. Much
good butter. however, is spoiled In the man
ner OF putting up for market. Butter of ex-
cellent quality, presented in neat, shapely
prints, or in clean, neat packages, need
never 60 a-begging for market; but in
Winter time when it is scarce commodity.
it never fails to bring twice the price of Sum-
mer butter. Few dairy men or women know
how to manage butter thoroughly well in
Winter. There must be fresh cows. and
these must be such as yield fine-favored aud
high-colored milk, although the latter is not
an absolute requisite. There must be clean,
we-aired, warm stables, the best of feed,
well arranged dairy Accommodations,
and skillful hand and head to manage ali
these. Some farmers make a special bust
ness of Winter dairying. The Summer is de-
voted to growing and harvesting crops, and
the Winter to Transforming these into an
easily and profitable salable product.
For Winter dairy cow. the grade Jersey
is to be preferred. She is easily fed and pro-
duces butter of good favor, color, and tex
ture. The grades greatly excel the pure bred
in profit as butter cows. They yield far
more copiousy and cost one-half or two
thirds less. A cross of pure Jersey bull
with short-horn or Ayrshire COW, makes
undoubtedly the very best COW for ordinary
butter dairy purposes. The bull should be
selected from a well-known milking family,
and the cows should also be chosen for their
good dairy qualities. From such breeding
animals we may expect cows that will be
most valuable in the dairy, and especially for
a Winter dairy. The cows for winter use
should calve in September or October. This
is convenient time, both for raising the
calves, which are weaned before the flush of
business comes on, and for getting the cow
well established on her Winter ratlons. The
stables for Winter dairy should be warm
and healthful. There are stables that reek
with foul air, in which the cows sweat and
steam. No fresh air can gain admittance to
them, and the butter from cows thus kept is
tainted before it leaves the cows udders A
stable with stone walls, half basement or Gel
lar, and open on one side to clean yard
facing the south, is perhaps the best
There should be double windows in front,
rear aud ends, to admit plenty of light and
exclude cold, and there should be yentilating
shafts from the ceilingthrough the barn above
The ceiling above the COWS should be plaster
ed, SO that dust and dirt would be excluded.
This is important, because at the best some
of the dust that may fall upon the cows will
find its way into the milk, and if the greatest
care is not exercised in carding and brushing
them, much OF the dust from above will fall
into the pail and become mingled With the
butter. In all the arrangements of the stable
there mnst be absolute cleanliness. The
floors should be Uttered with absorbents that
will soak up all the liquids, and the drop
pings should be removed twice day. The
most useful absorbents are dry earth or dry
swamp muck, because these are deodorizers.
and sweeten the stable as we'll as keen it
clean. 1t will be found advisable, if straw
is used, to run it through fodder cutter and
cut it into chat. Then occasional dustings
of the floor with gypsum will absorb and
neutraliZe all the disagreeabe odors of the
stable. The daily use of the card and a
coarse brush upon the cows will not only
preserve cleanliness, but will greatly aid to
keep them healthful and contented. In
short, the dairyman who would succeed in
working his dairy to the greatest profit in the
Winter time must study and practice every
resource by which the comfort of his cows
and the purity of their products may be Sc
cured.
The feed that produces the best butter il
eary-cut bay. Clover, blue grass and timo-
thy cut early and well cured in the cock.
with little exposure to the sun, is certainly
the best fodder. Mixed with this NAV be
given daily feed of three or four quarts of
meal, consisting of yellow corn and wheat
bran in equal parts, or wheat bran and bar
ley. When oats are mixed in the feed the
butter loses color, and sometimes the cream
Is fOSb III CuutuluSs DuCkWQ6aL produces
white and tasteless butter, and no dairyman
except milkman should use it for feed.
Sugar beets and carrots are excellent roots
tor butter; mangels, turnips, aud ruta- bagas
are Objectionable on account of the flavor
We have found steamiDg the feed to be an
economy where the requisite help is at hand
without extra cost, and if the iced is given
slightly warm it adds much to the compost of
the cews, aids digestion, and increases the
milk product. In our own practice we have
found that carefully grown and well cured
sweet corn fodder is equal to the best hay.
The daily rations for cows that were given
one pound of butter daily during the depth of
Winter in our dairy, were two bushel baske.
of cut corn fodder, with three and one-haf
quarts of ground feed of corn and wheat bran
in equal parts. Half of this is given in the
morning and half IN the evening At noon
10 pounds of hay was given in the racks, and
just before milking in the afternoon each COW
received pailful of cat roots, sprinkled with
corn meal or bran. Each feed, except the
hay, was sprinkled with salt at the rate of a
handful to each COW. The butter produced
was OF good color, and pail which was
kept over year was as sweet and well flavor
ed when opened as when packed. The cut
feed was sometimes moistened with hot
water, and covered to steep until it was near
ly kcool, and was sometimes steamed, as
ence in results could be noticed, excepting
that when the food was steamed the COWS
left some of the hay and nozed over their
roots considerably, as if either dissatisfied or
devoid of appetite. The dairy accommoda
tions may now be greatly smplified since the
method of cold setting has come into practice.
This system is copied from the Swedish
dairy. and consists in sitting the milk in
Iose-covered deep pans, which are either
bodily submerged in a tank of cold water or
are placed in ice closet, where they are in
either case kept at a temperature but little
above freezing. The former system is the
Cooley plan, and the latter the Hardin meth
cd, both being patented; or, at least, neces-
saIy pans, tanks, and coolers are covered by
patents. They are, however, SO desirable as
TO their results that one can well afford to pay
the small cost charged for their use. The
churnlng and preparing of the butter, how
ever, are in no way different in Winter
dairy from the methods of summer dairy
of the first class, excepting, perhaps, in re-
gard to coloring. This may sometimes be
needed. When necessary, it should be done
skillfully and by no mems overdone. The
color used is a preparation of annotto, in LIQUID
form, which is mixed with the cream; gener-
ally a teaspoonful is sufficient for 20 quarts
of cream. This is to be mixed thoroughly
with bowlful of the cream and the mixture
is stirred with the rest in the churn until a
slight golden tint is observable. This is suf-
fcient. II more is given the color is reddish,
and butter is never naturally red. A clear,
full lemon tint is the proper color.
The most desirable form in which to make
Winter butter is that of half-pound or one
pound cakes pressed in a mould or in neat
pals holding 30 pounds. Every good dairy
man should mark his butter packages, and
his butter when this is possible, with con.
spicuous brand. 1t should be his ambition
to be known to the trade and to earn and
keep reputation amoung the consumers.
When dairyman's butter is asked for at
the retail groceries he is in the way for fixing
his own prices. Some butter makers known
to us have in this way secured monopoly of
a certain trade at Is cents or more a pound
throughout the whole year. Their trouble is
over. Their profit is secured. Their BUSH
ness is now to keep what they have earned,
and by adhering to the methods by which
they gained their position to maintain it
against all competition.
The Flower Clock.
The flowers of certain plants are SO sensi-
tive to the effect of light and heat that they
open and close at the same time from day to