The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1877-03-16
TIE sEGZS.
BEL AIR, FRIDAY, MAR. 1e, 1877.
Butter Making,


in the manufacture of butter they are alb
solutely indispensable, and it is well to
understand once for all that the man who
is not willing to provide good dairy
building had better turn his attention to
some other branch of agriculture, The
buildings need not be expensive, but must
furnish the requisite facilities to make a
good article of butter, regardless of exter
nal influences; unfortunately, in our climate
fair article of butter can actually be
made under tree for one-third of the year,
and as this is the time of the greatest flow
of milk, the unthinking farmer fails to see
the necessity of providing for other and
less favorable seasons, and goes on making
large quantities of butter at Is or 20 cents
per lb. during this season, and the balance
of the year making but little, and that
little of inferior quality; forgetting that
price as well as quantity is essential, and
that fair price cannot be obtained unless
the supply is uniform and the quality al
ways good. Consumers have long memoir
les, and two or three bad lots of butter
during the year will in seven cases out of
ten cause them to change their dairyman.
The great difficulty in building dairy
is to know just what you want in the alb
sence of experience, and from the scarcity
Of properly constructed diaries in our
county, this is difficult to obtain; nor is
the information obtainable from books or
papers, such works or writings within my
knowledge being mostly devoted to large
dairying or factory system, describing
buildings costing $500 TO $4,000. Even
the smaller of these sums is not always
within the reach of the average farmer
Should there be an experienced dairyman
within days journey it will amply pay
any one contemplating building dairy to
visit him, and with rule and note book
measure and note everything of import
auce. My dairy cost in money about $50,
the carpenters work being done by myself
counting everything, including board of
hands, the cost was $40. 1t will accom-
modate 80 cows, and so far has answered
every purpose, although experience has
developed several defects that could have
been avoided at trifling cost had they been
known at the time of building.
After careful investigation of the various
modes of setting milk have adopted the
deep can system, using tin cans II inches
deep and 8 inches in diameter, filling them
within one inch of the top and setting the
cans in q vat of cold spring water, 16
inches deep. This brings the water on a
level with the milk in the Gun and keeps
the whole milk at an even temperature
After setting for "a hours the cream is care
fully removed, a conical or funnel shaped
SKINNER being used; this skinner is
made of tin and is three inches in diane
ter and three inches deep at its deepest
point, with straight handle attached to
the inside little below the rim. The
handle being on the inside allows the
cream to pass freely into it from all sides,
permitting all the cream to be removed
without agitating the milk; in no instance
should cans exceeding inches in diane
ter be used. purchased some of 0 inches
and had to use them for cream exclusively.
the milk in warm weather souring in "a
hours, whilst that in the s inch cans re-
manned sweet for SO hours. twill readily
be seen that by using deep cans the labor
of caring for the milk is greatly reduced
and that room is economised, it taking but
8 superficial feet of vat surface to accom-
modate 10 COWS.
In churning, No. Blanchard churn is
used, that holds from Is to IS gallons, and
has two handles, it requiring two persons to
chun that quantity of cream. If the
weather is cold, the day previous to churn-
ing the cream is brought to the stove and
the room kept at temperature of 100, this
has been found better than to bring the
cream suddenly to the stove on the day of
churning, and exposing it to fierce heat
for short time. By the former mode the
cream becomes ripened and the butter all
comes at one time. have suffered loss
of 3 or pounds in thirty, by churning
ripe and unripe cream together, before ex-
perience taught me the cause. There is
one thing about churning that do not I'M
derstand namely; the time required to
bring the butter. All authorities say good,
solid butter should come in 25 to 40
minutes; now with me it takes from one
to one and three-quarters of an hour aver
aging one and half hours; it makes no
difference, June or January, it is all the
same; the cream is brought to the proper
temperature of 65 in winter and So to 60
in summer, but without avail Several
times have had it to come in less than
an hour by making the cream unusually
hot, but it was always at the expense of
quantity, and slightly as to quality. If
any of your numerous readers can give me
a remedy and show me how to bring ma
butter in thirty minutes, they will receive
my grateful thanks. After the butter mas
gathered and the butter-milk is drawn off,
one and a half gallons of water is added
and the butter slightly worked with the
dasher of the churn; this water is drawn
off and II second supply added, and the
process repeated the butter is then taken
from the churn in Jumps of 10 or 12 pounds
and placed upon un oak table that has been
previously well scalded, and tlattened out
to u thickness of one and u quarter inches
with II large oak paddle; cotton cloth
that has been wrung out of cold spring
water is spread over it and with another
cloth doubled in the hand, it is thoroughly
patted over, the cloth is removed, and with
the paddle the butter is rolled up, fattened
out, and the cloth again applied this is
continued until all moisture is removed;
itted salt is then added at the rate of one
pound of salt to twenty pounds of butter,
and well worked in after all the butter
has been worked it is allowed to set until
next morning, when it is again woJ ked
over and printed in half-pound square
prints. For cloths small pieces of new
muslin 81 inches square are used these
are put on bias. 1t is best to purchase
salt by the sack, as the sailing capacity OF
different samples vary considerably.
Some persons prefer using the hands in
place of the paddle in working butter, and
when the hands are of the proper temper.
ature there is no objection, certainly not
upon the score of cleanliness, for the man
or woman who is not clean in all their ap
pointments is not fit to touch butter with
long handled fork.
Unless one has better feed than it has
ever been my good fortune to possess, there
will be times during the winter when the
butter will be too white to command the
best price, hence it is important to under
stand the question of artificial coloring.-
Where small quantities of butter are made,