Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-04-24
The Mystery Of Butter Making.


trades were styled "Mysteries," and the youth
were, in their indentures, bound to "the art
and mystery" of the cordwainer, the car
penter, the blacksmith the horologer, or the
printer Many of the processes of these
businesses were really supposed to partake
of the supernatural and either incantations,
or religious ceremonies, were resorted to to |
overcome difficulties in what were then rude |
and imperfectly comprehended operations,
but are now quite simple and well-under-
stood affairs. In modern times some of this |
mystery still attaches to matters not per-
fectly wrought out, and we sometimes find |
the inexperienced butter-maler complaining |
of witches in the cream when the butter
fails to appear after the usual amount of
churning. Hot horse.shoes are sometimes
dropped into it, we believe the horseshoe
is very powerful to drive away witches),
and other sorts of charming are resorted to;
but the resulting product is generally poor.
Brother Tinkham takes our article of some
weeks ago, upon "Disagreements in Prac-
tce," as being aimed particularly at him
and he makes it the subject of quite long
criticism. lie disclaims believing that there
are no known or movable principles of but
ter-making, but his subsequent remarks
show that he thinks there is yet very much
mystery in matters that seem quite plain to
us and he winds up with the remark, No,
Doctor, this dairy business is by no means
the simple matter you seem to think it,
Now we are very far from thinking that
butter-makiug is not an art though we think
science has mainly succeeded in relieving it
of its mystery. When so many dairymen
are able to make good butter every time,
from good milk-or if they fail are able to
lay their fingers upon the cause OF failure
and afterwards avoid tive must believe
that the problems involved in the matter
have yielded to study and investigation very
completely.
But this is not saying that the matter
has become simple and easy to every mind.
Bessemer made his steel directly from the
pig-iron, and produced a uniform product
long before other steel workers understood
how to do it or could imagine how it was
DONE And even now some of the Bessemer-
steel works make better and more uniform
steel than others, and it is found that those
which are under the superintendent of men
who are thorough metallurgists turn out a
more reliable and uniform product than
those whose foremen have merely been
trained in the practice without having mas
tered the science of the business
Brother Tinkham says that there is not a
single step in the process of butter-making
(save and except certain amount of clean
liness), from the time the milk is drawn
from the COW till the butter is packed and
sold in which prominent darymen all agree.
This we do not dispute. 1t is said that doc
tors disagree, whether doctors of divinity,
law or medicine, on many points. But there
are reasons for this, aside from the lack of
clearly understood and admitted principles.
The differences are in the practice, or if ap-
parently in the principles, il is for lack of a
clear statement or understanding of them.
Many skillful practical men are by no means
good reasoners They work by kind of
unconscious method, joining cause and effect
seemingly by instinct, when from deficient
faculty of language they could not put it into
words at all. We have heard men dispute
for hours upon subjects on which they really
held the same opinions, but they could not
agree together because they were unskillful
in using or understanding words in their ex-
act meaning.
Something like this is the cause of the
apparent disagreements to which Brother
Tinkham refers, and upon which he puts so
much stress. In his criticism, however, of
the illustrations we used to show that an
identical principle may underle very differ
ent practices, he does not seem to us to be
very happy. Thus he says; Some set
milk as it comes from the COW in old
fashioned six-quart pans, and set it in the
cipies Of .duiday and drying influences" and
yet they think they make fair butter and
get about all there is. Now, Brother link
ham, you must pardon us for saying that
we do not believe word of that When
you can get Messrs. Whipple, Wood and
Vail to say that they take no pains to keep
their milk fluid until the cream is all up,
and do not protect it from the sun, or from
drafts of wind, we will believe it, but not
before. We said, in our article, that the
fundamental principles concerned in the care
of milk and the manufacture of butter must
be thoroughly known by every successful
butter-maker, and we look upon that as a
self-evident fact. Yet we did not say, nor
do we think, that every successful butter
maker can lay down these principles in
words that will be accepted as correct in all
particulars by every other successful butter
maker. This implies skill in the use Of
language and in the understanding thereof
that perhaps few butter-makers possess
And, as we said above, we believe that here
lies the secret of most of the disagreement
we hear so much about.
We will close this article with " little
story" which is brought to our mind by the
self-imposed justification in which oul
friend Tinkham seems to be involved in thi'
matter. The manuscript of one of Rufus
Choates' orations was being set up in thu
Office of Boston daily, and the proof-reader
after vainly wrestling with one of the para
graph-long sentences, ventured TO send tn
proof-sheet to Mr.. Choate with note say
ing that there seemed to be some obscurit
in it. Mr.. Choate sent it back with thi
memorandum on the margin al see n,
obscurity in it, except such as has beel
caused by the (profane expletive) comma
which your printers have put into it,"
"flgures that Preach"
Under the above caption the editor of tn
Rural New Yorker calls the attention of hi
readers to the fact that /" OF the three hun