The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-06-26
Production Of Butter.

IMPROVEMENT in the art of making
good butter is rapidly becoming a more
important consideration to the Ameri-
can dairyman and farmer, as the very
marked advance in the developments
of dairy husbandry attest.
1t will he generally conceded that the
production Of choice butter has never
been equal to the demand, evidencing
that the art of making it uniformly
good is as yet comparatively limited.
The financial benefit to the manufac-
turer, as we'll as the very important
fact that the public health is always
sacrificed when unsOund or impure
dairy products are used, and the great
desirability of retaining and increasing
the foreign demand for American but
ter aid cheese-amountinga annually to
millions of dOllars-alike demonstrate
the great importance of maintaining
the reputation of American dairy prod
ucts abroad, and of all practical and
scientific Investigations ut home-of
everything calculated to accomplish
these grand results.
But all directions for butter-making
must be received and used with eau
ton. 1t is impossible that they should
be alike applicable in all localities and
under all Observation-Disclosures of
climate, of food, of stock and of care of
stock, will modify them. Nevertheless,
certain general principles can and have
been discovered which, if applied judi
ciously, will enable the farmer who has
only ordinary conveniences to make a
good article of butter. And it is for
the instruction of those thus situated
that the following experiences are
offered.
The first requisite, of course, in max
ing good butter, is to have good stock,
not necessarily full-blooded stock; the
mistake is often made of supposing that
all the good qualities of blooded cows,
which are inherent in their native
country, and upon which their reputa-
ton is based, will be retained under all
circumstances. But whatever may be
the breed, the cows may be we'll treat
ed in every particular in order to insure
a good article of butter, for just here,
we think, lies one great cause of poor
butter. If the COWS upon which the
farmer depends for his butter cannot
be treated humanely, be we'll protected
from the extremes of heat and cold, be
fed regularly, and with the food exper-
ierce has shown to be best adapted for
the purpose of producing rich milk,
the sooner he goes into some other
business the better off he will be-he
will certainly not make q living by
making butter. Cows must be we'll
protected and fed with great regularity,
as well to the quantity and quality
of the food as to the times of feeding,
in order to insure good butter. Indeed,
too much emphasis cannot be laid upon
the fact, that as the COWS are fed and
treated SO will the quantity and color
of the milk be; or, as the Scotch say,
"What gangs in the mou makes the
guild milk cou." Poor feed and poor
treatment will produce poor butter,
however elaborate and convenient are
the arrangements for making it. It. is
very important, then, at the outset,
that this subject of feeding cows be
well understood, for upon its judicious
application the reputation and profits
of the farmer are based.
What food, then, is best adapted to
produce rich milkp Which will pro-
duce the greatest amount of fatty mat
ter in the milk, and, consequently, the
greatest amount of butter? So far as
summer food is concerned, there is
scarcely any difference of opinion.
Both experiments and experience prove
that mixture of timothy and clover,
in the proportion of one-fourth of the
latter to three-fourths of the former,
produces the most and best butter-for
color, texture and taste. Clover alone.
from an excess of water in the plant,
has y tendency to make butter too soft,
and consequently TO injure its keeping
qualities, but mixed with Timothy, in
the proportions above given, it adds to
the butter sufficient moisture, which
is lacking where timothy alone is
given. The result, of course, will be
somewhat modified by the nature OF
the soil upon which the grass is grown.
A clay-loam soil, we'll drained, will
produce the most satisfactory results
q sandy soil the least. But whatever
may be the nature of the soil, it is very
desirable that cows should be pastured
upon high. well-drained land rather
than upon low, swampy soil, for two
reasons: In the first place. the malaria
of low. undrained land will more OF
less affect the health of COWS feeding
upon it, and, consequently. deteriorate
the quantity and quality Of milk from
them; in the second place, upon such
) land weeds and the wild grasses will