The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-06-15
AGRICULTURAL.
ng:Highly Favored Butte

Making. Highly Favored Butter.
There is much done of late years in de-
vising and perfecting implements for raising
cream, churning and working the butter,
but there is one point where art and science
have failed, and will fall and that is, to find
asubstitute for the fine aroma peculiar to
butter made from grasses during the Spring
growth and up to the time of hot weather.
During this time the grasses are rapid in
growth and possess that peculiar aroma nee
essary in the milk to give the butter the
pleasant taste so much desired. During this
season the weeds and nOXiOus plants that
are too often found in dairy pastures have
not become so fully matured as to yield their
injurious influence to the milk. During
May and June the dews aresusually so heavy
that the grasses are greatly nourished and
increased in strength and flavor. The same
pleasant flavor is also impaired to the beef.
In July and August the pastures are apt to
be short. More or less of the grass becomes
ripe and dry, weeds ripen, and hot weather
and flies cause discomfort in the COW In
the Fall the pastures are slower in growth,
and decayed weeds and grasses are liable to
be mixed with the grasses which the COW
eats. The dews also do not furnish that
sweet aroma to the butter as in May and
June.
When the grasses are dried great part Of
their aroma has passed away. This element
cannot be replaced Grain and roots may be
substituted in part The nearest we can
get to it in preparing our Winter feed is to
cut the meadows as soon as the first BIOS
SONS have appeared. When cut at this
time great share of the aroma is absorbed
in the leaves and straw, and retained to give
the right flavor to the milk and butter, and
also to give the butter the desired color, as
we'll as flavor. A very rich and abundant
aroma is found in butter when COWS are pas
tured in fields where the second crop of red
clover has grown up and blossomed. From
these heads and the abundant leaves a pecu-
liar pleasant flavor is given to the milk and
butter, provided the cow does not eat too
largely of the tempting heritage So album
dant is this aroma from clover heads in full
blossom that the passers-by in the roadway
can smell it when far away. The butter,
however, made at this time fails to have SOL
idity of texture like that from grass in May
and June. White clover heads, when in
blossom, furnish pleasant aroma and sweet
ness to butter, but it is lacking in solidity,
texture and color, and has a fiat, insipid
oily taste, which is very unlike June-made
butter. Hungarian grass and thickly- planted
corn are justly coming into general use
This kind of feed should be more generally
cultivated. A small patch of land will, if
properly titled, produce large yields. And
the greener the fodder is dried and saved
the better. 1t should be cut when contain
ing the greatest amount of sap or life growth
Then the aroma is retained. If intended
for dry cows and other stock, the exact time
of cutting is not of so much importance, as
am now only speaking in reference to the
mich COW.
Grain can be worked in with other cow
food when grass is gone. Wheat bran is
one of the best, if not really the best food.
Corn meal and ground oats in small quant-
ties are good. These grains give the aid to
the COW which she needs to keep up
strength. When these are fed in the quanti-
ty adapted to the time the COW has given
milk, satisfactory return will be obtained
and the butter will have pleasant aroma,
but still be far inferior to that of June. The
bran increases the flow of milk; the meal
aids the solidity of the butter, and carrots
and sugar beets give sweetness to it, but add
nothing to the aroma or solidity. 1 am of
the opinion. from my own experience, that
it pays well to feed good COW at each milk
ing quantity of corn meal and bran, even
when she is on grass; not to add to the
quantity Of, the butter, but to keep up the
strength of the COW. She will pay it back
with interest
Could the dairymen have wisdom enough
to retain in the food given to cows the vola-
tile oils in them at certain time of their
growth, by care in harvesting, reformation
in the quality of butter would be secured.
Nothing yet discovered can equal the rich
ness and peculiar goodness there is in the
Spring grasses. If these volatile oils are
once lost, they are gone forever. No grind
ing, cooking or steaming can replace them.
These oils also give to the butter the gilt
color so admired. This color is attempted
to be kept up, when dry feed is used, by ar
tifcial coloring. Artificial coloring is a
early cut hay, millet and bright cornstalks,
all well cured, with suitable grain food, will
be of fair solidity and favor.-C. G. T., in
Country Gentleman.