The morning call., 1891-08-28
BUTTER BY THE TON.
Operations of the Largest Cream.
cry in the World.
A Gigantic Concern Which Handles the Milk
Produced by Dairy Farmers Within
Radius Of Twenty-six Miles.

Ten thousand pounds of butter daily
This is the wholesale way in which the
largest creamery in the world turns out the
golden product that melts with delicious
flavor on your hot tea biscuits
Within radius of twenty-six miles from
st. Albans. VT, are forty-four separator
stations. where the dairy farmers leaves his
milk for the Franklin County Creamery
Association. After the cream is separated
from the milk 1t is shipped by rail in special
cars TO the creamery at St Albans, and by
undergoing various interesting processes is
transformed into butter.
The building is three stories high, with
about 5000 square feet Of floor surface, situ-
ated on the main line of the Central Yer
mont Railroad. In the cellar are 40-hOrse-
power engine, boiler-roOm and tanks for
buttermilk. The first floor is devo.ed to re-
ceivlng. separating the cream, churnIng,
working. packing and whipping. In the
second story are the cream-roOm. with ten
large tanks holding 600 gallons of cream
apiece; testing room, offices and living
rooms OF the help. The third story is given
over to storing tubs, salt, boxes. etc. The
association is a joint stock company, with
a capital of 100000. The Hon. j. Gregory
Smith is President. II was organized in
October. 1890, and commenced operations in
November.
When the cream reaches the creamery it
goes into receiving tank on the first floor
from there it is pumped into storage watts
in the second story. where it is .'cured." !"
Then 1t is ready for the churn, and is sent
through pipe into the churning-room,
where ten square-box Blanchard churns are
almost constantly at work. Each churn
chnrns 500 pounds of butter at time.
When the butter is taken from the churn
1t Is sent to the wOrking-room, where four
Mason power-workerS are revolving.
THIS Is A NOVEL SIGHT,
A round table about eight feet in diameter
revolving under two conical rollers, also
constantly turning, while between the roll
ers and the table is an inch OF butter. Over
each worker is pan of ice and salt to cool
the eighty pounds of butter on the table.
There IS a man in charge of each worker,
who works In the salt with paddle and
sees that the buttermilk and brine are thor
oughy pressed out.
Then it is taken to the packing room and
put into different sized packs, from ounce
prints to htty-pound tubs, as the trade de-
mands. The butter is next taken to cold
storage, and, when ready for shipment is
marked IN the refrigerator-room by the
shipping clerk and put into a refrigerator
car, thus reaching Boston and other New
England cities without any change in tem-
perature.
There Is fascination in watching the
work of the chemist. George II. Clafiin, a
graduate of the University of Vermont in
1890. by which he tells how much the milk
OF the different herds Is worth. At the
various stations are cases of pint jars, each
jar having tin tag with two numbers, one
to designate the station and the other the
farmer. -Four times during the week the
man in charge of the station puts in the
patrons jar small sample of each herd's s
milk. and at the end of the week sends the
jars to the / aboratory for analysis.
Mr.. Claflin carefully measures small
quantity OF the milk into flask, adds acids
TO take out the curd, and puts its into a
centrifugal machine to bring out the butter
fat. After revolving for few moments at
a thousand revolutions minute, the butter
fat has risen into the neck of the flask
where the percentage can be read easily ON
q graduated scale. The average of butter
fat in their milk is trhe under per cent,
but the extremes are 3.25 and 4.75. This
method determines almost absolutely
THE BUTTER-MAKING QUALITIES OF HERD
And will raise the standard of cows wher-
ever it is followed, as no dairyman will con-
tinue to keep cows that yield poor milk
Mr.. Clafiin and his assistant make about
100 tests day, following tie method recon-
mended by the Vermont experiment station.
To show the accuracy Of these tests Mr..
Clatln instanced special one recently
made, where the test indicated that a GER
lhlU amount bt ulllk WOulu make 81. pounds
of butter. 1t made exactly 47.S pounds.
When the percentage of butter fat in a
farmers heId is determined, he is credited
with number of pounds of milk of such
richness. Figures talk, and few statistics
will speak most elOQuently of the mammoth
proportions of the Franklin County Cream
cry Association.
The milk of 1900 cows is made into but
ter at this creamery; 10000 pounds of but
ter is the average daily product; it takes
400 tubs to hold this product; q carload of
salt is used every two months; 90 hands are
employed by the association.
The only trouble we have had thus far"
said Mr.. Deal, the manager" sis to make
enough butter to fill our orders. Butter
buyers tell us that the more we can ship them
the better We now take the milk from
about 700 farmers. and are gaining right
along. Last month we gained 1870 farmer
patrons, and hope soon to reach our capacity
Of making 20.00 pounds of butter day.
Burlington Free Press