The Wichita daily eagle., 1891-10-23
A BIG BUTTER FACTORY.
How the DeIectable Grease Is Turned
Out In q Vermont Dairy.

How the DeIectable Grease Is Turned
Out In q Vermont Dairy.
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 deli
cious favor on your hot tea biscuits.
Within radius of twenty-six miles
from St. Albans are forty-four separate
stations, where the dairy farmer leaves his
milk for the creamery. After the cream is
separated from the milk it is shipped by
rail in special cars to the creamery at St.
Albans, and by undergoing various inter
esting processes is transformed into butter.
Tine building is three stories high, with
about gOO0 square feet of foor surface, sit
uated on the main line of the Central Yer
mont railroad In the cellar are forty.
horse power engine, boiler room. and tanks
for buttermilk- The first floor Is devoted
to receiving, separating the cream, churn-
ing, working, packing and shipping. 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.
When the cream reaches the creamery
floor; from there it is pumped into storage
vats in the second story, where it is
Cured" Then it is ready for the churn.
and it is sent through a pipe into the
churning room, where ten square churns
are almost constantly at work. Each churn
churns 500 pounds of butter at time
When the butter is taken from the churn
it is sent TO the working room, where four
This - q
novel sight-a round table about eight feet
in diameter revolving under two conical
rollers, also constantly turning, while be-
tween the rollers and the table is an inch
of butter Over each worker is a 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 butter
milk and brine are thoroughly pressed out.
Then it is taken to the packing room and
put into different sized packs, from one
ounce prints to fifty pound tubs, as the
trade demands. The butter is next taken
to cold storage and, when ready for ship
ment, is marked in the refrigerator room
by the shipping clerk and put into re
frigerator car, thus reaching Boston and
other New England cities without any
change in temperature.
There is a fascination in watching the
work of the chemist 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 a small
sample of each herds milk, and at the end
of the week sends the jars to the labora
tory for analysis.
He carefully measures a small quantity
of milk into a flask, adds acids to take out
the curd, and puts it into a centrifugal
machine to bring out the butter fat. After
revolving for few moments at LOCO revo-
lutions a minute, the butter fat has risen
into the neck of the flask, where the per-
centage can be read easily on a graduated
scale. The average of butter fat in the
milk is a trife under per cent, but the
extremes are S.25 and 4.75. This method
demonstrates almost absolutely the butter
making qualities of herd and will raise
the standard of cows wherever 1T is fol
lowed, as no dairyman will continue t.
keep cows that yield poor milk
The milk of 1900 COWS is made into
butter at this creamery; 10000 pounds of
butter is the average daily product; il
takes 400 tubs to hold this product; car
load of salt is used every two months;
sixty hands are mployed.-Burlingto
Vt.) Free Press.