The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1893-12-30
CREAMERY BUTTER.
How It Is Made in IA Model Establishment
in Vermont.

How II Is Made in IA Model ESTABLISHMENTS
In Vermont
How many readers have seen n cream
cry in action, and know exactly how
butter is made by the method which
has taken the place of that once in
vogue in every farmers dairy? At
Stowe. Vt, is good specimen of these
"new-fangled" ways of treating cream,
and one who wishes to spend fore
noon in pleasant survey of an interest
ing work would find himself repaid for
seeking out this cool, clean building in
lovely town. First of all, unless the
creamery is cooperative one, the
milk must be bought and in any case
the farmers for miles around must
bring or send in the milk. Generally
all the milk that farm produces is
sent. Sometimes the creamery uses
over foar thousand pounds day,
pound" of milk usually filing o
''scanty' pint.
The milk is not paid for by measure
for that would be most unjust. The
man who had Jersey cows would then
receive no more than the owner of ami
mails which are large mixers" but
whose milk is of poor quality. So the
milk is tested by the use of acid, ard
paid for according to its percentage OF
butter-making quality,
Early in the morning this new milk
is made to flow steadily into a receiver,
and there it comes in contact with a
cylindrical vessel which is whirling at
the rate of forty-fou hundred revolu-
tions minute. This motion has the
effect of separating the cream from the
milk; as the milk is heavier, it falls to
the outside of the vessel, where it is
carried off through pipe, and the
cream, being lighter, seeks the center,
exactly as the foam of whirlpool is
always thrown to the middle of the
circle
A metal rim, rising between the two
fluids, serves to keep them permanent
ly apart, and the cream, like the milk,
is carried off by a pipe of its own. 1t
flows into a large oblong tank in the
thin cloth from dust and flies, it stands
for forty-eight hours, since butter has
a richer taste if the cream is allowed
to 'ripen" little.
The enormous churn which receives
the cream when it is ready for the sec
ond process is In shape exactly like
those used by many farmers wife,
and turns bodily with every revolution;
it is, however, moved by steam-power,
and not by "elbow-grease," and the
buttermilk is finally drained off through
the floor into enormous watts.
| And when the butter has "come,"
what delight to see it worked! Great
| yellow masses, usually about sixty
pounds in quantity, are spread, in
broad circle, upon round table. I'm
n-ediately over this table are two
grooved, wooden rollers, and when the
table is set in motion by machinery it
slowly turns about under the rollers,
which are at the same time revolving
Thus the buttermilk is quickly and eff
fcctually pressed from the mass, and it
lies spread out, ready for sailing.
| AS the table turns a woman shakes
over the butter fine salt from sieve,
an ounce of salt to a pound of butter
and when a few more revolutions of
the rollers have worked 1t in, the but
ter is made.
1t is then rapidly packed into small
tubs, covered with cloth and thick
layer of salt, or is made into beautiful
ly regular pats. These pats, each
weighing pound, marked with quar-
ter-pound divisions, are wrapped up in
white paper and then placed in very
ingenious receptacle, formed of thin
wood, made so as to bend in the proper
places and form little box.
When one views the cleanliness and
precision which 60 with this work,
done on so large scale, he cannot help
being convinced that the creamery has
not destroyed the poetry which still
clings about the life of the dairy.