The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-08-03
AGRICULTURAL.
Summer Butter.

One of the principal points in making
fine-favored butter in warm weather is
to pay close attention to the tempera-
ture of the cream when it is ready for
churning. / have found that if the
weather should change and become
very warm, as it sometimes does, the
cream is too warm to churn in the
morning. The easiest way to lower
the temperature is to put fine crushed
ice in the churn, which most butter
makers do. A better way is to put
a large piece of clean ice in the strainer
and let the cream run over it, which
will lower the temperature four or five
degrees, depending on how fast you let
the cream run over the ice. BY cool
ing the cream in this manner you will
not iniure the inside of the churn by
the ice pounding on it's sides. l have
seen some churns that were all COW
cred over on the inside with slivers,
caused by large pieces OF ice being
churned with the cream, and l have
heard of the paddles OF a combined
churn being broken by the same cause.
If the water in the tank should be-
come warm by the extra heat in the
night, especially if it is a little scarce,
as it is in some places during the dry
time, the water can be cooled in the
manner enough 80 that 1t will make the
butter firm if washed in cold water
when the globules of butter are small
like fine shot, as they should be when
the churning is done. Unless your
butter is firm and solid when it is
worked you cannot make good job of
it, and if butter is worked when it is
soft it spoils both the flavor and grain
of it, and it will never have as good an
appearance afterwsrd. 1t makes more
work for the butter maker to 60 to the
icehouse and get out the ice in the
morning when he is busy at other work,
but if you want to make fine butter at
all times you must attend to all the
minor points when necessary and in
the proper manner.
During the warm weather it is good
plan for the butter makers who have to
do their work in warm room to salt
their butter in the churn (even if you
don't use combined churn). By do
ing 80 the butter is not exposed to the
warm air so much, and sailing the but
ter in the churn is as good as once
working on the worker and it saves
handling the butter so much. AS some
time should elapse before the butter is
worked the second time to give the salt
chance to dissolve before it is packed,
it would be good plan, if your room
is warm, to pile all the butter in one
end of the churn and in the other end
put from fifty to one hundred pounds
of ice, which will keep your butter firm
and solid until you are ready to work
and pack it. When the salt is all dis
solved and mixed through the butter, it
will not need much working, and it will
not be exposed long enough to the
warm atmosphere to soften it, and ii
can be worked and packed in good con.
dition.
There is another point where care
must be used in getting the butter to
market in good order, and that is to
keep it firm in transit to the railroad
station on shipping day. In the first
place, don't ship the butter you have
made on the same day as you send il
off, because it has not had time to get
firm and solid. Butter should be kept
for twenty-four hours in the refrigera.
tor to become firm and solid all through
the tub before it is exposed to the heat
When the hauler comes to the cream
cry after the butter, the butter-makel
should see that the wagon is in good
condition for that purpose. If the
weather is very warm, the bottom Of
the wagon box should be covered with
green grass or dampened hay, and afte,
the tubs are in the wagon break up
some ice and put it between the tubs
which will keep down the temperature
around the tubs.
After the load is all on, cover it all
over with grass or damp hay, and on
top of that the canvas cover, to keep
the sunshine off. This way the butter
can be hauled ten or twelve miles with.
out becoming softened. If butter be.
comes soft in transit to market, it has
deteriorated in value from one to two
cents a pound, which will cause big