The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-10-11
Butter Making.

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milk is set in shallow pans we may
say, as a rule, if the cream is churned
when it is twenty-fOur hours old, it will
make say 2O-cent butter-if we wait
"a hours longer before churning the
butter will be worth 10 cents, and "a
hours later 10 cents, and "a hours later
nothing. In other words, the cream
from shallow pans, especially in warm
weather, will make good butter if it
is churned when only one day old from
the cow, and every day you delay that
churning you take off or lose at least 8
cents pound until the butter is worth
nothing. This is the cost of delay in
handling cream when you have no ice
or cold water to hold the cream in.
Few farmers. wives have any place
where cream can be kept at as low
temperature as it should be kept, say
SO degrees, when we want to arrest
the ripening process. There are caves,
cisterns or wells with a temperature
low enough to hold cream from ripen-
ing. In fact cream ripens with age
no matter how cold it is kept at least
we'll above freezing, but the proper
temperatur for ripening is about IS
degrees, that is for rapid ripening.
Cream should be just acid enough
to taste it when ready to put in the
churn. Sweet cream held twelve
hours at IS degrees will just about do
this If you have not COWS enough to
make a daily churning with the strip
pings, say one third Of the milk added
to the cream, then you must take great
care in keeping the cream sweet by
mixing and stirring the new cream
| hon, 1N1 I>fS in
close covered can hung in the we'll low
down or in the cistern, and be sure to
churn at least every other day.
If you have no place to keep the
cream where the temperature is below
90 degrees then you cannot make good
butter from cream over two days old
from the COW. Part old cream and
part new work very badly together
would work it this way in hot wealth
er. | would skim all milk at "A hours
or as soon as the milk began to clab-
Der at the bottom. Put mornings
and evenings cream and strippings to-
gether in the churn at night after rims
ing the churn in cold water, then set
the churn in a cool place where the
wind can get at it.
Have piece of table cloth to lay
over Tic LOp VI Luc CnuIA 81 uO WdCCl
can get in it, and then wet clean
cloths or a blanket and lay over the
churn dripping wet. The evaporation
from these cloths will cool the churn
and cream down to good churning
temperature by 5 o'clock in the morn
ing, and at that time precisely the
churning should be done. 1t will only
take about twenty minutes, and the
quality of the butter will be a revela-
ton to you if you have been in the
habit of churning old cream in the mid
die of the day, and the extra money
you will get for that kind of butter
will be a comfort and a delight to you
all your life.
If your churn is so large that you
must have more cream to fill it one
third full then the chances are that it
is old and out of date, SO try your per-
Suasive powers over husband to get
you a small new one, say little box
hung at the corners, or any kind so it
is small and new. Churning twenty
minutes every day is not nearly as
hard work as doing two-hOur churn-
ing twice a week, and if the churn is
emptied washed out first with cold,
and then hot water, right after churn-
ing and wiped dry with a clean cloth,
the work will be very little. If you let
the buttermilk stand in the churn you
can never keep the churn sweet.
Time is a great element in the dairy.
First, you must get the milk from the
COW into the pans as soon as possible