The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-02-22
THE FARM SEPARATOR.
Its Advantage UnquestiOned When
Butter Is Made at Home.

At every dairy convention the farm
separator is one of the topics exciting
great interest, says e. G. Bennett in
American Agriculturist. This is from
the creamery mems standpoint, and the
dividing line is strictly whether the
butter from cream hauled to the fac
tory is of as fine a flavor as that where
the whole milk is taken to the factory
and the separating and all the other
WORK. done by the factory expert. On
this question there is a division of
thought, but where the milk is made
into butter at home there is but one
side to the question. The farm sepa-
rator stands unquestioned. But in some
localities the separator is not we'll
enough known to enable the farmers
to judge whether it will pay them to
invest There come up the questions of
how many cows will warrant the in
vestment, how much time is required
to operate it, what degree of skill is
necessary to make it success and
finally whether for the average farmer
it is not wise to do the best he can in
the old way.
Just as good butter can be made from
cream raised in the common tin pan or
the deep setting Cooley can as from
separator cream, but it is not SO easy
to do it at all times, for the weather
has greater chance to harm the cream
by these old ways than when a separa-
tor is used. 1t is burdenSome to churn
20, I'D
week is the rule.
Thin cream-that is, cream contain
ing a great deal of milk-will sour
quicker and 60 off in flavor sooner than
that which has more butter fat and
less milk and casein in it. Always
there is little impurity in milk, espe
cially winter milk and the more milk
there is in the cream the more impurty
there is. This causes an undesirab BILE
fermentation. But if the cream is
thick it can be held little changed for
three or four days. then thinned with
warm sweet milk Or with sour skim
milk from the previous days separa-
ton. The whole can be set to ripen
and the fermentation will be dominat-
ed by the freshly added milk and give
a delicately favored butter. l do this
way all the year around and get the
highest creamery quotations or higher,
and this is 3 or cents above the high
est quotations for dairy butter.
Not only can you make butter, as
rule, and make it easier, but you make
more Of it from the same milk. This is
because the separator gets out the but
ter fat more completely than can be
done by setting the milk fo- the cream
to rise. Another advantage is in the
increased value of the skimmilk. The
separator can be started nearly as soon
as you commence milking, and by the
time this is finished the separating will
be practically completed and TIE warm,
fresh, sweet milk fed to the calves and
the pigs This milk is better for stock
than stale skimmilk. 1t is what the
scientist calls nascent forrEele older
milk gets the less of life it has, the
nearer it is to decomposition and the
less is it's value to the calf. You can
! set the separator to skim as thin or as
thick as you wish, and when you sell
cream or use it in the family this is an
advantage.
Now, as to the number Of cows which
warrants the purchase, a safe estimate
is that you get as much from five cows
by using the separator as from six
without it-that is, it adds one cow to
each five of the herd and does not eat
anything. l think the farmer with five
or more COWS should buy one, and then
with the profits he can increase his
herd and still more increase his profits.
Queen AIexandra's Dairy.