The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-30

| What may come hereafter is as unex-
pected or undreamed of, at the present
time as those amazing inventions which
i are now in use for lessening labor cheap
ening products, and simplifying and MAX
| ing more certain the various processes.
I so that time, which is now more val
liable than ever on this account, NAV be
saved. The fact is, that the various ma
chimes invented and supplied to farmers
OF all kinds for the culture of the soil.
the sowing and planting, cultivating and
harvesting the crops as we'll as of fit
ting them tor use or sale during the
past nifty years, and by rapid intervals
every year since, has so simplified and
improved the methods of farm work that
1t IS no longer heavy toll, and uncer-
tain In its results, but is now as easy
as any other improved mechanical opera
tlon IN work; and the saving of time and
work so conduce to the profits of the
farmer that he has become an employer
OF labor and manager of machinery in
stead OF slow, laborious worker him.
SELF. The farmer of today is not
iaborer, but scientific employer of ma
chlnery, and the labor of the farm is
now OF the brain, more than it is of the
mere muscles of the limbs
In the dairy work there has been more
OF inventive genius employed possibly,
than in any other line Of work. But for
want of the study and knowledge due
10 experience in a practical way vast
amount of brain and hand work has been
wasted. This is shown by the records
of the Patent Office at Washington, in
which there are described hundreds of
Devices we cannot say inventions, for this
word means something found out, which
is of actual practical use; but rather sug-
gestlons as to possible changes in farm
or dairy work which may be conducive
TO economy of time, labor and product
But OF these there is bare dozen or less.
which have been profitably adopted: the
rest having been discarded as imprac-
ticable, and otherwise useless And all
this labor has been thrown away, sim
ply because the persons who have spent
years, or q lifetime, in pursuit of some
Improvement in this part of the dairy
work have been entirely ignorant of the
first principles of chemistry and mechan-
les, relating to the making of dairy pro-
duets, but most especially of butter. Every
part of human work in the world is found
ed on some special principles associated
with the special character of the ma
terials, subjected to so-called improved
processes. Combining ourselves to the
making of butter, for instance, it should
be very clear that every person engaged
in this part of the farm work should
understand the precise nature of the milk,
Of which he is making butter. Butter is
one of the solid parts of milk, and with
the casein, or curd of the milk, forms
nearly two-thirds of the whole of the
solid matter of the milk, which is dis
solved in the water, of which there is
an average of SS per cent. in the milk
The solids of which the dairyman makes
his products are the casein and the fat,
leaving the sugar. All of these are val
ued as foods Or used in the arts, the
latter to small extent supplies the milk
sugar which is used mostly in medi-
f, cine for the covering material for small
PORTIONS of ill-tasting drugs, of which
pills are made, and so that these may be
most easily taken. We will here, for
the present, confine our study to the
fat in the milk, which is the object
Of pursuit by the butter maker.
We have mentioned mechanical prin.
not in solution, but existing in it as an
sure and certain in their operation as
those of any other work of mankind, and
are based on the peculiar character of
the fat. it's condition mostly in which
it exists in the milk Everything in ma
ture is depending on the very same pc
culiarities of the matter of which it
consists. and the special natural laws
by which the behavior and general char
acter of it is distinctly prescribed. The
butter of milk is formed of special oil,
e. IL
not in solution, but existing in it as an
emulsion or mixture. and in the form
Of minute globules, varying in size from
one-five- hundredth to one thousandth or
smaller part of an inch in diameter.
This emulsion is made possible because
of the solution in the milk of about an
equal part of casein (the cheesey mat
ter of the milk, and this makes the
milk hold the minute globules of the
butter quite tenaciously, so that while
they are lighter than the milk, yet they
rise to the top of it quite slowly, as
everyone in the business of making but
ter knows. AS they rise they bring with
them, adhering to them, a certain por-
ton of the milk itself: so that the
cream-as we call it-consiStS of from
20 to 40 per cent. of the fats; the rest
is the milk held between the agglomer-
ated or gathered globules Of the fat, and
of course the cream has less or more
milk in it as the time-during which it
has been separating from the heavier wa
ter or serum of the milk-has been; but
at any time there is never more than 40
to 80 per cent. of the butter in the cream,
and mostly less.
Now we take this cream and make
butter from it. And right here We strike
lot of conditions. Without going to
any special explanation of these, it will
be sufficient to say that the separation
Of the fat globules-the butter. in fact,
from the milk. which with the butter
fats or globules in it makes the cream
depends on entirely mechanical princi-
pies. These are simply these. The cream
is put into a churn which is put in mo-
tion in any way, so that the minute
globules of butter fat are violently
thrown together, and as the nature of
them is. they adhere together by the vio-
lent contact and gradually make larger
globules. being kept in this form by the
| special attraction which is exerted in
equal force in all directions. So that at
| first. the butter in the churn is seen to