The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-07-28
mo JUNGLE THERE
A Trip Through the Largest
Creamery in the World.
Find That Place Is Clean and
Sanitary.
MAKING BUTTER OVER.
This Is Only Small Part of the
Business.
Process That Is Taken by Cream
After Arrival.
AKING BUTTER OVER.


Why not investigate the creameries
right here in Topeka? You would find
a condition that would cause people to
forget all about the packing houses.
NJ.
This and other hints have been in
circulation for some time. Some peo-
pie have said that these places are
very dirty.
A state Journal reporter went all
through the Continental Creamery
the largest creamery in the world
yesterday, saw the whole process of
the butter making and not only found
it attended with the greatest of care
but is extremely interesting as we'll.
The first department of the cream
cry is the room where the cream is re-
ceived as it comes in from the farm
ers and little stations. The cream ar
rives in huge cans, either by express or
by the special train the company runs
for the purpose. AS a thousand cans
of cream day are sent in, It keeps the
men hurrying very fast to handle the
cream before il IS used for butter max
ing purposes. Although 1t is neces-
sary to work in such haste, the strict
est attention to cleanliness is paid IN
this room. The cream IS dumped into
=
40 degrees Fahrenheit when 1t is
ready to be left to ripen in the watts
until it has reached the proper degree
of acidity for churning. The can wash
ing process in the cream room would
put the neatest housewife to shame.
The cans are first washed with hot
water. then with alkaline powder and
lastly with hot steam. Samples, taken
from each can OF cream are sent W
to the laboratory, where they are test
tanned therein and the farmer is paid
accordingly. The cream averages about
3 per cent.
The next process the cream goes
through with, after it has ripened. is
the churning. This is done in large
room on the ground floor. The ehurns
themselves are immense cylinders which
hold about 500 pound of butter. When
the butter comes" the buttermilk is
run off and the butter washed with
distilled water of a certain temperature
This in turn is drained away and the
butter is sailed. After the salt has
been worked in for a few minutes the
product is ready to be taken out and
wrapped. The new fresh butter looks
very nice as its golden masses lay in
the big churn. Samples are sent up to
laboratory to be tested for quality and
water. The government allowing Is per
cent water. The board of health found
that the butter exceeded the limit.
From the churn room the butter is
taken to be measured and wrapped.
Twenty-Five pounds can be stamped at
a time. The shortness in weight, which
the board of health complained of. Is
brought about occasionally by the but
ter being too soft and in this way not
packing down enough. The butter is
taken from the stamping process and
the hrst wrapping put on in this place.
The girl, whose business this Is, is
record breaker in her line. She says
she can easily wrap 1862 pounds in ten
minutes.
The packages. with their one wrap
ping, are sent upstairs to the carton
room, where the trained wrappers are
so fast as to make one dizzy. When
the butter leaves this room it is ready
for cold storage or the market.
The cold storage plant is another in
teresting feature of the Continental
creamery The company has it's own
ice plant, where 1t turns out about 80
tons every "a hours. Part of this ice is
sold and the rest used in the butter
making process. The cold storage plant
of course, is cooled with ammonia coils
The pipes all covered with ice and frost
look rather good this hot weather. The
cold storage plant IS also used for the
storing of eggs which the Beatrice
Creamery company the real head of
this one handles.
Since the coming of the ten cent gas
the heat to run the engines is furnish
ed by red-hOt bricks which are heat
ed by the southern Kansas product.
About all the engineer has to do now
Is to sit in a chair out of doors in the
shade.
A branch of the creamery, which is
entirely separate from the other butter
making process, is the renovating
establishment. and this is the depart
ment that Is kept In the background.
Butter. good and bad, but principally
bad Is bought in the country from the
storekeepers and brought in big kegs
to be worked over. 1t is first heated
UP in a large vat. Here the refuse
material settles to the bottom and the
butter fat IS run off. This is churned
UP with milk to give it the proper
quantity Of casein or curd- In the
quantity of casein is one of the main
differences between creamery and
country butter, the creamery contain
ing much less than the country pro-
duct. 1t is this superabundance of
casein which causes country butter to
spoil easily
Probably when the creamery COM
pany gets through with this butter II
IS considerably cleaner than when ii
was first received. but If people have
any complaint to make that the cream
cry is not clean here is the only place
to make 1t. But this butter is never in
any way connected with the other but
ter making.
The state board of health found that
packages of butter from this creamery
were under weight and contained too
much water. The managers have lit
tie to say about this charge except
that the butter is up to the government
standard, but this has nothing to do
with the cleanliness of the place.
Mexicans Want American Wages.
FL Paso, Tex, July 2s.-Mexican shop
men are striking al Aguas Galleries, as
well as Chihuahua. on the Mexican