Year: 1870




From the Prairie Farmer


The month of June, all things con-
sidered, is regarded as the best month
in the year for manufacturing butter
This is due to combination of circum
stance. Drought seldom commences
that early in the season; accordingly
both feed and water are abundant. The
grasses, which are the natural food OF
cattle, are then in state to furnish, not
only the most food, but that of the
best quality for producing rich milk.
The insects, which are so troublesome
later in the season, have not made their
appearance in large numbers. The all
is not tainted with bad odors as it is
later in the season. The temperature
is very favorable to the rising ofcream;
neither SO warm as to cause the milk to
sour quickly, nor so cold as to prevent
the separation of the oil globules.


Another season very favorable to the
production of good butter is the early
fall. AT this season we ordinarily have
rains that bring up the grasses to some
thing like the Righteousness they gave
us in the spring. Many of the insects
SO plenty in midsummer have disap-
peared, and the temperature through
out the day is more uniform


When winter arrives, however, the
quality of the butter is greatly lessen
ed, and it's quality is much inferior. In
truth the chemical composition of the
butter is considerably changed. The
ingredients are different, not in kind
but in quality. Oleine, which is the
softer fat in butter, is much more plenti-
full in summer butter than in that made
in winter. The color of winter butter
is also different from that made in sum-
mer. The former is almost white, while
the latter is golden.


! The unfavorable condition and ap
pearance of winter butter are partly
owing to causes that we cannot control
and partly to that we can, in measure,
obviate Dry food will produce less
Oleine than fresh green food. We, how
ever, can prevent very great diminu-
tion of this fat, by cutting our grasses
earlier and curing them so that they
will retain all their natural juices and
their aromatic qualities We can pre-
vent the 1essening of the quantity of
milk to the extent that usually happens
by keeping our COWS as well supplied
with food and drink as they are in sum-
mer when they can feed at will, and can
procure water whenever they wish.-
Giving COWS food and drink only after
long intervals of fasting, has a most in
furious effect on the secretion of milk.


The cause of butter being light color
ed in winter is, doubtless, due to two
causes. The oleine is of darker color
than the other ingredients of the but
Tow hn olo-a
Will be the color The chief cause,
however, of winter butter being so light
colored, is due to the cream becoming
Cream has its richest color when it first
rises to the surface, and if it is churned
in that condition the butter will be yel-
low. If it remains, however, exposed
to the light, particularly if the temper
ature changes, and it will be found to
be impossible to produce golden butter
from white cream.


Let any one try the experiment Of
taking some yellow cream with little
milk below, and let this remain for two
days or more in glass vessel, and mark
/ the changes that take place in the color
milk is very distinctly marked but af-
! d
bleached to such an extent that it can
not be distinguished from the milk in
color. Winter butter is white, then,
! because the cream is ordinarily kept
too long. before it is churned It is very
hard to obviate this difficulty in small
dai1ies, particularly when the COWS are
so poorly provided for that their milk
become very scanty. It is, doubtless,
better, even if the supply of cream be
small, to churn as often as we do in
summer, using churn proportionally
smaller.


Winter butter has poorer flavor than
grass butter from a variety of causes.
The food the COWS eat is devoid of the
agreeable taste common to the grasses
while growing or in blossom. Besides
this, the milk is too often kept in
room the atmosphere of which is foul
from the odors arising from cooking.
The milk, at such times, acts the part
OF a disinfectant and carries the stencil
of the kitchen into the cream-pot, and
from thence to the butter-iar.


Good butter can be, and often is,
made in winter; but it is only done by
having all the circumstances surround
ing the cows-the milk-room and churn-
ing-as nearly as possible like those in
summer. The COWS must be fed on
food rich in sugar, and never be stinted
in amount The milk must be set in
q room, the air of which is pure, and
the temperature ofwhich does not great
ly vary. And lastly, the cream should
be churned when it is not above "a
hours old


Marketing Poultry.


/ Tn q late n11mher of the R11ra1 New