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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
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ABC 
 
 BUTTER MAKING 
 
 A 
 
 Hand- Book for the Beginner. 
 
 F. S. BUI^CH, 
 
 Editok of TiiK Daikv AV()ki,d. 
 
 0, 
 
 MAY 7 !SRR 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 C. S. Rlkch Publishing Company, 
 1888. 
 
Entered :iccordin;j^ to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by 
 
 F. S. BURCH, 
 
 In the Office of the I.ibnirian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Milking 17 
 
 Washing the Udder — The Slow Milker — 
 The Jerky Milker— Best Time to Milk- 
 Kicking Cows — Feeding during the Milking 
 — Loud Talking — Milking Tubes — The 
 Stool— The Pail. 
 
 Cake of Milk 23 
 
 Animal Heat- — Milk as an Absorbant — 
 Stable Odors — Cooling — Keeping in Pantry 
 or Cellar — Deep Setting — Temperature of 
 the Water — To Raise Cream Quickly — When 
 to Skim. 
 
 The Milk Room 27 
 
 To have well Ventilated — Controlling the 
 Temperature — Pure Air — Management of 
 Cream — Stirring the Cream — Proper Tem- 
 perature at which to keep Cream — Ripen- 
 ing Cream — Straining Cream — Cream in 
 Winter. 
 
 Butter Coloe ... 30 
 
 Rich Orange Color- White butter — The 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Juice of Carrots — The Use of Annato — Com- 
 mercial Colors — Beginners generally use too 
 much. 
 
 Chukning 32 
 
 The Patent Lightning Churn — Churning 
 too Quickly — The amount of time to prop- 
 erly do the Work — Churning Cream at 60 
 degrees — Winter Churning — Starting the 
 Churn at a Slow Movement — The Churn 
 with a Dasher — Stopping at the proper time 
 — Granular Butter — Draining off the Butter- 
 milk — Washing in the Churn — To have the 
 Churn sufficiently Large — Churning whole 
 Milk— The Best Churn for the Dairy. 
 
 WOEKING THE BuTTEB 38 
 
 The Right Temperature — To get the Butter- 
 milk all out — Half Worked Butter — Over- 
 working — Use of the Lever — Working in 
 the Salt — Rule for Salting — Butter Salting 
 Scales. 
 
 Mabketing Butteb 43 
 
 The way Four-fifths of the Farmers do it — 
 The Right Way and the Wrong Way — Wait- 
 ing for Better Prices — City Customers — 
 Have a Commission man Judge your Butter 
 
 Packing and Shipping 46 
 
 The Size and Style of Package — Roll But- 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Page 
 ter — Packing in Earthen Jars — Tin Pack- 
 ages — The Relative Cost of Wooden Pack- 
 ages — Nine-pound Bale Boxes — To avoid 
 "Woody Taste" — Parchment Paper — Ex- 
 cluding the Air — Print Butter — Uniformity 
 of Color — Top of Packages — Keeping 
 Packed Butter Cold. 
 
 Theemometebs in the Daiby 52 
 
 Price of a Good Tested Article — The kind 
 our Grandmothers' used — Floating Ther- 
 mometers — Importance of their use. 
 
 Maxims fob ABC Butteb-Makebs 54 
 
 How TO Make Good Buttee. A chapter by Mr. 
 N. Bigalow 57 
 
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Frontispiece. Jersey Cow Matilda 4th. 
 
 Milking Tube, - - - 19 
 
 Milk Stool, ... 20 
 
 Milk Pail, - - - ^21 
 
 Haney Deep Setting Can, - 23 
 
 Jersey Milk Can, - - -^24 
 
 Shot Gun Deep Setting Can, - 25 
 
 Cooley Can, . . - 25 
 
 Conical Skimmer, - - 28 
 
 Branch of Annato Tree, - • 30 
 
 Rectangular Churn, - - 32 
 
 Pendulum Churn, - . 33 
 
 Bowl of Granular Butter, - 34 
 
 Barrel Churn, - - - 36 
 
 Danish Butter Worker, - - 38 
 
 Eureka Butter Worker, • - 39 
 
 Favorite Butter Worker, - - 41 
 
 Butter Salting Scale, - - 41 
 
 White Ash Butter Tub, - - 46 
 
 Nine-pound Bale Boxes in Crate, - 47 
 
 I X L Butter Printer, - - 49 
 
 One-pound Butter Mould, - - 50 
 
 Glass Dairy Thermometer, - 52 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I DO not claim anything new or startling for 
 this little work, nor do I claim to be what 
 is usually termed ''an authority" on the subject 
 treated. ABC Butter Making is the 
 result of my own experience in the dairy, 
 together Avith an extended and careful obser- 
 vation of the experiences and practices of 
 some of the most successful butter-makers in 
 the country, and is an answer, in a complete 
 form, to the numberless questions asked me 
 (as Editor of the Dairy World), by begin- 
 ners in the dairy. 
 
 The Author. 
 
ILKING. 
 
 BEFOKE we can make butter we must have 
 milk, and a few suggestions on this im- 
 portant question will not be out of place 
 here. In order that no dirt or hairs may 
 find their way into the milk-pail, a careful 
 dairyman will always brush off the teats and 
 udder of his cow before he begins to milk, 
 yet, I am sorry to say, thousands of men who 
 profess to be careful dairymen do not know 
 this, and are sometimes guilty of that most 
 uncleanly habit of softening up the teats by 
 squeezing out a little milk on their hands. A 
 large number of cows are utterly ruined every 
 year by improper milking ; irregular milking 
 spoils a large number; noisy, loud talking 
 and rough milkers help to spoil a good many 
 more. The very slow milker, as well as the 
 quick, jerky milker, who never strips the 
 cow thoroughly, are helping to make a large 
 number of our cows unprofitable. Six o'clock 
 in the morning and six o'clock in the evening 
 are by far the best hours to do the milkmg. 
 
18 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 Some of our deep milkers should be milked 
 three times a day for a week or more after 
 calving. I might write a chapter on kicking 
 cows, but after a wide and exceedingly costly 
 experience in this line will simply say I do 
 not believe in them, and would not accept the 
 best one I ever saw as a gift. I am satisfied 
 that it is not a good plan to feed or " slop" a 
 cow during the milking, as a hungry animal 
 will be too deeply absorbed in eating to " give 
 down" all the milk. Better feed just before 
 or immediately after milking. Keep strangers 
 away from the stable during the milking 
 hour ; never carry on a conversation in a loud 
 voice with some person in another part of the 
 stable while milking; in short, do nothing 
 that will be likely to draw the attention of 
 your cow, or she will in a greater or less 
 degree '* hold up " a part of the milk. When 
 possible a cow should always be milked by 
 the same person, as the milker soon learns 
 any little peculiarity of the animal, and knows 
 exactly how to handle her, as well as readily 
 detecting any unusual occurrence, such as 
 shortage of milk, sore or caked teats, etc. 
 Milk as rapidly as possible, without jerking, 
 and avoid hurting the teats with sharp and 
 long finger nails by keeping them well j^ared. 
 Never attempt to draw the milk from a very 
 
MILKING. 19 
 
 sore or inflamed teat with your liands; it 
 only causes the animal great pain, and in nine 
 cases out of ten you will fail to secure all of 
 the milk. Milking tubes, made of silver, are 
 not only great conveniences, but now that 
 they can be bought so cheaply, are an absolute 
 necessity, and all farmers should keep a few 
 on hand for use in case of an emergency. The 
 silver tubes are the best, and can be purchased 
 for half a dollar each of almost any dealer in 
 
 ^ 
 
 dairy goods. I have mailed thousands of 
 them during the j^ast few years to dairymen 
 in all parts of the country, and have received 
 hundreds of letters stating that valuable 
 cows have been saved that would otherwise 
 have been ruined for milking, but for the 
 use of these tubes. It might be well to say 
 right here that in no case would I recommend 
 the use of tubes for regular milking, as their 
 constant use would soon distend the orifice of 
 the teat, so that it would leak. Grease or wet 
 the tubes before inserting, and be careful to 
 push in slowly. If the teat is very sore the 
 tubes may be allowed to remain in the teat 
 
20 
 
 A B C BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 for a day or two, but I would advise that they 
 be removed after eacli milking when possible, 
 and always wiped perfectly dry. 
 
 A good milking stool not only adds com- 
 fort to the milker, but helps to facilitate the 
 work to a greater degree than one would 
 naturally suppose. I give an illustration of 
 a handy stool, and as a novice can easily 
 
 make one, I will simply say, make the leg ac- 
 cording to the length of your own. Before 
 closing this chapter on milking I want to say 
 a word about the pail. Never use a wooden 
 pail or vessel to milk in. The best pail I 
 ever used was a patent device called the 
 " Michigan Milk Bucket," and were it not for 
 the expense (I believe the price is two dollars), 
 they would soon come into general use. The 
 
MILKING. 
 
 21 
 
 illustration shows exactly what they are — a 
 combiued pail, strainer and stool ; and as the 
 
 ■^trainer prevents any dirt or hairs from get- 
 ting into the pail, and the close-fitting, cover 
 precludes any possibility of the milk absorb- 
 ing stable odors, I cannot say too much in 
 their jiraise. When these pails were first 
 placed on the market the strainer was at the 
 bottom of the receiving cup, and all the dirt 
 was washed into the pail, but the manufac- 
 turers altered them by placing the strainer an 
 inch above the bottom of the receiver, and I 
 believe that they are now as near perfect a 
 milk-pail as one could ask for. 
 
THE CARE OF MILK. 
 
 1 SHALL not attempt to enter into the 
 chemistry of the milk. It would be out of 
 place in this ABC treatise. One peculiar 
 thing I wish to draw your attention to is the 
 " animal heat." When the milk first comes 
 from the cow you cannot help noticing that 
 it has a sort of feverish smell, which soon= 
 passes off after exposure to the air. This 
 ^' cowey " smell should, of course, be allowed 
 to pass off, but not in the stable, where the 
 milk Avould be likely to take ou a worse and 
 more lasting odor. 
 
 Milk is a great absorbent, and quickly takes 
 on any and all odors which it comes in con- 
 tact with, and when once taken on, they can 
 never be got rid of. Therefore, the moment 
 we are through milking a cow, we should 
 either take the milk out of the stable and into 
 another room, or pour it at once into a can 
 or some vessel with a tight-fitting cover, tliat 
 it may not absorb stable odors before we are 
 through with the milking of all the cows. I 
 
THE CARE OF MILK. 
 
 23 
 
 think the best plan is to strain the milk at 
 once into an ordinary deep setting can and 
 
 HANEY CAN, BACK 
 
 VIEW. HANEY CAN. 
 
 put the cover on tight. Remove the can, as 
 soon as it is filled, to the milk -room. 
 
 Now comes the cooling of the milk. To 
 make good butter we must cool our milk 
 rapidly. The sooner we cool it down to 47 
 desjees after it leaves the cow the better the 
 butter will be. The old-fashioned way of 
 setting the milk in shallow pans or crocks in, 
 the milk cupboard, which in summer was 
 placed in the cellar and in the pantry in winter, 
 is still kept up by a good many farmers, and 
 this no doubt accounts for the steady pro- 
 
24 
 
 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 duction of ten-cent store butter with which 
 our markets are always overstocked. If you 
 expect to make good butter uever set the 
 milk in the pantry or cellar, as the odors 
 which it will absorb there are just as numer- 
 ous, if not quite so bad, as those in the cow 
 stable. There is but one way, and dairymen 
 are pretty generally agreed upon it, and that 
 
 is to set the milk in 
 deep cans in cold 
 water, and the colder 
 the water the quicker 
 the separation of the 
 cream from the milk. 
 If you cannot afford 
 to buy the patent 
 deep setting cans 
 like the Cooley, the 
 Haney, the Jersey, 
 or the Wilhelm, by 
 all means get the 
 common deep set- 
 ting *'shot - gun " 
 can, with or without 
 JERSEY CAN. tho glass gaugcs in 
 
 the sides. The purpose of all these cans is to 
 cool the milk rapidly, and though the manu- 
 facturers of this or that can may claim that 
 their can does the work more quickly than 
 
THE CARE OF MILK. 25 
 
 the others, I am of opinion that they are all 
 good, and one as good as the rest. If you 
 have a spring, and can set the cans in the 
 ground, where the water can flow all around 
 and over the cans, you will be fortunate in- 
 deed. If you have no spring, and cannot 
 afford a creamer, make a tank a little deeper 
 
 " SHOT-GUN " CAN. COOLEY CAN. 
 
 than the cans, and keep the water flowing 
 around the cans. The colder the water the 
 better. If the water from your well is not 
 colder than 47 degrees you should use ice. 
 
26 
 
 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 By using ice or very cold spring or well water 
 you get all, or nearly all, the cream to rise in 
 from twelve to twenty hours, and as I said 
 before, and I want to firmly impress it upon 
 your minds, the quicker you get the cream to 
 rise the better butter you can make. Never 
 allow the milk to set more than thirty hours, 
 as it becomes acid or too thick, and loses 
 much in flavor. I would much prefer to skim 
 sooner, if I lost some of the cream by so 
 doing, as I would more tiian make up what 
 I lost in quantity by the improved quality. 
 
THE MILK-ROOM. 
 
 IT would be well to say a word about the 
 milk-room before passing on to the manage- 
 ment of cream. Jt is absolutely necessary 
 that we have a good milk-room in which to 
 not only set the milk, but to ripen the cream, 
 do the churning, and work the butter. 
 
 Have the milk-room well ventilated, and 
 build it so that you can control the tempera- 
 ture at the proper point all the year 'round. 
 A good airy place, with plenty of elbow-room 
 is essential. I see too many small, ^' stuffy " 
 crowded rooms, where there is scarcely a 
 place for half the utensils. Now, see that 
 the air in your room is always pure, and do 
 not pollute it by going directly into it from 
 the cow stable, with all the odors clinging to 
 your clothes and manure on your boots. Also 
 have the room situated as far from the barn- 
 yard and hog -pen as possible. 
 
 MANAGEMENT OF CREAM. 
 Skim the milk before the cream becomes 
 too thick and tough on top. I never allow 
 
28 ABC BUTTER-MAKING, 
 
 the cream to remain on the milk a moment 
 after I think it is all up or separated from 
 the milk. If you use the deep setting cans 
 you will find the little conical skimmer, with 
 ten or twelve inch handle, the easiest to skim 
 with. 
 
 If you put the cream in a can, or other ves- 
 sel containing cream that was skimmed some 
 hours previous, be sure to stir it all well 
 together, so that it may be of the same con- 
 sistency. Keep the cream at a temperature 
 of 62 to 68 degrees until it becomes slightly 
 sour, when it is ready for churning. I have 
 churned very sweet cream and very sour 
 cream, but have never been able to get butter 
 of good flavor from anything but slightly 
 Soured cream. I am also of the opinion that 
 butter made from cream only sliglitly sour 
 will keep much longer than when made from 
 a very sweet or sour cream. I am often asked 
 if I think that straining the cream is an ad- 
 vantage, and I will answer by saying that I 
 do think it aids somewhat in helping the 
 
THE MILK-ROOM. 
 
 29 
 
 butter to come more evenly. In the winter 
 it may be found necessary to place the cream 
 near the stove, where it can be gradually 
 warmed up to 68 or even 70 degrees, in order 
 to have it sufficiently sour. 
 
BUTTER COLOR. 
 
 w 
 
 E all prefer to have our butter of a rich 
 orange color. White butter looks too 
 much like lard. Theu, too, butter of a pale 
 white hue never sells for as much in the mar- 
 ket as the rich colored article. Years ago 
 people colored butter with the juice of carrots ; 
 later on the seeds of the Annato plant were 
 
 BRANCH OF ANNATO TREE, SHOWING BLOSSOMS 
 AND SEED PODS. 
 
BUTTER COLOR. 
 
 31 
 
 crushed and the juice mixed with potash and 
 water. We now have many specially pre- 
 pared compounds in tlie market, put up in 
 liquid form and ready for immediate use. 
 Almost all of these commercial colors are 
 good, but should be used sparingly. Nearly 
 all the beginners use too much the first time. 
 There is no general rule to follow in using 
 color, and you will only be able to tell how 
 much to use by practice, as the butter of some 
 cows is naturally of a richer color than others ; 
 this is especially true of the Jersey cows, the 
 butter from which needs but little artificial 
 coloring. Always put the coloring into the 
 cream before beginning to churn. 
 
CHURNING. 
 
 rjE W persons know how to churn properly. 
 p JVo matter how rich or nice the cream, if 
 the churning is not done at a proper tempera- 
 ture and in a proper manner you cannot 
 make good butter. Avoid the " lightning " 
 patent churn, which the agent will claim to 
 
 RECTANGULAR CHURN. 
 
 bring butter in five minutes. Cream that 
 is churned too quickly always makes butter 
 of a cheesey flavor, and quick to get rancid. 
 
CHURNING. 
 
 33 
 
 Churning should never be done in less than 
 twenty minutes, and, if possible, not longer 
 than forty minutes. Generally the proper 
 temperature at which to have the cream be- 
 fore beginning to churn is 60 degrees, but 
 sometimes this must be varied a few degrees, 
 according to circumstances. In winter we find 
 65 or 68 degrees will be necessary in order to 
 have the butter come within forty minutes. 
 When cows are fresh the butter comes much 
 more quickly than it will after they have been 
 fresh for a long period. Always start the 
 
 PENDULUM CHURN. 
 
 churn with a slow movement, gradually in- 
 creasing until you have reached the proper 
 speed, which is 40 to 50 strokes per minute. 
 
34 
 
 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 I do not believe in the churn with a clasli in- 
 side, nor do I believe in keeping the churn in 
 motion a moment after the cream breaks. 
 All sensible dairymen are trying to keep pace 
 with the times, and have adopted the granular 
 
 BOWL OF GRANULAR BUTTER. 
 
 plan. This idea of scooping out great lumps 
 of butter from a churn, and trying to squeeze 
 and rub out the buttermilk with its caseous 
 and albuminous matters is a thing of the 
 past. Squeeze and press and knead all you 
 please, and noticing but the water of the but- 
 termilk will come out ; the very impurities 
 which you desire to get out of the butter will 
 be all the more firmly incorporated in it. Not 
 one butter-maker in ten (no, nor fifty) knows 
 enough to stop the churn at the proper time. 
 
CHUBNING. 35 
 
 when the butter has formed into little pellets 
 the size of a wheat kernel. When those little 
 pellets have formed, pull out the plug or stop- 
 per in the bottom of your churn ; if you have 
 not got such a thing as a hole in your churn, 
 don't Avaste a moment until you have bored 
 one there, at least an inch in diameter, and 
 place a small piece of very fine wire sieve on 
 the inside of the churn over the hole, and 
 thereafter be careful not to have your plug 
 so long that it will punch the sieve off every 
 time you put it in. Let the buttermilk 
 drain off through this hole, after first pouring 
 in a little cold water and cooling the contents 
 of churn down to a point where the globules 
 or kernels of butter will stick together when 
 you agitate tlie churn. Now let the churn 
 stand and rest a few minutes, then pour in 
 more cold water, and let it drain off through 
 the hole again, and if the water comes out as 
 clear as it. went in, stop pouring, shake the 
 churn a little, then make a good strong brine 
 of well powdered salt that has been first sifted 
 thoroughly, cork up the hole and pour in 
 your brine, and let it stand on the butter for 
 fifteen or twenty minutes, after which draw 
 off as you did the water. You now have your 
 butter in the best possible condition for work- 
 ing. AVhen you purchase your churn be sure 
 
36 
 
 A B G BUTTER-MAKING, 
 
 and get one large enough ; it is much better 
 to have it too large than not large enough. 
 If you think you have not sufficient cream 
 
 BARREL CHURN. 
 
 for a churning and the cream is ripe, do not 
 wait for another skimming, but add sufficient 
 milk to have the churn filled to about one- 
 fourth its capacity. Do not use milk that is 
 very sour, as it is likely to contain so much 
 casein that your butter will not be of good 
 flavor. Many dairymen churn all the milk, 
 with the cream, but as it only adds more ; 
 work to the churning, I do not recommend i 
 
 I 
 
CHURNING. 37 
 
 it except in cases where there is not cream 
 enough to properly fill the churn. Illustra- 
 tions are given of the best churns for the 
 dairy, viz., the Barrel Churn, the Rectangular 
 Churn, and the Pendulum Churn. 
 
WORKING THE BUTTER. 
 
 NEVER work the butter wlien it is too 
 warm. I find tliat 50 degrees is about 
 right. The main point in working butter is 
 to get the buttermilk all out, and also to get 
 it in good solid compact form. More depends 
 upon proper working than one would natur- 
 ally suppose. You often see butter with great 
 
 HOME-MADE DANISH BUTTER WORKER. 
 
 droj^s of buttermilk standing all over it ; such 
 butter was only half worked, a.nd will gener- 
 ally contain thirty to forty per cent, of water. 
 
WORKING THE BUTTER. 
 
 39 
 
 and will keep sweet but a very short time, 
 The other extreme is overworking, and 
 this produces a dry crumbly mass, with 
 no flavor. If the churning is done as de- 
 scribed in the foregoing chapter very little 
 
 working is necessary, as the battermili is 
 very nearly all out of the butter before iit 
 leaves the churn. Take the butter out of the 
 churn with your butter spade, and heap it up 
 
40 
 
 ABC BUTTER-MAKING, 
 
 on the worker. If too warm for working at 
 once, throw a cloth wet in cold water over it, 
 and leave to drain and cool for thirty minutes. 
 Before using the lever of your worker always 
 dip it in cold water. Now take the lever and 
 gently press the butter out over the full sur- 
 face of the worker, and sprinkle on some salt ; 
 begin at the sides, and roll the butter back 
 
 WATERS PATENT BUTTER WORKER. 
 
 into the centre, being careful not to do any 
 rubbing or you will have greaSy butter. Now 
 press out the whole mass again, and give it 
 another salting, and repeat the working two 
 or three times until you have incorporated 
 the salt throughout the whole mass evenly. 
 Tlie general rule for salting is to use one 
 ounce of salt to a pound of butter, but as 
 some people like "salty" butter and some 
 "fresh" batter, you must salt according to 
 the wants of your patrons. I always use a 
 fine sieve, and sift the salt over the butter on 
 
WORKING 5 ^:a BUTTE II 41 
 
 the worker, just as the baker sifts his flour 
 over the dough when making it. Much de- 
 pends upon the quahty of the salt used in 
 butter-making, and if you desire to make good 
 
 CURTIS FAVORITE BUTTER WORKER, FOR ONE OR 
 TWO COWS. 
 
 butter use only good salt, which is put up in 
 sacks, and branded '' Dairy Salt,'^ by nearly 
 all the large salt makers in the country. If 
 
 BUTTER-SALTING SCALE. 
 
 you have a large dairy do not trust to guess- 
 work, but buy a scale and use it. An illus- 
 tration of a scale which is made especially for 
 salting butter is given above. These scales 
 
42 
 
 A B a BLTTER-MAKING. 
 
 weigli from one-half ounce up to 250 pounds, 
 and as they can be used for ordinary weigh- 
 ing without regard to the butter-salting at- 
 tachment, every dairyman should have one. 
 They cost about six dollars. 
 
 An illustration of a home-made butter 
 worker, which is used largely by the Danes, is 
 herewith given. Any man that is handy 
 with tools, can make one. Cuts of three 
 other good workers are shown ; they are well 
 made, and cost but a small amount. 
 
MARKETING BUTTER. 
 
 B" UTTER well made is half sold," says an 
 old maxim ; but one would naturally sup- 
 pose that it was " quite sold," to observe the 
 careless manner in which four-fifths of the 
 farmers market their butter. AVho has not 
 observed the tactics of the country store- 
 keeper in buying butter? Here comes Mrs. 
 Smith, or Jones, who is known near and 
 far as a good butter maker. See how anx- 
 ious the merchant is to please her ; he knows 
 that 1 er butter is in great demand and will 
 be sold at a good price before night. He 
 pays her the highest market price, and 
 while weighing the neat prints of golden 
 butter, carefully wrapped in spotless cloth or 
 snow-white parchment paper, tells her that 
 he wishes she could have brought in more. 
 It's a pleasure to have the trade of such a 
 woman. But now comes Mrs. Easy. Observe 
 the cloudy expression on the merchant's coun- 
 tenance, as he tells her that he's overstocked 
 with butter; that the market is *'way down." 
 You will notice that he charges her a "long 
 
44 A B C BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 price" for Avbatever he sells her, and dumps 
 her butter, which is generally in mussy rolls, 
 into the nearest shoe box. And who can 
 blame him, knowing that he cannot sell Mrs. 
 Easy's butter at home, but must ship it to the 
 nearest market and sell it for "low grade 
 dairy" at a price which seldom, if ever, nets 
 him a profit. 
 
 One seldom hears of the markets being 
 over-stocked w^ith ''gilt edge" butter ; on the 
 other hand, the market is nearly always loaded 
 down with " low grades" and grease. 
 
 The best plan for marketing butter is to 
 endeavor to find customers at home, and sell 
 as soon as possible. People that pack their 
 butter and wait f r a rise, are sometimes dis- 
 appointed, and no butter can be as good four 
 or six months after it is made as when fresh. 
 It is far better, as a rule, to sell as soon as 
 possible, at the best price you can get, than to 
 wait for a rise that sometimes fails to come. 
 
 1 receive many letters during the year from 
 people asking me to find them city customers. 
 Such customers, as a rule, are very exacting; 
 they expect much, and paying a high price, 
 have a perfect right to do so. These private 
 customers (unless acquainted with the butter 
 maker) seldom prove agreeable people to deal 
 with. It is better to sell for a few cents less 
 
MARKETING BUTTER. 45 
 
 at home, and leave no chance for dissatisfac- 
 tion, or if you cannot possibly sell all you 
 make at home, better ship it to some reliable 
 commission merchant, and leave him to fight 
 out the battle with the customers. A good 
 plan is to make up a sample pail or tub, and 
 sliip to the commission merchant with a re- 
 quest that he "judge" and report on it, with 
 any suggestions he has to offer. Such a re- 
 quest will be sure to bring you a prompt re- 
 port from any good dealer. 
 
PACKING AND SHIPPING. 
 
 THE size, shape and style of package for 
 butter makers to use, must depend largely 
 upon the demands of the market to which the 
 butter is shipped, A few years ago large 
 quantities of roll butter were marketed in 
 Chicago during the colder months ; now you 
 
 m a y travel from 
 one end of the mar- 
 ket to the other 
 and not see a hun- 
 dred rolls. It is 
 but a short time 
 ago that earthen 
 crocks and jars 
 were extensively 
 used ; n o w y o u 
 WHITE ASH BUTTER TUB scarccly Gvcr see 
 them. The cause for this is, that earthen 
 vessels, of any kind, are not only liable to 
 break, but are also more difficult to handle 
 in large quantities, and weigh much more 
 than wooden packages. The great bulk of 
 butter that comes to Chicago now, is packed 
 
PACKING AND SHIPPING. 
 
 47 
 
 in white ash tubs and bale boxes. Occasion- 
 ally we see a tin package with wood veneer, 
 but they have never come into general use for 
 the reason that the acid gets under the tin 
 and causes rust. Wooden packages are just 
 
 now most popular, and 
 as the manufacturers 
 have reduced the cost of 
 manufacturing them to 
 a point where earthen- 
 ware and tin cannot com- 
 pete in price, we may 
 look to see them in use 
 for years to come. The 
 ordinary white ash tubs 
 can be had of every dairy 
 supply dealer and nearly 
 all of the general stores ; 
 they may be had in 20 
 lb., 25 lb., 30 lb., 40 lb. 
 and 60 lb. sizes. An il- 
 lustration of the nine- 
 pound bale boxes in 
 crate is also given. Dur- 
 ing the last two years 
 these bale boxes have become very popular. 
 They can be shijiped in crates of six and are 
 convenient to handle; they can be had for 
 about twelve cents apiece. 
 
 NINE POUND BALE 
 BOXES. 
 
48 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 In packing butter in wooden vessels wc 
 must guard against "woody taste/' and there 
 is but one way to do this, that is, to soak the 
 packages from 24 to 48 hours in strong brine 
 and then thoroughly scald them out. Even 
 this method sometimes fails to accomplish the 
 work. A capital way to prevent woody taste, 
 is to line the j^ackage with parchment paper, 
 Avhich not only prevents the butter from tak- 
 ing on a woody flavor, but also prevents soak- 
 age and excludes the air. This parchment 
 paper may now be had of all dairy implement 
 dealers, in sheets and circles of any size. It 
 costs about thirty cents a pound, and a pound 
 is sufficient to pack several hundred pounds 
 of butter. 
 
 There is still quite a trade in print butter, 
 and when nicely packed in one or two-pound 
 prints and of good quality it sells quickly, on 
 account of its convenient shape for family 
 use. For print butter there has been invented 
 a machine which stamps out one-half and one- 
 pound blocks very quickly and quite artisti- 
 cally. AYhen butter is shij^ped in this form 
 it should be first carefully wrap^oed in cloth 
 or parchment paper and packed in boxes in 
 crates. Each box should contain but one 
 block of butter, as piling one block upon 
 another would be likely to press out the deli- 
 
PACKING AND SHIPPING 49 
 
 cate figures moulded or stamped on the block. 
 The blocks for these patent printing machines 
 are sometimes artistically carved, so that the 
 blocks of butter show sheaves of wheat, acorns, 
 etc., and sometimes with the maker's initi.;ls 
 or monogram. For home use the old fash- 
 ioned round mould holding from a quarter of 
 
 I X L BUTTER PRINTER. 
 
 a pound to two pounds is still extensively 
 used, and when properly soaked in cold water 
 before moulding, makes a very nice print of 
 butter. These patent printers and moulds 
 save much time and are a great convenience 
 over the old way of forming the butter into 
 rolls. 
 
50 
 
 .4 B C BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 Ill packing it is always better to pack each 
 churning in a separate tub or box, as the tub 
 that contains different churnings will not be 
 of uniform solidity or color throughout, and 
 
 ONE POUND BUTTER MOULD. 
 
 will therefore not sell for as much as a tub 
 perfectly uniform. 
 
 Eemember to soak the covers of the pack- 
 ages, and before fastening them on sprinkle 
 salt to a depth of a quarter of an inch over 
 
PACKING AND SHIPPING. 51 
 
 the top of the butter cloth or paper. Never 
 leave the cover off the packages for any 
 length of time, for the reason that it will not 
 only cause the top of the butter to become 
 discolored, but it will also admit the air and 
 spoil the top of the butter for several inches. 
 The moment you have packed your butter 
 get it into a cool place — the cooler the better 
 — and thereafter keep it as cool as possible, 
 until you have disposed of it. 
 
THERMOMETERS IN THE 
 DAIRY. 
 
 pHEDERIO SUMNER says "There is no 
 1^ more use in trying to run a dairy with- 
 out a good tested thermometer than there 
 would be to attempt sailing a vessel 
 without a rudder/' and I heartily 
 agree with him. A good thermome- 
 ter can be purchased for from fifty 
 cents to a dollar, and at these prices 
 is certainly within the reach of 
 every dairyman. Too much depends 
 upon the temperature of the water 
 in which we cool our milk, the room 
 we ripen our cream in, do our churn- 
 ing in, and the temperature of the 
 milk, cream, and the butter itself, 
 to attempt any guess work. Our 
 grandmothers used thumb and finger 
 to ascertain the temperature of milk 
 and cream, but in these days of fifty 
 cents, seventy -five cents, and a dol- 
 lar a pound butter we find " thumb- 
 rule " will not work. An illustration 
 
THERMOMETERS IN THE DAIRY. 
 
 53 
 
 of a thermometer made expressly for dairy 
 use, is given ; tliey are made of glass and float 
 upright in the milk or cream. The churning 
 and cheese points are marked for the conven- 
 ience of new beginners ; they retail at about 
 fifty cents, and can be purchased from any 
 dealer in dairy goods. 
 
MAXIMS 
 
 For ABC Butter Makers. 
 
 TEST your cows. 
 Never fill the churn over half full. 
 
 Never touch the butter with your hands. 
 
 Cream rises best in a falling temperature. 
 
 Never churn fresh unripened cream with 
 ripened cream. 
 
 After cream becomes sour, the more ripen- 
 ing the more it depreciates. 
 
 The best time for churning is just before 
 the acidity becomes apparent. 
 
 Never let your butter get warm ; when once 
 warmed through it will lose its flavor. 
 
 Excessive working makes crumbly butter, 
 spoils the grain and injures the flavor. 
 
 Never mix night's with morning's milk, as 
 the warmth of the new and the coldness of 
 the old, hastens change and decomposition. 
 
 All kinds of disagreeable odors are easily 
 absorbed by salt. Keep it, therefore, in a 
 clean, dry place, in linen sacks, if it is to be 
 used for butter making. 
 
 The best butter has the least competition 
 to contend against, while the worst dairy pro- 
 
MAXIMS. 55 
 
 ducts have the most. The bolter anything 
 is, the more rare is it and the greater its 
 value. 
 
 A butter maker that uses his fingers instead 
 of a thermometer, to find out the temperature 
 of milk or cream will never make a success. 
 
 Cleanliness should be the Alpha and Omega 
 of butter making. Absolute cleanliness as 
 regards person, stable, utensils and package. 
 
 Faults — The quickest way to find out the 
 faulty points in your butter, is to send a sam- 
 ple of it to some reliable butter buyer aud ask 
 him to score it. 
 
 The difference between the dairyman who 
 makes $50.00 a year, per cow, and one who 
 makes $30.00, is that the first works intelli- 
 gently, the second mechanically. 
 
 Details — The price of success in butter 
 making, as in all other classes of business, is 
 strict attention to the little details ; it's the 
 sum of all these little things that determines 
 whether your butter is to be sold for ten cents 
 a pound or as a high priced luxury. 
 
 The disadvantages of the system of setting 
 milk in shallow pans or crocks, for raising 
 cream, are that a long period elapses before 
 the skimming is completed, too much space 
 is required, and in Summer the milk becomes 
 sour before the whole of the cream is raised. 
 
56 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 Labor saving appliances are intended, as 
 the name implies, to save lalior, bat they do 
 not render care, thought and diligence the 
 less necessary. To understand the principles 
 that underlie the business of butter making, 
 is as imperative as to use the most improved 
 utensils. 
 
 By keeping a strict account only, can you 
 find out the extent of your success or failure. 
 If the balance is on the right side, you will 
 know whether and how much it can be in- 
 creased ; if it is on the Avrong side, you will 
 be more strongly convinced of the necessity 
 for improvement. 
 
 If you keep your cows in a healthy condi- 
 tion, milk regularly ; set the milk in air tight 
 cans with good cold water (either ice^ or 
 spring) ; skim every twenty-four hours ; ripen 
 the cream properly ; churn in a barrel churn 
 or some other good churn On the same prin- 
 ciple ; wash the butter well while still in the 
 churn in granular state ; you will never be 
 troubled with white specks in your butter. 
 
HOW TO MAKE GOOD 
 BUTTER. 
 
 — BY N. BIGALOAV, STOWE, VERMONT. — 
 
 IT is necessary to have good cows to start 
 with, and if good butter is the object sought 
 I prefer good Jerseys. The next thing is good 
 feed. Grass that is fresh and tender is best 
 of all. This does not last very long up here 
 in Vermont. My cows have a feed of green 
 corn fodder, at night, and a small feed of 
 grain, in the morning. I prefer to mix dif- 
 ferent kinds of grain together. It must be 
 all sound and good. Make the cows comfort- 
 able and contented. Kind treatment is in- 
 dispensable, and the more regularity in caring 
 for them the better. 
 
 We try to keep the milk entirely clean. If 
 it is necessary we wash the cows' bags, before 
 milking. The milk is strained into large, 
 open pans, and as soon as tlie animal heat is 
 out of it, the pans are covered over with thin 
 cotton cloth. The covers are made by sewing 
 the edges of the cloth to some strips of bass- 
 wood, about three-fourths of an inch square 
 
58 ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 and a little longer than the pans. They cost 
 but a trifle, and after using them ten years 
 we would hardly make butter without them. 
 The butter is not quite so yellow, at first, for 
 raising the cream under the covers, but will 
 be after it has stood a few hours. 
 
 When we first tried our large pans, we used 
 to run water around them, but the coolers 
 have got to leaking, and we do not think it 
 would pay to get new ones. 
 
 Our rule is to skim the milk soon after 
 it sours, as the cream will come off easily. 
 We keep the cream in a cellar, when it is 
 necessary, but prefer to keep it in the milk 
 room, when it is not too warm. Our dairy is 
 small, and we have churned only twice a 
 week, this year. We use the Stoddard churn, 
 and would not use a float cliurn. I have 
 never seen the acme churn yet, and hardly 
 think it has been made. 58 degrees is the 
 right temperature at which to churn the 
 cream, in warm weather : 62 in cold, and 60 
 in spring and fall. We put in from three to 
 six quarts of water to thin the cream, and if 
 the cream is too warm we use cold water (we 
 have a cold spring), and in extreme warm 
 weather use a little ice. If the cream is too 
 cold we warm the water sometimes up to 120 
 degrees. If that will not answer, the cream 
 
HOW TO MAKE GOOD BUTTER. 59 
 
 must be warmed beforehand. The butter- 
 milk is drawn off as soon as it can be done, 
 and leave most of the butter in the churn. 
 Any butter that runs out is put back with a 
 skimmer. We use cold water enough to keep 
 the butter in the grain, and wash it until the 
 water runs clear. I suppose brine would be 
 better, but have not used it much. After the 
 butter has drained, the salt is strained in with 
 a paddle ; and then it is taken out with the 
 paddle and pressed into the butter bowl. We 
 use about an ounce of salt to a pound, but 
 some of it works out. After it has stood a 
 few hours, it is worked with a lever in an old 
 fashioned butter worker, just enough to get 
 the salt in evenly, and then it is ready to 
 print. We always try to injure the grain as 
 little as possible. 
 
 Our printer holds four pounds, and makes 
 eight half pound prints. The prin'>s are put 
 up in four pound boxes, and cut apart with 
 wooden blades. The boxes are made here in 
 Stowe, and are washed and scalded with boil- 
 ing water, sprinkled with salt. 
 
 Our milk house is shaded on the eastern 
 side by a willow tree, and on the southern by 
 another building, and we can cool it to some 
 extent with currents of air. But if we should 
 admit currents of air, without the covers over 
 
60 .ABC BUTTER-MAKING. 
 
 the pans, there would be white specks in the 
 butter. 
 
 AVe use butter color when it is necessry to 
 color the butter, but think it better to color 
 it too little than too much. 
 
 I am in the habit of mixing a small quan- 
 tity of cotton seed meal with the grain for 
 the cows, and think I get a little more milk 
 from that than anything else. Linseed meal 
 is very high here, and I have never used it. 
 
 Last, but not least, the cows must have 
 pure air to breathe, and the milk, cream and 
 butter must be kept in a good atmosphere. 
 
 I am fully convinced that any farmer that 
 makes a prime article of butter, of uniform 
 quality, has an excellent opportunity to use 
 common sense and sound judgment. 
 
 Consumers of such butter, as I have des- 
 cribed, need not have any fear that they are 
 eating anything that is, or ever was, filthy or 
 unwholesome. 
 
THE DAIRYMAN'S 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 Creaming Milk by Centrifugal Force . . $ 50 
 
 Hazard's Butter and Butter Making. . . 25 
 
 Curtis' Hints on Dairying 50 
 
 Willard's Practical Dairy Husbandry . . 3 00 
 
 Willard's Practical Butter Book 1 25 
 
 ABC Butter Making, by Burch 30 
 
 Harris' Cheese and Butter Maker's 
 
 Hand Book 1 50 
 
 The Jersey, Alderney and Guernsey 
 
 Cow 1 75 
 
 Feeding Animals. Stewart 2 00 
 
 Dadd's American Cattle Doctor 1 75 
 
 Guenon's Treatise on Milch Cows 1 25 
 
 Quincy on Soiling of Cattle 1 50 
 
 Keeping One Cow 125 
 
 Jennings' Cattle and their Diseases ... 2 00 
 
 Barn Plans and Out Buildings 1 75 
 
 Any one of the above books will be sent 
 post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 The Dairy World, Chicago, HI. 
 
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H3U-84 
 

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