CHURNING. The improvement in the man ufacture of butter within the last few years, has led to the invention of a great many modifica tions of the barrel-churn, where it is to be pro pelled by power. Dairymen each have their preferences, but as a rule, the revolving princi ple is found in the churns used in large dairies. The barrel churn, bulging only enough to make the hoops drive well, is a good form. It should have a journal or bearing at each head, and stationary short arms inside to cause due agita tion of the cream, as the churn is being turned. There is an opening for pouring in cream, and taking out butter, capable of being firmly screwed in place, and near it a hole filled with a plug, for testing the state of the cream and drawing off the buttermilk. The temperature of the cream should not be less than 58°, nor more than 62°, when put in the churn, depending upon the heat of the weather, since sometimes it gathers heat faster than at other times. The churning should last from thirty to sixty minutes, about forty minute's churning being an average time for churning cream, to properly separate the butter. At one of the most extensive butter fac tories in the East, where the churning is done by steam, the following is the plan : The churns are barrel-formed, with a bottom head eighteen inches in diameter, inside measure, and thirty inches high, holding one and a quarter barrels each. The dashes or floats are unusually large. They cover three-quarters of the area of a hori zontal section of the churn. Two forms are
used. One of them, recently introduced, is made of two-inch ash plank, and is a solid circle six teen and a quarter inches in diameter, made concave on the under side. The hollowing out on the under side is done so that when the dash, after being raised above the cream, goes down, a cushion of air will strike the cream instead of the bard wood. By this means the least possible injury is done to the grain of the butter, The other style of dash is made in the usual way, with cross floats which are large enough to cover as much surface as the solid circle. The churn ing is done with a slow stroke, counted at thirty four to the minute, and at a temperature of 58° in summer and 60° in cool weather, and requires from one to two hours to bring the butter, the cream being varied a little in temperature and quantity, so that the ehurns shall not all come off at once. When the butter begins to appear in granules, the pace is slackened down to half speed, or below, and cold water enough put in to increase the contents of the churn so much that the dash, in its upward stroke, will not rise quite out of the cream. In this way the dash is prevented from pressing the granules together, and they become hard without adhering, and the butter is gathered in a granular form, in lumps of the size of peas and grains of wheat, which the cold water added makes very hard.