The processes for making butter have been various in different ages and among different nations. The opera tion of churning is well known ; and we have only to observe, that though churns have been constructed of different forms, they may be all reduced to two, the ver tical and horizontal. The vertical, or pump churn, as it is usually named, was probably the first thought of, and is nothing more than a tall wooden vessel, three or four feet high, narrow in proportion to its height, and straiter above than below, having a sort of piston or staff, adapted to it, with a perforated head, by moving which up and down with the hands, the cream is agitatk d, and the butter at length formed. The utensil is sufficiently well adapted to the operation of making butter on a small scale, where the cream to be churned is the produce of a few cows only. But where dairying is managed on the great scale, and the quantity amain large, the ope ration performed in this tray is too tedious and laborious for general use, and methods have been contrived to ex pedite the process and abridge the labour. This is best done by means of the horizontal, commonly called the barrel-churn, w hich is a cylindrical vessel, close at both ends, and firmly fixed upon a stand, having a sort of rack or trundle adapted to it within, usually with four blades, and turned by a winch or handle, placed on its axle, pass ing through the ends of the churn. By this machine, as much cream may be churned in an hour as could be done in ten or twelve by the common upright churn.
Ingenious machinery for working both species of churns, by means of water, and other moving powers, have been contrived, and found to answer well.
In the northern parts of Africa, in Egypt, and Arabia, they churn by putting the cream into a goat's skin, turn ed inside out, and pressing it to and fro, in an uniform manner. Sometimes they place it on an inclined plane, permitting it to roll to the bottom, and then again re placing it to run the same course. A method which in a short time produces butter.
1)r Chandler, while travelling in Greece, observed them treading the skins thus filled with their feet ; a practice which has been thought to illustrate the passage already quoted from the book of Job.
In Bengal, they churn by simply turning a stick in the milk ; and that families may have the butter fresh and sweet to breakfast, it is made in this way every morning. In many parts of the East, they make butter of the milk of the buffalo ; but this is by no means es teemed equal in excellence to the butter of the cow's milk. It is deficient in consistence, colour, and fla vour.
With regard to the good or bad qualities of butter, a great deal has been always ascribed to the pasturage of different farms or districts. Recent observations and experiments, however, skew that much less depends upon this than has been commonly imagined. The mode of management appears to be of much greater consequence. " In every district," says Dr Anderson, " where fine butter is made, it is universally attributed to the richness of the pastures, though it is a %yell known fact, that take a skilful dairy-maid from that district into another, where no good butter is usually made, and where, of course, the pastures are deemed very unfa vourable, she will make butter as good as she used to do ; and bring one from this last district into the other, and she will find that she cannot make better butter there than she did before, unless she takes lessons from the servants or others whom she finds there."—" I have fre quently," continues he, " known instances of this kind. And the same thing takes place in the manufacture of beer and many other articles. In matters of this sort, a very great diversity is produced by circumstances appa rently of a most trivial kind." M. Tessier, of the National Institute of France, says, " The particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose colour, flavour, and consistence, arc so much prized, depends neither on the pasture nor the particular species of cow, but on the mode of making. This butter is of a supe rior quality, because they make it of the richest cream, and usually in large quantities at a time. As soon as it is made and washed, they sprinkle it with sweet milk, spread it out in flatted cakes, larger or smaller, but rare ly containing less than three, or more than six pounds ; and lay it on a kind of pan, placed on hot cinders, and covered with a copper lid, on which are put cinders also. It remains there some minutes, more or fewer according to the bulk of the cake." This mode of managing butter appears from him to be a secret in certain families, and to require practice and dexterity to conduct it with success.
Still, however, we are disposed to believe that certain pastures are more favourable to the production of good butter than others. Certain plants, such as turnip, wild garlic, hemlock, rough-leaved dandelion, charlock, and may-weed, are known to affect milk with a disagreeable flavour, and there may be many others which, to a cer tain degree, impair its goodness, though their effects are by no means so evident. Far more, however, depends on good management than on this circumstance, or even on the species of cow we feed ; for that something, like wise, is owing to this, is equally well ascertained. Cows have been found whose milk could not be brought to yield any butter at all.
It has been long remarked, that the butter in the Iligh lands of Scotland, when properly made, possesses a pe culiarly rich and delicate flavour ; and this has been al most universally attributed to the old grass on which the cows feed in these remote glens. But what more com
mon error than to mistake a concomitant circumstance for a cause ? Dr Anderson, by his experiments on milk, has shewn that the excellence of the Highland butter may be very reasonably ascribed to a quite different cause. 1 le has proved that the cream of a given mea sure of milk constantly increases in quantity, and still more in quality, from the first drawn tea-cup full, to the last drop that cat, be squeezed from the udder at the time. " Probably," says he, " on an average of a great many cows, the proportion of the cream obtained from a given quantity of the last drawn milk, may be to that of the cream obtained from an equal quantity of the first drawn, as ten or twelve to one; but the quality of the cream of the last drawn was still more superior than its quantity. The cream of the first drawn tea-cupful of the milk was only a thin white film ; in the last, it was of a thick butyraceous consistence, and of a glowing rich ness of colour, such as no other cream possesses. It is, therefore, observes Dr Anderson, of much more impor tance than is commonly imagined, to milk the cows well ; for on the cream of the last drawn milk depends entirely the richness and delicate flavour of the butter." Now, in the Highlands of Scotland, where they rear almost all their calves, the common practice is to admit the calf to suck the mother always for a certain time before milking. And when the dairy-maid judges the calf has had enough, it is removed to the pen or cruive, from which it had been brought. In this way, the latter drawn parts of the milk only are obtained for the dairy ; and the cream pro duced from it being of a superior quality, the excellence of the Highland butter seems to be accounted for. In the higher districts of Galloway, a similar mode of ma nagement prevails, and their butter is observed to be rich and delicate. It has been likewise ascertained, that the cream which first rises after the milk has been deposited in the dairy-pans, is both much greater in a given space of time, than that which rises in an equal space several hours after, and of a greatly superior quality ; that thick milk throws up less cream than thin, but of a richer quality ; and that milk that has been much agitated by carrying, and cooled before it is put into the milk-pans, never throws up so much cream, as that which is im mediately deposited in them after milking. It is also known, that the milk is not at the best till about four months after the cow has calved ; and that the degree of heat most favourable to the production of cream from milk, is from 50 to 55 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermome ter. " If the heat of the milk-house," says Dr Anderson, " be too great, the milk suddenly coagulates, without admitting of any separation of the cream ; or it is so quickly turned sour, as greatly to mar the operation. If, on the other hand, the milk be exposed to too cold a temperature, the cream separates from it slowly, and with difficulty ; it acquires a bitter and disagreeable taste ; the butter can scarcely be made to come at all ; and when it is come, it is so pale in the colour, so small in quantity, and of such hard and brittle consistence, so poor to the taste, and of so little value in all respects, as to bring a very low price at the market, compared to what it would have produced, had it been preserved in a proper degree of heat." The same judicious writer states it as his opinion, formed from experience and at tentive observation, that since neither cream nor butter can he produced from milk, till some portion of an acid he evolved in it, the last drawn half of the milk only should, in general, be set up for producing cream, and be allowed to stand till it throw up the whole of its cream, even till the milk tastes perceptibly sourish ; and that if this cream be afterwards judiciously managed, the butter thus obtained will be of a greatly superior quality to what can be usually got at market, and its quantity not consi derably less, than if the whole of the milk had been ori ginally set apart for producing cream. " This, there fore," says he, " is the practice that I should recom mend, as most likely to suit the frugal farmer ; as his butter, though of a superior quality, could be afforded at a price that would always ensure it a rapid sale." Cows, in summer, should be milked three tunes a-day at least ; early in the morning, at noon, and just before night-fall. If this he not done, the greatest possible quantity of milk will be far from being obtained from them. The milk is secreted in the udder, very much in proportion to the quantity required, as we see in the ease of dogs, cats, pigs, and other animals, which produce more young than one at a time ; and we know that a cow, by scanty milking, can very soon be put dry. it is there fore of the utmost consequence, that the whole milk se creted be at each milking carefully drawn away. It may be laid down as a pretty general rule, that 18 pounds of milk will yield one pound of butter ; and that this is the produce of a single cow per day. Some, however, tvill furnish twice, or even thrice this quantity. The effects of feeding, treatment, management, and the idiosincracy of particular animals, arc here astonishingly great.