THE MILK-ROOM.

It would be well to say a word about the milk-room before passing on to the management of cream. It 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 temperature 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 barnyard and hog-pen as possible.

MANAGEMENT OF CREAM.

Skim the milk before the cream becomes too thick and tough on top. I never allow 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 vessel containing cream that was skimmed some hours previous, be sure to stir it all well together, so that it may be of the same consistency. 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 slightly 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 advantage, and I will answer by saying that I do think it aids somewhat in helping the 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.

BRANCH OF ANNATO TREE, SHOWING BLOSSOMS AND SEED PODS.

We all prefer to have our butter of a rich orange color. White butter looks too much like lard. Then, too, butter of a pale white hue never sells for as much in the market as the rich colored article. Years ago people colored butter with the juice of carrots; later on the seeds of the Annato plant were crushed and the juice mixed with potash and water. We now have many specially prepared compounds in the 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.

RECTANGULAR CHURN.

PENDULUM CHURN.

Few persons know how to churn properly. No matter how rich or nice the cream, if the churning is not done at a proper temperature and in a proper manner you cannot make good butter. Avoid the "lightning" patent churn, which the agent will claim to bring butter in five minutes. Cream that is churned too quickly always makes butter of a cheesey flavor, and quick to get rancid. 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 before 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 churn with a slow movement, gradually increasing until you have reached the proper speed, which is 40 to 50 strokes per minute. I do not believe in the churn with a dash inside, 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 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 nothing but the water of the buttermilk 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, 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 stopper in the bottom of your churn; if you have not got such a thing as a hole in your churn, don't waste 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 the 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