One of the most convenient forms for shelves in a dairy-room designed for butter-making is represented in Fig. 73, made of light and seasoned wood, in an octagonal form, and capable of holding one hundred and seventy-six pans of the ordinary form and size. It is so simple and easily constructed, and so economizes space, that it may readily be adapted to other and smaller rooms for a similar purpose. If the dairy-house is near a spring of pure and running water, a small stream can be led in by one channel and taken out by another, and thus keep a constant circulation under the milk-stand, which may be so constructed as to turn easily on the central post, so as often to save many footsteps. The pans designed for milk are generally made of tin. That is found, after long experience, to be, on the whole, the best and most economical, and subject to fewer objections than most other materials. Glazed earthen ware is often used, the chief objection to it being its liability to break, and its weight. It is easily kept clean, however, and is next in value to tin, if not, indeed, equal to it. A tin skimmer is commonly used, somewhat in the form of the bowl of a spoon, and pierced with holes, to remove the cream. In some sections of the country, a large white clam-shell is very commonly used instead of a skimmer made for the purpose, the chief objection to it being that the cream is not quite so carefully separated from the milk. A mode of avoiding the necessity of skimming has long been used to some extent in England, by which the milk is drawn off through a hole in the bottom of the pan. This plan is recommended by Unwerth, a German agriculturist, who proposes a pan represented in Fig. 74, made of block tin, oblong in shape, and having the inside corners carefully rounded. The pan is only two inches in depth, and is made large enough to hold six or eight quarts of milk at the depth of one and a half inches. This shallowness greatly facilitates the rapid separation of the cream, especially at a temperature somewhat elevated. A strainer is shown in Fig. 75, pierced with holes, the centre half an inch lower than the rim, to which hooks are fixed to hold it to the top of the pan. On this a coarse linen cloth is laid, the milk being strained through both the cloth and the strainer, thus serving to separate all foreign substances in a thorough manner. [Illustration: Fig. 74. Milk-pan.] [Illustration: Fig. 75.] [Illustration: Fig. 76.] [Illustration: Fig. 77.]