Scientific American, Volume 22, No. 1, January 1, 1870: A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures.Various
Science
Scientific American, Volume 22, No. 1, January 1, 1870: A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures.
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
There has been much discussion as to the best means of cooling milk
for market, and patent pails have been tried in which the milk passes
directly from the cow through small, coiled tubes surrounded by ice.
But this rapid cooling does not work well, and practical experience
indicates that the old simple process is the best. Every well-appointed
farm must have, therefore, a cool and unfailing stream of water. There
are two such streams in one of the farms we visited. One passes through
the barn, furnishing drinking troughs for the cattle, and a tank for
cooling milk in winter. The other, running through the pasture, supplies
a trout-breeding pond, and furnishes a tank for summer use. In a little
hut under the trees, the milk cans are kept in a stream, which even
the severe drought of last summer did not dry, nor the heat raise to a
temperature of 60°.
We are assured most positively that none of the spring water finds its
way over the mouth of the can into the milk. Its dilution, of which
there is so much just complaint, must be done, if at all, in the city,
for the wholesale buyer is said to have such means of testing the milk
as effectually protects him against the farmer. May the man be busy at
work who is to give each family such a protection. We have heard it said
that one end of a small piece of common tape placed in a pan of milk
will carry from it all the water into another vessel in which the other
end of the tape should be placed; but we have never found this a safe
test.
Strange to say, no butter is made on these large milk farms. The supply
for the family is obtained from market, or, more rarely, from a neighbor
who churns all his milk for the accommodation of those who send all
theirs to the city. Our notions of the way to make butter were decidedly
overturned on going to such a dairy. No setting of the milk in shallow
pans for cream to rise; no skimming and putting away in jars until
"churning day," when the thick cream was agitated by a strong arm until
the butter came, then worked and salted. Instead, there is a daily
pouring of the unskimmed soured milk into a common churn, perhaps
somewhat larger than ordinary. The dasher is fastened to a shaft, which
is moved by a crank. The crank is turned by means of a nearly horizontal
wheel some eight or ten feet in diameter, which is kept in motion by a
dog, sheep, or calf standing on it, something after the manner of the
old tread-mill.
When taken from the churn, the butter is worked by hand as of old. The
farmer with whom we have talked said he was about determined to send his
milk to the creamery, since butter-making made it so hard for the women.
Surely woman is less a drudge than she used to be. If, after being
relieved from the labor of churning, the remaining working of the butter
is considered too hard for the farmer's wife, the day of a woman's
redemption must be near at hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account