The Farm.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 32, 2 September 1871, Page 9

The Farm.

COMBINED BUTTER AND CHEESE FACTORIES. The subject of the following paper deserves the careful consideration of our agricultural readers:—" Is it practicable and profitable to combine the manufacture of butter and cheese in factories ?" is a question of great, importance just at the present time, for now the attention of dairvman seems to be turned in that direction If it is practicable to thus combine the manufacture of our dairy products, here in this convention is the place to give it encouragement. On the other hand, if it is impracticable, we should throw out safeguards that the hopes raised in this branch of agriculture be not wrecked upon the rocks of disappointment. The magnitude of the butter business in the west is greatly underrated. We are better posted upon the extent of cheese manufacturing. But the butter question none can answer. It is thought by good judges, however, that we would not be far out of the way, in finding the amount of butter, if we multiply every pound of cheese by five. If all the butter used in the west was made in factories, then we should have nearly five butter factories to each cheese factory. No wonder they asked us to leave cheese for a time and take up the butter question. The fact that I have been connected with the pioneer butter and cheese factory of the west since its erection, I fear, will lead many to suppose that I can give them just the information desired ; but the truth is, I have run a butter and cheese factory just long enough to learn that I know compantively nothing. Had I been called upon in the earlier part of my experience, I should have entered upon the task with more confidence of giving satisfaction. I find theory in butter and cheese making of no avail, unless hacked up by practical experience. From what I have been able to learn, butter and cheese-making can only be combined where an abundant flow of spring water can be obtained. Milk for the manufacture of both butter and cheese must be kept at an even temperature, and cold enough to preserve the milk sweet while the cream is rising, in order that a good article of cheese may be made from the skimmed milk. Well-water with ice might be used, but ice keeps it too cold for the better rising of the cream. Well-water might be used, but only where the pump is kept constantly at work, for as soon as the water is raised from the well its temperature begins to change—it either gets colder or warmer as the surrounding atmosphere may influence it. Factories built with reference to the manufacture of both butter and cheese cannot receive milk from as long distances as where cheese is made exclusively, especially when it is delivered but once per day. M ilk for the manufacture of butter must come to the factory sweet, as it must be kept from twenty-four to thirty six hours after being delivered in order that the most may be made from the milk after skimming. Greater care by patrons must be taken of the milk than when delivered to a cheese factory. Milk poorly cared for at home, and brought long distances over rough roads, is of but little value for butter and cheese. Therefore we conclude that the combining of the manufacture of both butter and cheese in the factory can only be successful in those localities favored with springs, and where patrons live near at hand. If these requisites can be found in one location cheese and butter can be made successful. With about one-third added to the expense of building a common cheese factory, it may be fitted for both butter and cheese making. Then we are prepared to make the most of our milk; we can skim partially or wholly, as the season of the year or market may influence. We have found in our experience that at certain seasons milk made into butter would bring patrons two or three cents, more per gallon thau when made into cheese, while at other times the profit would be in favor on the cheese. I look upon the adoption of this practice in places where it can be as one calculated to assist in equalising the price of these two products. When our factories are built in this way we have the business better under our control. I look upon the associated plan of making butter as one calculated to improve the quality of this most important article of food. If the northwest needs reform in any one thing more than another it is in this most important branch of industry. If we of the west have achieved a name for anything—a name high over all—it is for the manufacture of miserable butter. In all the markets of the world whore a poor package of butter is found and they wish to consign it to the lower grades, they brand it western butter. Not that it is impossible for us to make good butter, for there is a limited amount of good butter made in the west, whose quality will compare favorably with that made in the eastern states ; but the amount is so small that it is consumed in the immediate neighborhoods where it is made, and only the poor is sent to distant markets. Shall this state of things remay ?., We have redeemed ourselves from the stigma that rested upon us as cheese makers, and we look to the associated plan of dariying to do for us as butter makers what it has done for us as cheese makers. Not that

all the butter is to be made in factories ; but wben factories, having the advantages they do over small dairies, sell their butter for ten or fifteen cents, more per pound than that made in the ordinary way, then farmers will begin to look about themselves and ask from whence comes this loss. They will begin to remodel their places for keeping milk, and will enquire of those that have make butter-making a life study, how best they can improve their plan of making butter. And as factory after factory is built up in the west, each trying to outdo the other, then will come up a healthy competition that is bound to result in a great improvement in our butter. A well regulated factory where a considerable quantity of milk is received can outdo the small dairies as they are now managed. For instance, when we g© to the private dairy for a tub of butter, it is filled from a number of different churnings ; and just as many different churnings as we have, just so many different kinds of butter there will be. In the factory we fill a number of different tubs from the same churning, and a 9 in the factory they salt and work by rule and weight there can be no difference in the butter. Then again, in the factory, we put our milk in deep setters which are immensed in water, keeping the milk at a perfectly high temperature. The great depth to which the milk is set causes the cream to rise sooner than when set in shallow pans. The setters in our factory are twenty inches deep and six inches in diameter, so that but very little of the cream is exposed to the light and air. Cream taken from milk in these setters makes better butter than that taken from milk set in the ordinary way. When we add to these and other advantages that might be mentioned, the fact that butter of uniform and superior quality, in large amounts, finds a readier market than when found in small quantities, we shall fiad it safe to erect butter factories where practicable. In this connection we propose to speak of some of the difficulties in the way of making good butter in small dairies, and to show that these obstacles can be overcome by the associated system. We often find butter coming from the same neighborhood, at the same time of year, of very different quality. One lot will be white, and another will be yellow ; one will be sweet, another will be rancid; one maker get 30 cents per pound, another .18 cents ; one has a good place to set milk, and understands the principle of making butter ; another knows little or nothing of how butter should be made —the first is satisfied with the business, the second is discouraged : one thinks that the room they live in is just as good as any to set milk in, or she fails to see why the vegetable cellar is not a good place for the raising of cream ; the other realises that in order to make good butter the milk must be set in a sweet cool, dark place. I have become satisfied thatmost of this strange diffcrencein butter arises from the different conveniences for setting milk. And when the errors now prevalent in the construction of our milk and butter cellers are corrected, a more uniform article of butter will be found. When first I went into the manufacture of butter I felt anxious to learn how the best butter that came into our markets was made ; also how the poorest was manufactured, that I might pattern after the good that I found in the one and avoid the mistakes of the other ; and that I might the sooner come into possession of this knowledge, I made inquiry of one of our largest dealers in this article, and was referred to two makers some ten miles away. I drove my ponies there, and to show you how different management will produce different kinds of butter, I am inclined to tell you what I saw. The first place I visited was that of the good butter maker. As I approached the house it exhibited anything; but an air of neatness, and the inside was in keeping with the outside. I was fortunate in finding the good lady in the act of churning. Upon introducing myself and making my errand known, I found her willing to show the cheese maker how good butter was made. I soon came to the conclusion the good qualities of her butter did not come so much from her neat habits, as it did from her knowledge of the first principles of butter making, and the superior place she had for setting her milk. She skimmed her milk nearly sweet, and churned the cream not long after taking it from the milk; and when she worked her butter, she worked it just enough and not too much. When she salted it she did it by rule and weight. Her place for keeping milk was a spring house with an abundant flow of cold water. From this place I passed on to the house where it was said poor butter was made. As I approached the premises everything looked neat and tidy. As I entered the yard filled with flowers, I said, can it be that poor butter is made here? And, again as I entered the house and noticed the marvellous neatness on every side, I said, can it be that poor butter is made here ? Upon making my errand known, the lady lamented over the state of the butter market. She felt discouraged ; not getting but 17 cents for the last butter sold. I found that she set her milk in a vegetable cellar, without ventilation ; and the cream while raising was exposed to a flood of light, spread out in thin pans, with a large surface exposed to the foul odors of the cellar. Her notions of economy led her to think that milk must set long after it is sour, in order to get all the cream. Upon the oldest milk I discovered a vigorous growth of mould. And then, again, when she had the cream in the pots it was left until another growth of mould had appeared ; and when this decomposing mass of cream came to the churn, she warmed the cream too much ; and when the butter was churned she worked it too much. As I left her house I did not wonder that this lady had poor butter. The objections raised by many to the multiplying of these factories, is the fear of overdoing the business. But if all butter factories will make good butter there is no danger. The building up of new factories, to a great extent, is but absorbing small dairies without any material

increase in the products. To improve the quality of our butter we must improve our facilties for making it. When we have the proper arrangements we can easier make good butter than we can good cheese. Our butter factory, in Elgin, commenced operations on the 11th of last July, under very unfavorable circumstances ; with the intense hot weather, unfinished factory and lack of water, coupled with our inexperience, all operated against perfect success in the manufacture of all our goods. The amount of milk received and the manufactured product, up to the Ist of November, I will give here : Gallons of milk received, 78,345 ; gallons shipped to Chicago, 1,200; pounds of made, 19,560; pounds of full cream cheese, 11,282; pounds of skimmed cheese, 19,153; pounds of curd sent to chemical works, 27,736. I regret that I have not been able to throw more light upon this important subject. I regard the manufacture of butter in the west in the same light that Ido cheese making. We have therefore looked to the east too much for our own good. We have milk composed of different chemical qualities; we have a different market and different climate; and we must depend upon ourselves. And, if this be so, let us, like brothers of one family, advise each the other, until our name as butter makers shall favorably compare with the reputation we have gained as cheese makers. I hail the associated plan for making butter as one calculated to improve the quality of this article. I hail it as one more powerful engine calculated to assist in developing the mighty reeourses of the west. I welcome it because it will lift a heavy burden from the tired arms of the over-worked wives and mothers of the west. As I entered the dairy business for life, I need the counsel of my brothers in the business as I pass along, and shall be free to ask and give information in turn. I tender you the hospitalities of my home, and hope in the future to be favored with calls from thebutter-makers, as I have ever been with the cheese-makers in the past. —I. H. Wanzer, in " Prairie Farmer."