FARMING NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 26 April 1913, Page 3

FARMING NOTES.

THE BEST STRAW. The row of sixteen small stacks of oat straw that may be seen near the road on the Lincoln , College farm, says a Chris tchurch exchange, has aroused some curiosity among passersby, amd the College authorities have received numerous inquiries as to the reason for threshing in such small lot?. Thi sis a continuation of the oat variety test that was started last autumn, when plots of one or two acres in exten twere fed off by sheep to test the palatability of the green feed. These plots were then allowed to come away, were threshed, their yields noted, and the straw placed in separate stacks. The cattle will be turned into these stacks in the winter, with the object of seeing if they have any preferencce among the virions oat straws, and it is hoped that this will give an indication as to the best straw for chaff.

RIPENING CREAM

Tn very cold weather cream takes a long time to ripen naturally, . and may fail to ripen at all if its temperature is very low. In the summer cream will ripen naturally, but in the. cold weather it will be necessary to 1 assist this where good results are to ho secured. The assistance is best afforded by adding about 10 to 12£ per cent of starter to the cream, and keeping it at a. uniform temperature of 68 deg., or not lower than 65 deg. Fahr. Cream for churning is consider-. *>d ripe when it contains 0.5 to 0.6 par cent of acidity, and possesses a clean, sharp, acid flavour. It is tested fo** the acidity by the ordinary dairy acid meter as used for cheesemaking, but the quality of the cream for churning should be judged by its sourness alone. Unless the flavour of the cream is as already described, it may be tainted and' quite unfit for the production- of prime butter, although the correct amount of acim may be present. Tainted cream is usually the result of using unclean milk, keeping the cream in anjmpure atmosphere, or the use of a contaminated starter; the surface Inyer should be -kimed off and discarded, in case it is infected with obnoxious organisms. It is advisable to renew the starter ■■occasionally, as the lactic-acid producing organisms become weak after a time through being "forced," as it were, or grown under abnormal conditions, The cream having been ripened, it should bo regulated to a suitable temperature for churning, which is about 56 to 66 dog Fahr. in winter, and lit should be poured through a (•.training muslin into the churn. Before use the churn should be warmed, which is best affected by having it two-thirds full of watfr at 2or 3 deg. above the ehruning temperature.. This water should be placed in the churn half an hour or so-before churning, and the churn, turned several times, in order to warm it uniformly. Providing the cream is properly ripe, and churned at a suitable temperature, the butter will como in from twenty to thirtyfive minutes. Car© should be exercised not to churn at too low a temperature, as this would prolong the churning period and cause the resulting butter to be of inferior quality. Tn cold weather the butter should "be churned to small grains, and then they should be washed with clean water at a suitable temperature. The washing water should not be too cold, as this would make the butter grains unduly hard. The smaller the grains the more water the butter will contain. "Water in butter helps to k?ep it soft, hence the desirability of leaving more water in winter than in summer. It is the usual practice to brine butter in preference to drysalting, as by the former method it is an easy matter to get the salt evenly distributed throughout and the removal of the butter-milk is greatly facilitated. By the application of warm water the: temperature of the brine must be regulated that it is not too cold, or the butter grains willi become too hard. Unless the dairy is artificially heated the. butter should be worked and made up without delay.