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VOL. XXXI.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SEPT. 26, 1896.
NO. 39
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EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT
Keeping Milk and Butter For Family
Use.
Ib. Premium.—My grand parents first
chopped ont a poplar trough and ran
spring water through it. This, however,
soon rotted. Then they built "a costly
brick milk-house with walls packed with
sawdust, and a cement trough. The sawdust soon molded. They also kept vegetables in it and the building soon became
unfit for keeping milk. Milk and butter
seem to be affected by several different
causss, such as temperature, light, odors
' and dust. My arrangement I think will
come as near as possible to controlling
those influences successfully, with a
small outlay or cost. I recommend a
water tight box of suitable dimensions to
accommodate the demands for milk and
butter only; and if the box be lined with
zinc all the better, and, if desirable, wide
-enough to saughter a flange or partition
to hold ice. This box can be so constructed or framed as to stand on legs of
any desirable hight, and be enclosed in
such a manner as to control the light and
heat by screen or wire gauze, so as to prevent dust from entering and give all ventilation necessary. This box can be lo.
cated near the well where the necessary
water can be passed through it, to keep
the milk and butter in the best condition.. If necessary a temporary shed can
b\* placed over it to keep off the hot rays
of the sun. This kind of arrangement
seems to me will meet all of the demands
of milk and butter for the family use, and
Is so easily constructed that any farmer
can construct one,and have the very best
milk and butter for every meal. In these
days of cheap pipeing and pipe fitting,
water faucets, etc., it seems to me a person might indulge in any desirable pipeing to save all waste water and stock
water through the milk box, thus serving
two purposes. Since we have been selling
milk and using 8 and 10 gallon cans and
delivering milk once or twice a day, we
take common barrels and saw them in
two, and set a can in each half barrel, and
fill the half barrel with cold water or ice,
and put them in a cool, shady place, putting a strainer or perforated covering
over the top of the can, so it can hav* the
air. B. J. McK.
Jackson Co.
2d premium.—A convenient method of
keeping milk and butter should have
reference, not only to convenience of location, but also, to efficiency of method
for retaining it in a desirable condition.
Butter lean ;be kept in prime condition
in a well in which the water does not
rise too near the surface, but it is rather
unhandy.
Milk must be cooled quickly and kept
cold, and the first operation is as important as the second, for the bacilli which
sour it multiply very rapidly in a warm,
and slowly in a cold medium.
If, therefore, milk is allowed to remain
warm for even a short time and reproduction of the germs is then checked by
cold, they will have increased many
times over and the multiplication will
proceed from an ever increasing stock already large. So great ls the advantage
given to the germ in this way that milk
drawn from cows in the morning of a
hot summer day will frequently sour before that drawn on the previous evening.
. Realizing then the importance of immediately chilling the milk, we should
set it in a vessel best fitted to permit the
cold to pass through or, rather permit the
heat to pass out. The best thing for this
purpose is bright shining tin.
In the second place milk should not be
permitted to come in contact with the
air from which additional germs might
be absorbed.
Probably    a   modern    creamery    or
"creamer" will furnish the best and
most convenient method of fullfilling all
these conditions.
I object to glass cans however, as not
being good conductors of heat, and I
avoid round cans in general because the
cold must pass through four inches of
milk to reach the center of an eight inch
can, while with an oblong can five
inches across, the cold only passes
through two and one-half inches to reach
the center.
Most creameries are made with a compartment below the tank, which not only
answers for*acold storage room for butter, meal, etc-, but faucets attached to the
cans above must themselves be in the
lower compartment and through them
the milk is drawn from the cans above
until nothing but the cream remains,
which is then drawn in the cream Jar
and allowed to remain in the lower com
partment until ready to ripen. When
one is provided with a creamery of this
description and has power, either wind,
gas or hydraulic, with which to force a
constant stream of water through the
tank, he has, perhaps, as convenient a
means of keeping milk and butter as this
country affords. _ Bob Roy.
Hancock Co.
3d Premium. As good an arrangement
as I know of to keep milk and butter for
family use is a good cellar under a good
building, so it can be made tight, and
warm enough, not to' freeze in the winter and deep enough to bejcool in the summer. A good cellar under the dwelling
house, if properly kept, is nice and also
handy to keep milk and butter in, if it is
well drained so that no water is allowed
to stand in it. Some object to a cellar under the residence on account of its not being healthy, but I think if it is kept in
the order that any thing should be kept
to keep milk and butter in, that it would
not hurt any thing. Milk is something
that, if kept right, is the best food of any
thing, but if it is not righly kept it is
about the worst thing. A cellar made
right should be walled with rock or brick,
from the bottom up to the floor, but there
should be plenty of window to allow a
suflieient amount of light when needed
and so constructed tbat they can be
shut easily when necessary.
Harrison Co. H. C. F.
Let the location be at the well. If there
be a slight hill slope it will be of advantage. Make an excavation to suit—say 18
inches brick and cement bottom and
sides. Set oft one or more water tight
apartments in the bottom for the reception of crocks. Provide a water escape down the hill, or if no hill—into an
artificial sink. Let the wall of super
structure consist of double board walls,
with at least a four-inch thick packing
between, of good cinders or sawdust. Let
door and roof be similar to walls and
shingle over. Make air tight if possible,
with adjustable vent at top at center.
Place adjustable single pane window in
end opposite door. Tightly pack cinders
about foundation outside well above the
foundation wall. Do not use gravel or
crushed rock for this purpose. These
will absorb heat and convey it to the interior. Cinders scarcely absorb heat at
all, and so are a good material to use. In
warm weather pump iu ."-Tro!' water" as
often as necessary or convenient'', first
permitting stale water to escape.  X. Y.
The foiiv ' _ is"as good a way as I
know of to keep milk and butter: We
have a good cool spring, and have a
trough to run the water in a box, largo
enough to dip a bucket in. We have a
pipe near the top of this box to lead the
water into a larger box for keeping milk
and butter in. This box is very large
and has a lid which fits very close.
About 4 or 5 inches from the bottom on
the opposite side  I  make two or three
holes in it, to keep the water from getting
too deep. In this manner the cold water
is running in at one side and out at the
other. We use the common milk crocks,
which are about six inches deep and the
water comes nearly to the top of them,
keeping them in cool water all the time.
We keep our cream and butter in the
same manner and never haveany trouble
to sell it A Farmer.
Harrison Co.
There will be others to describe the
more expensive and elaborate modern
arrangements for keeping milk and butter, perhaps none will devote their article
to the benefit of the young housekeepers,
of whom we have a large number, with
both limited means and experience. It
was once the lot of the writer to leave a
comfortable, well furnished home for one
in the western prairieB, where lumber,
bricks and stone were alike scarce and
expensive. While we had but one cow it
wss of the more importance to keep tbe
milk and cream cool and sweet, as churn-
ings were less frequent. The prevailing
custom there was to have a "buttery" adjoining the kitchen,where milk was kept
on shelves with no covers and screens
were alike unknown, but "as the milk
soon skinned over so the flies could walk
on top," that was of no consequence. We
could not build a"buttery" noryet forego
the luxury of milk. The former owner
had left a pile of stones, which had been
collected at much trouble to wall the
yell, but now were-*eplaced with.bricks,=
of which also there were a few dozen left.
We leveled a space of ground in a shady
place against the north end of the house
and laid all tho brick carefully for the
floor of our milk room, about three feet
by eight. Husband had been making
pickets for the garden fence, so he made
a few clapboards for the roof and siding,
one tier composing the entire roof. The
siding was put on, as is weather-boarding.
We were so fortunate as to have one
board that was 1^x5 feet, this was hung
by leather hinges for a door shutter. The
opening being eight or 10 inches, higher
left a transom above which furnished
light. 1 seldom stepped inside except
during a rain as I could reach to all parts
from the doorway. We used a swinging
shelf for pies, etc, reserving the brick for
milk, cream jar and butter, except in
very hot weather when this was hung in
the well. By pouring a bucket or two
full of cold water over the bricks once or
twice a day, more or less according to the
weather, I was able to make good butter
with less work than ever before. Milk
covers were made of cheese cloth, tacked
over hoops of suitable size. These were
never laid down, but hung against the
wall when not in use. One great secret
in making good butter is to keep everything sweet and clean. Stir the cream
each time any is added in the Jajvehurn
before too sour, and at the right te.. pera-
ture. I lowered cream in tho well in tin
bucket to cool it when necessary, being
always careful not to drop anything in
the water to pollute it. The pile of stones,
"nigger heads," were utilized to make a
bioad walk to the front gate, and narrower ones to the well and milk room.
They were buried in the ground so as to
leave a nice rounding surface, smooth as
possible, forming permanent walks for a
life time, a comfort which none can fully
appreciate who have not had to contend
with the mud on our western prairies.
.Henry Co. Mrs. S. A. P.
REVIEW.
At the condensing facory at Elgin, 111.
I noticed they aired the milk first by
warming it in open vessels. They claimed
that it drove off cowy odors. They then
cooled it quickly.
I notice many claim that warm milk
does not absorb odors from the air. This
would be a very fortunate fact it true.
Imagine a better chance for the infeotion
of milk than by its necessary air bath in
the average stable in winter, as it flows in
small streams from the cow.
I spent one night of fair week at the
home of Mr. Billingsley, editor of the
Drainage Journal, near the grounds, who
keeps a small dairy. Mr. Billingsley
says that milk does absorb stable odors
when it is either warm or cold. That the
way to keep it nice and clean is to keep
the surrounding clean. Mr. Billingsley's
barn was as clear of odors as a feed store
and white with slacked lime sprinkled
everywhere. I'd like to call the attention of farmers to the milk aerator, anew
machine for cooling and airing milk very
quickly. It is a round tin cylinder filled
with cold water or ice, and the warm,
fresh milk is poured into a tin vessel on
top from which it runs through little
holes in the bottom, falling on the outside of the cold tin bolow.
A neighbor tells me that milk thus
aired and cooled quickly will keep sweet
full twice as long in hot weather as that
which is strained warm into crocks to
cool.
Mr. Blllinsgly says that you may
milk cows in clean stables, or even in
the pasture, where there is no odor, and
the milk will have an animal odor. That
the way to make milk first class is to
strain well and aerate at once. For the
good of farmers, who use one wire
strainer I would say that Mr. B. strains
four  timeB; two  times,   being  through
double cloths. '',      _-.
-:■ I oncfTusgd a eeMr*!Tiiiair*:__3y^ kitghen '
that kept Jersey butter so cold that it
would not spread on bread in warm
weather. But it was awful to run after
it. We dreaded up and down steps, and
carrying armfulls of crocks or dishes
and a pitcher of milk. A dumb waiter
would have helped. We made shelves
in the cellar stairway that kept many
things well and saved going down, clear
down. Cellars were a good thing in pioneer days when one couldn't afford more
modern methods. But rotten fruit
makes sensitive articles smell and taste
and even poisonous. A neighbor broke a
small bottle of carbolic acid in his cellar,
and though he dug up the gravel where
it fell and carried it out, yet he could not
keep milk in that cellar for months.
Spring water of course keeps milk nice,
but it is usually near the foot of hills
and the house on top. I have a neighbor
whose family went about 15 rods from
the house for water and milk-house and
wash day work, winter and summer,
cold and hot, rain or shine, and it was 15
feet down hill. The drinking water was
always out or warm, and every one, too,
tried to go for fresh. Another neighbor's
family walked about eight rods and
down 10 feet. Another neighbor's folks
walked four rods and down say 12 feet.
If one has ice or flowing water, the
modern creamer is cheap, can stand in
one corner of the kitchen, and keeps
milk and meats and butter to perfection.
Imagine the difference to the housewife
in going to the "spring house" so often
to bring and to return things, or in picking them out of a box in the room.
A friend near Pendleton showed me a
gas pump costing $30, which lifts water
from tho well, forces it all over the house
and through a galvanized water tank,
also through his milk and butter chest,
down to the horse and pig troughs at the
baru. I can hardly speak of keeping
milk without connecting it with a wator
system. But we will discuss water supply later.
We should all remember that the
germs of typhoid fever are readily absorbed by milk. I once saw- a child In
spasms and the Dr. found green curd In
and about the bottle and nipple. Milk is
the most wholesome and perfect food,
but may be a poison leading either to
sudden or slow death. I once heard a
large stout man, speaking in an institute,
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