THE DAIRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 766, 5 November 1886, Page 15

THE DAIRY.

STREAKY BUTTER. * Andaiuza ’ says : Can you kindly explain to me why it is our batter sometimes is streaky ? It very rarely happens, but still I should like to avoid its ever being so. We churn until the butter iB in tiny grains, then draw off the buttermilk and pour in cold water. We give the churn a few turns and rnn out this water and put in fresh, and repeat this process until the water runs out as clear as it went it. I then take oat the butter and work in what salt is necessary, weigh it out, and make it into pa’s. Except to add the salt, it is not touched by hand. The water is from the well, and is the purest water for miles round. People come with bottles and jars for it for invalids, it is so good. There is now sewage near it. The cows’ stables are five minutes’ walk from the dairy ; and the stabhs, dairy, and all utensils are kept scrupulously clean. Plenty of boiling water is used for washing up. Streaky butter is usually due to some defect in the manipulation of the cream before churning, and be caused by, the

action of deleterious germs. First of all, see that the cows are in good health and fed on good natural food, so that they may be certain to yield healthy milk. Next, see that the milk is set at about 65 deg F. for cream, if you* are not adopting the sudden cooling of the Schwartz or, Cooley system. The milk room should not be exposed to direct sunlight too much, and the air must be as pure as possible. Sweet cream makes the best butter, but sour cream must not be kept too long before churniDg, even in winter. If all these points are right, the butter should never be streaky, as your churning and working are all that can be desired. As stated in the answer to * Ardaluza ’ in The Agricultural Gazette of March Btb, as to the cause of streaky butter, I have always considered it as entirely due to the state of the cream before churning. Therefore it is to the crock in which the cream is collected that attention should be given, for no after treatment will avail. The streaks are caused by the presence of a caseous or curdy substance in the butter, and this may proceed from a variety of causes, for every one of which there is a cure. From deleterious germs, from atmospheric influence, from too much milk gstiing mixed with the cream getting mixed with the cream at the time of skimming, from the cream. being kept too long, from want of an occasional stir, a curd less, or more tough, according as the above causes have been at work, is formed and gets partially broken up and gets mixed with the butter grains in the process of churning, giving the streaky appearance complained of. Though not affecting the goodness of the butter at first, it will very soon betray its presence in a rancid or cheesy flavor, and butter of this kind will never be fit for packing, or even for keeping any length of. time. The mode of prevention will easily be gathered from the cause when once that is ascertained. Care in skimming, care m stirring, neither letting the milk stand too long in the cooling vessels nor the cream remain too long unchurned, are amongst the evils to be guarded against; also observe if a white curdy substance, mixed with whey, has gathered at the bottom of the creamcrock. It should never be there ; but if it is, it should be carefully kept back when pouring the cream into the churn. Sometimes in salting butter, if the salt is net regularly worked in, it may give the butter a spotty look; but this is quite different from streakyne-s, which I am convinced, proceeds from the causes named, and may be prevented by attending to the above rules.— A. L. O. S. KEEPING MILK COOL. A farmer on Staten Island, N. Y-, writes : ‘I keep a small dairy and sell my milk direct to consumers. The cooling question is,settled by taking the milk, as soon as we have finished milking, to the well, in cans of forty quarts, placing in tubs deep enough to allow the water to cover them up to the neck, and drawing water fresh from the well and placing it around the cans. As soon as there is water enough in the tub the lid of each can is taken off and the milk is stirred until you cun feel that it is cooled. The water is then changed and the lid closed. After Bupper it is stirred again and fresh water placed round the cans. This is the popular way of keeping milk by milkmen in this country. I have placed milk in stores and it has remained sweet on the fourth day, where kept in an ice box, and no complaint from the retail trade. This in the hottest weather.’ A KICKING COW. R. S. Reed, Madison Co., 111, has a kicking cow, and wants some apparatus to cure her of the habit. There are countless contrivances for this purpose, the best of which have from time to time been given to our readers through these columns. It is needless to say that a cow rarely kicks, unless she does so in defence or from pain, and by rough handling she very soon gets into the habit of kicking. Kind treatment is the first factor in effecting a cure. If this is insufficient, pas 3 s wire around the lower jaw, fasten the ends by twisting, pass a strap or cord from the wire over the back of the neck so as to hold the wire in place ; next tie a stout cord, long enough to reach back to the milker, to the wire around the jaw. On the first intimation of an intention to kick,, give the rope a jerk, and the cow’s attention will be diverted from her udder to her jaw ; after a few such lessons she will forgot to kick altogether. the poultry yard SCURVY LEGS IN FOWL. In the June number of the American Agriculturist is given a treatment for * scurvy ] egß in fowl,’ —that is, se'aly excieseeuces on their legs. This is a distressing and hurtful deformity. I have for years used a remedy which is easily applied and is a sure cure. It is a strong decoction of tobacco with which to wash the diseased legs. The idea was suggested to me by seeing sheep cured of scab by the use of tobacco, and having many chickens afflicted with scaly legs, some one or two being so disabled that they could not. walk, these I caught up and bound tobacco leaves, after wetting them thoroughly, to their le"s and allowed them to remain twenty-four hours. When removed many of the scales came off with the tobacco and the chickens walked with apparent ease, and in a few days they were perfectly well, with clean, sightly legs. But having so many diseased ones, I fell upon a plan to expedite matters and save much trouble. I improvised a coop, out of boards, baviug but one entrance. Leading straight off from this door, I dug a shallow trench six feet long, into which I sank a trough level with the surface of the ground, which was long as the ditch, six inches wide and two deep, and drove a row of old shingles close along by each side, forming a narrow lane. For two days the food for the chickens was put in the coop, and they had to walk down this dry lane and through the dry trough to their meals; then the trough was filled with a decoction of tobacco, made very strong, and the afflicted family was ■ made to do their own feet washing and to cure themselves, which they did effectively. I FEEDING YOUNG C HICKENSA- young chicken has a small stomach, and I digests food very quickly. It therefore requires food ‘ a little and often” A chicken three or four days- old will only take fifteen

grains of food at a meal, and one ounce of I corn or oatmeal will feed thirty of the little I creatures, which are quite as apt to gorge l themselves as any other animal, and should be J fed with caution. The food should be given every two hours. It is a good plan to have a feeding board for the chickens which the hen cannot reach, and feed her with corn, as when fed with the hens the food canuot be apportioned for the chicks. The frequent diarrtcea which destroys so many young chickens is due to over-feeding, and it is therefore wise to have some arrangement by which the food can be regulated. Coarse oatmeal, crushed wheat and cracked corn, with some chopped meat occasionally, make excellent feeding for chickens. —American Agriculturist. CHICKEN CHOLERA. The disease is regarded as malarial in its character and is spread by the excrements of the affected fowls. It is a disease affecting primarily the liver, and is marked by diarrhoea and green droppings. Separate the healthy fowls, thoroughly renovate the old floors and roosts, purifying with lime and carbolic acid. Give the floors and roosts of the new quarters a thorough whitewashing, and subsequent dusting with lime, and sprinkle with carbolic acid water every few days. Drs Dickey and Merry, who carefully investigated the disease, recommended the following pills: Blue mass, 60 grains; camphor, 25 grains ; cayenne pepper, 30 grains ; rhubarb, 48 grains ; laudanum, 60 drops ; made into 20 pills. To. the ailing, give one every four hours until they act freely ; then a teaspoonful of castor oil. To the well, give one pill, followed by the oil. When a poulterer starts with common stock, with a view of ultimate success and pecuniary profit, he has .‘uphill’ business before him. Do as he will, they will produce their like. Jle cannot successfully compete with improved stock. .... The best way to remove gapes in chickens is to insert a feather (shaped for the purpose) in the windpipe, and with a twisting motion bring it with the worms, the cause, out of the windpipe* Occasionally kerosene is applied with a feather.