The Dairy.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1032, 11 December 1891, Page 27

The Dairy.

WATERING MILK FOR CREAM. Some months ago it was stated in ihese columns that experiments had been tried of mixing water with milk to assist in raising the cream. The results of the experiments seemed to be in favour of the mixing system, but later investigations do not tend to support the former conclusions. About a year ago some experiments were tried at the Experiment Station connected with the Cornell University, in the State of New York, and as the results were quite against the mixing of water, being at the same time quite different from the remits obtaiued at the Vermont Experiment Station, a fresh series of experiments was commenced, with the view of further testing the points in dispute. The last series.of experiments, carried out apparently with great care, and directed towards testing the matter in different ways, confirms the Cornell authorities in pronouncing against the mixing method. £» ‘th cold and hot water were ussd, wich the milk of diffeient breeds of cows, as well as with milk from cows in different stages of their milking period, and no advantage of any importance could be discovered, while various obvious objections to the system were recognised. So far from any advantage being derived from the addition of water, there was a decided disad-

vantage throughout the experiments, and the conclusion arrived at is a 3 follows * These experiments do not make it probable that adding water to the milk is a desirable substitute for setting in cold or ice water.’ THE FLAVOUR OF BUTTER. The value of butter is proportionate to its flavour chiefly. There are other qualities which give value to it, a 3 its colour and texture, for butter may be so made as to be white and greasy, but these faults are principally in the making of i*y while the flavour is principally due to the feeding. It is true that butter may be spoiled by bad management of the milk and cream, but this may bo easily avoided, while the faults in feeding produce such results as cannot be remedied by any after management, and can be prevented only by the choice of the best foods. It is a strange perversity of some so called experts in dairying that they insist most strenuously upon the very opposite of this, and aver with pertinacity that ‘ you cannot feed flavour into the butter ; that any food a cow can digest and assimilate does not affect the flavour of the butter, and that the flavour is wholly due to the ripening of the cream. 1 It is the business of perfumers to extract odours from flowers and plants. This they do by subjecting them to contact with lard or other inodorous fats or oils, and these quickly absorb these essential oils, which are not only apparent to the scent, but are equally so to the taste. The fats or oils thus charged with the odours and flavours of the plants are then treated with alcohol, and the mixture is distilled, when the spirit carries over with it all the essential oil, which is thus dissolved out of the fats or oils used. Butter may be used in the same way as lard or any kind of oil, as it is equally receptive, of odours and flavours. In fact, it is necessary in dairies to be very particular that no odorous or volatile substanee should come in contact with the butter.

A newly-painted dairy room, or coldwater tank, will confer the odour of the turpentine on the cream or milk. Even tobacco smoke in the dairy will scent and taint the butter, and any scent of cooking that may enter the dairy, a 3 of onions or cabbages, will have the same effect. The scent of manure will be absorbed by cream or butter, and it has even been known that the strong smell of decaying turnips in a cellar under the cow stable, and which has been only breathed by the cows, has tainted the milk and the taint has been absorbed by the butter. This behaviour of fats, and especially of butter fats of the milk, causes the butter to absorb the flavours of whatever oils may be contained in the food, and as the odours af plants and flowers, leaves and roots alike, are due to the essential oils that are contained in them, and all oils in the food are assimilated directly without change by digestion, it follows beyond any question or doubt that the food directly confers its peculiar odour and flavour upon the butter of the cow, and that any food that is eaten by the cow does affect the flavour of her butter.

Thus it is that cabbages and turnips cause the butter to taste of them ; that raw weed, pig weed, tansy and other strong-flavoured herbs give their peculiar bitterness to the butter,; and equally the delicate odour of the white clover blossoms, the sweet aroma of the vernal grass, aud the aromatic flavour of the blue grass, ire all acquired by the butter of the cows pasturing upon these plants. So well is this known that the French dairywomen pack a few sprigs of sweet herbs, or a few roses, or stalks of mint around the butter in their baskets, neatly covered with the ever snowy-white cloths us they take it to the markets. This art of flavouring butter and of avoiding other and objectionable flavours is au essential part of the French dairy work, and as it is only a concurrent part of equally good management all through the business, the butter of the French cities has a reputation that is unequalled anywhere else in the world, and brings a proportionately high price in the markets. It is very certain that many buttermakers are not as careful as they should be in the selection of food for their cows, and such teachings as that. under criticism is exceedingly bad and injurious. It misleads and encourages the prevalent neglect in this respect, and thus it is a damage and a wrong inflicted upon persons who are free to bestow confidence upon what they think is superior experience and scientific knowledge.