Part 3 (1/2)

I asked if the skimmed milk was used for anything. Uncle Ben gave me a cupful of it to taste. It was very good. He then told me that the separator takes out only the part needed in making b.u.t.ter, leaving all of the sugar. I did not know before that milk contains sugar.

The farmers take home loads of this milk to feed it to their hogs. For each hundred pounds of milk delivered, they get back seventy-five pounds of skimmed milk, besides the pay for their cream.

The creamery man told me that he made from four to six pounds of b.u.t.ter from one hundred pounds of milk.

The cream remains in the large vat about twenty-four hours before it is churned. The churn, as you see by the picture, is a great barrel made to revolve by machinery. It takes from thirty-five minutes to one hour to churn. The man told me that I might look at the book in which he kept the record of the churning. I saw that he made from two hundred fifty to six hundred pounds of b.u.t.ter at a churning. He said that some churns would produce more than one thousand pounds at a churning.

Not all of the cream is made into b.u.t.ter. There is left in the bottom of the churn a liquid called _b.u.t.termilk_. This is drawn off, and the b.u.t.ter is washed and _worked_ before being taken out of the churn. The working is done by means of paddles in the churn. It continues for six or eight minutes and squeezes the liquid out of the b.u.t.ter.

While the b.u.t.ter is being worked, it is salted. Some of the b.u.t.ter is unsalted, but most of it is salted. When b.u.t.ter is made in the home, it must be churned by hand. Only a few pounds at a time can be made in this way.

When the b.u.t.ter was taken out of the churn, the men packed it solidly in wooden boxes about two feet square and four inches deep. The bottom of each box consisted of strips as wide as a _square_ of b.u.t.ter. These were held together by a clamp, and the sides were hooked to the bottom and to one another. When the b.u.t.ter is to be cut into squares, these sides are removed and zinc ones take their places. In these there are slits running from top to bottom. Through these slits a wire saw is run, and so the b.u.t.ter is quickly cut into one or two pound squares. The b.u.t.ter is then wrapped in fancy papers upon which the name of the b.u.t.ter or of the creamery is stamped.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Separator.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Churn.]

Of course some of the b.u.t.ter is packed in wooden tubs and s.h.i.+pped in that form. This b.u.t.ter is a little cheaper than that put up in squares.

CHEESE

I was so much pleased with my visit to the creamery, that Uncle Ben promised to show me how cheese is made. So one morning just after breakfast he, Cousin Frank, and I started out. After a pleasant ride of about five miles we reached the factory.

The first process here was the same as that at the creamery. After the milk was weighed it was run into great zinc-lined vats. There were four of these in the factory, each of which held about five thousand pounds.

Uncle Ben explained that the milk must _curdle_ before cheese can be made. In order to make it curdle quickly, a little less than a pound of a substance called _rennet_ was put into each vat.

A man worked at each vat with a long wooden rake, stirring the milk constantly. I saw a gla.s.s tube standing in the milk and asked what it was. Uncle Ben told me to look at it closely. I saw that it was a thermometer, and that it registered eighty degrees. A little while after I looked again, when it showed a temperature of ninety degrees. The milk is kept warm, so as to help it to curdle quickly.

In about an hour I could see the curd very plainly, but the men kept on stirring and cutting it. Presently one of them carried a piece of the curd to a table. He heated a small iron rod and touched it with the curd. When he pulled the curd away, little threads were drawn out to the length of half an inch or more. This he called the ”acid test,” which showed that the curd was in the right condition to be made into cheese.

Of course only a part of the milk had turned into curd; the rest was _whey_, that was drawn off and run into tanks. Each man who had delivered one hundred pounds of milk was given a check for seventy-five pounds of the whey. It is fed to hogs. About two hours from the time that the milk was put into the vats, the whey was drawn off.

One of the men now took a long knife and cut the curd into oblong cakes.

These he frequently lifted and turned over. After continuing this for about twenty minutes, the pieces of curd were put into a small mill, placed on a board over the vat, and the curd was chopped into strips from one to six inches long and from one-half an inch to an inch thick.

Salt was scattered over the ma.s.s by one man, while another pitched it about with a three-p.r.o.nged wooden fork. The man told me that he used three pounds of salt to each thousand pounds of milk.

Next, a piece of cloth was placed on a board about sixteen inches square. Two circular metal frames or bands, about six inches high, were fitted one within the other and placed on the cloth. The frame was filled with curd, covered by a cloth, and another set placed on top of it until there were five. They were then put on a table directly under a block which was fastened to a screw. By turning the screw the block was pressed against the top board, and so each frame of curd was pressed. I saw the whey running out as the squeezing went on. The superintendent told us that the curd would be left in the press until the next day.

We were then taken into the room where the cheese ”ripens.” Here we saw large racks reaching nearly to the ceiling, filled with double rows of cheeses. The smallest ones weighed but three pounds, while the largest weighed fifty pounds. It may take but a few days and it may take many months to ”ripen” a cheese. It depends upon the flavor wanted. The man said that in England ”strong” cheese is generally liked, while in our country ”mild” cheese is preferred.

I asked how much cheese five thousand pounds of milk would make, and was told that it would make between four and five hundred pounds.

On the way home Uncle Ben told us that although our country is a great dairy country, we import certain kinds of cheese from Europe. He told us how the Swiss people pasture their cattle on the steep mountain sides, and that in every little mountain valley cheese is made, some of which finds its way over the mountains and across the sea to the United States.

THE FIs.h.i.+NG INDUSTRY