We determined before the next churning day to try and find out the reason of all this trouble.  We once more took to our books, but were none the wiser, for none of them told us anything about the particular thing we searched for.  After many experiments we tried the effect of bringing the cream into the kitchen over night, and see if warmth would make any difference.  It was guess-work for two or three churnings, but the discovery was made at last, that we were always sure of our butter in half an hour, provided the cream was, when put into the churn, at a temperature of from 50’ to 60’.* [We kept a small thermometer for the purpose of plunging into the cream-pot.  If it was lower than 55’ we waited till it reached that degree:  if the weather was very warm, and it rose higher than we have specified, we did not attempt to churn till by some means we had lowered it to the proper temperature.] No matter how long the cow had calved, how hot or how cold the weather, if we put the cream into the churn at that degree of heat the butter was sure to come, in as near as possible the time we have specified.

This, in the winter, was effected by bringing the cream-pot into the kitchen over night, and if the weather was very cold, placing it on a chair a moderate distance from the fire for about a quarter of an hour in the morning:  boiling water was likewise put into the churn for half an hour before it was used.

Now, no doubt, a regular dairymaid would “turn up her nose” at all these details; but I do not write for those who know their business, but for the benefit of those ladies who, as is now so much the custom, reside a few miles from the city or town in which the business or profession their husbands may be situated.  In many cases they take with them town-bred servants to a country residence; and then, like ourselves, find they know nothing whatever of the duties required of them.  To those who have several acres of pasture land, of course this little book is all “bosh.”  They employ servants who know their work and perform it properly; but most “suburbans” require the cook to undertake the duties of the dairy, and unless they are regular country servants they neither do their work well nor willingly.  If any lady who has one or two cows will instruct her servant to follow our directions, she will always be sure of good butter, with very little trouble.  All that is required is a churn, milk-pans (at the rate of three to each cow), a milk-pail, a board (or, better still, a piece of marble), to make the butter up on, a couple of butter-boards, such as are used in the shops to roll it into form, and a crock for the cream.

In the next chapter we will give, as concisely as we can, the whole process that we ourselves used in our dairy.

CHAPTER IV.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER.