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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 68

Factory and Creamery

Factory and Creamery.

There have always been differences of opinion as to the relative merits of the factory and the creamery systems. My own knowledge of the creamery system extends only to details I have obtained from visits to one or two small creameries in Ireland, but I have from time to time received much important information from the United States, where creamery-work has been very largely conducted. If the cream from each contributor is paid for at the same rate per gallon, it is evident that the owner of inferior cattle, or the man who feeds less liberally than his neighbours, will receive a higher price than he ought to do, and, per contra, those who supply the richest cream will receive less than their share. Figures based upon tests made to ascertain the proportions which the different farmers ought to receive have been from time to time published; but, the facts being recognised, it is not worth while to reproduce them. If, however, it is determined to pay each contributor of cream in proportion to its butter-value, the expenses of the dairy are increased on account of the necessity of churning each farmer's cream separately. This is the practice adopted at the creamery at Kenmare, in the South of Ireland. This creamery, which is a plain building, built of wood and covered with corrugated iron, cost some £600. It is managed by a dairymaid who was trained at the Munster Dairy-school. There is also a clerk, an engineer, and an assistant dairymaid. The farmers, who are in a very small way, reside within a radius of five miles, and received in the year prior to my visit from 11d. to 11½d. per pound for the butter made from their cream. The cream arrives once or twice weekly in various quantities, bad cream being refused. The churns used are of the barrel and Holstein type, and are seven in number, the whole of the power-work being done by steam. The butter is divided into two qualities, the first of which is salted at the rate of 1oz. to the pound. During the cheese season the butter has fallen page 18 as low as 6d. per pound, but in 1886 it varied between £4 4s. and £6 16s. per hundredweight. It is evident that in a case of this kind considerable loss may be entailed upon the farmer by the production of inferior cream. It is not surprising that such cream finds its way to Kenmare, for on our journey through the country we were shown into several of the cabins of the small Kerry farmers, in almost all of which the milk was exposed in the living or bed-room, while in one or two cases it was actually set beneath the bed.

Upon one of my visits to the Continent I was invited to stay four-and-twenty hours with M. Baquet, the Maire of a commune near Gisors, Eure. He is a farmer and a purchaser of milk from large numbers of the small occupiers in the neighbourhood. M. Baquet has a first-rate dairy, and he is the inventor of the delaiteuse, the centrifugal machine for the extraction of moisture from butter His dairy is under the management of his sister, and it is well fitted with a Holstein churn, a Laval separator, a delaiteuse, a butter-worker, and a butter-press or mould, all of which are worked by a steam-engine. The milk of the evening is separated early the next morning, after which the morning's milk follows, the separation taking place at 77°. The cream is kept in a large tank until ripe but as it passes out of the machine it is cooled down to 60° by passing over a Lawrence cooler. The butter is brought in grains in the churn and thoroughly washed. It is then dried in the delaiteuse, slightly worked in the butter-worker, hardened for a short time, and then made into kilogrammes and half-kilogrammes in the butter-press, which stamps out the exact weight of the butter, at the same time printing it and moulding it into form. Great pains are taken to remove moisture from the butter. The butter is sent to Paris that which has been moulded being to order, the rest being sent is the lump and sold by auction. M. Baquet pays for the milk in proportion to the prices he obtains for the butter. Upon my proposal the Council of the British Dairy-fanners' Association provided a scholarship for a young man to go to France and learn something of the French system of butter-making; and upon the suggestion of Mr. Jenkins, the lamented Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society, who was of such great service to me in affording me the means of obtaining information and instruction on the Continent the selected pupil was sent to M. Baquet.

During a visit to M. Byron at Meulan, Seine-et-Oise, who is one of the leviathan butter-and-milk suppliers of Paris, I was shown a battery of six separators, which were supplied from a large vat 5ft. in height, into which the new milk was poured for separation. In front of the separators were two troughs, into one of which the cream, and into the other the milk, flowed, passing away into the tanks. The cream was slightly soured for churning. The churns are the ordinary Normandy barrels, 26in. in diameter, 36in length, and with mouths 10in. wide. Circular but convex butter-workers were also used. The cream is churned at 60° in sum- page 19 mer and 63° in winter, the milk being heated for separation to 77° Great pains are taken to provide means for cooling both milk and cream. There is a large tank in which, by the adoption of a steam-power cooling-machine, the water is maintained at 38° in summer. It was about 43° upon my visit. There is also series of tanks, from which cold water is continually flowing. These tanks are level with the ground, and side by side; the water enters by means of a horizontal pipe fixed from end to end and having a slot in its side. As the first tank is kept full it overflows into the second, the second overflowing into the third.

Another important butter-making establishment is situated near Orbec, in the Department of Calvados, but on the borders of Eure. Here a rich and exceedingly clever man has built one of the best and most perfect dairies which it is possible to see. He manufactures Camembert cheese and butter, and in the middle of the day the work in the butter-dairy is completed and the whole place is clean and smart, the butter being packed in numerous receptacles of various sizes waiting despatch. The butter-dairy is divided into two apartments: at the back is the making-room, with the churns, worker, and butter-trough, as commonly used in France; in the front is the separating-room, with its battery of five Lavals, with their intermediate machines, on the further side of the apartment, the entrance is in the corner to the left, while on the other side of the machines, to the right, is a platform upon which stands a vat, into which milk is poured on its delivery by the farmers from whom it is obtained. In order to pass from the separating-room, therefore, a bridge is erected which enables the workmen to pass from the platform right across the belts of the machines. Upon the platform is an ingenious lift which is worked by hydraulic power, and which, necessary, drops the cans of milk into a cellar below, and lifts them up again at will. The whole place is lighted by electricity, the dynamo being fixed in an apartment to the left of the separating-room. The details of the Camembert cheese-making apartments are still more interesting, and the arrangements ingenious. The same plan of manufacture is followed in this as in other dairies of the new type—and it may be added there are two or three types even in the best butter-making departments, such as Calvados, Eure, and Manche, in which the celebrated towns of Isigny and Bayeux are situated. The Isigny makers have the advantage of being able to ship their goods direct to England. The system followed in blending is referred to elsewhere, but it may be remarked that upon the farms which I have been able to see in this interesting district there is one custom which, although conflicting with modern ideas, demands some notice. It is a system which is very old, and which will not be easily abandoned. The dairy is erected behind the kitchen-fire; a shallow gutter, through which cold water is continually flowing, runs round the apartment when it is possible. In this gutter the milk-vessels are placed. They are of earthenware, page 20 and from 15in. to 16in. in height, and conical in shape, the top being much larger in diameter than the bottom. When the cream is believed to have risen in the cold dairy, hot air is passed into it from the warm kitchen, sometimes by an arrangement in the flue. The rapid change causes the cream and the milk to coagulate, and the farmers' wives have shown me how they remove the cream, practically in slices, from the thick curd beneath it. The vessels of curd, when creamed, are taken to the calf-house, and the calves consume the curd with evident relish. The butter made upon this system was extremely good in flavour, although I have not had an opportunity of testing its keeping-qualities. There is much yet to be learnt with regard to the souring of cream and the effect of over-ripeness or acidity in the keeping of butter. I would therefore urge makers, especially those who manufacture for shipment, to make tests for themselves, taking every care that the tests are conducted with precision and that nothing is left to chance. I believe that at the present time it is impossible to lay down any rules, however much a belief may be based upon the result of experiments of this kind. In my own dairy, for example, butter has been made which has been exhibited several months afterwards in a perfectly sweet condition; on other occasions it has been similarly made and kept, and after the lapse of a shorter period has been exhibited, but from some unascertained cause has lost the delicacy of its flavour. The presence of buttermilk, although it be but in minute quantities, undoubtedly leads to decomposition; but it must not be forgotten that if the whole of the buttermilk were removed it would still be possible to spoil the butter by the use of impure water in washing it by means of dirty utensils, a foul atmosphere, inferior salt, or even by storing it in an apartment where it would be subject to contamination.

In the great factory at Berlin under the direction of M. Bolle where 37,000 litres of, milk were daily received at the time of my visit a few years ago, the whole of the cream obtained by separation was soured for the next day's churning. Here 100 litres of milk yielded 3½ kilos, of butter, or about 3½ per cent. In this case it was the practice to sell the butter by retail at three prices. When quite fresh the highest price was charged, but the butter returned was worked up and sold the next day at the second price; when returned a second time it was again worked up and delivered at the third price.

I cannot too strongly impress upon those who are interested the great value of the system which is pursued upon some of the large Danish farms. Having had opportunities of seeing the results they obtain in the way of instruction, I am the more impressed with the value of the course pursued. A herd of cows is, let us assume divided among six or eight young men, who are either paying or working pupils, and who are directed by either the master or the foreman. They feed and milk the cows, an equal number being page 21 given to each, and they are induced to strive to produce the best weekly result. Their milk is delivered to the dairymaid, who, with her assistants or pupils in the dairy, separates the milk, prepares the cream for the next day's churning, and keeps her own record. Every person engaged in this work is provided with a printed record-book, in which every detail is set down throughout the entire year. It is obvious that much may be gained by those who set down the results of daily practice. The owner is shown from time to time what quantity of milk is required to make a pound of butter, or what percentage of butter is obtained. I have kept such a record for years, and can therefore appreciate its value. The butter ratio varies between 3 and 6 per cent.; but, as a rule, I find that there is an explanation for every variation. And if it can be shown, as it should be, in columns prepared for the purpose, what system of feeding is being pursued, when cows calve, what the weather is like, and what other influences occur which may affect the quality of milk, the owner of the herd will be in a position to know exactly what he is doing. Such a record should be made up weekly, and any unusual change noted and at once examined into. It would be possible to mention scores of instances in which, in the absence of a record, most unprofitable work has been done, while the owner knew nothing about it at the time.