This, if pursued on the same farm with the cheese dairy, and at
different seasons of the year, may be carried on in the lower parts of
the same building. But as it is usually a distinct branch of business,
when prosecuted as the chief object on a farm, it should have
accommodations of its own kind, which should be fitted up specially for
that purpose.
We cannot, perhaps, suggest a better model of a building for the butter
dairy, than the one just submitted for the cheese-house, only that there
is no necessity for the upper story; and the posts of the main building
should not stand more than nine feet above the sills. A good, walled
cellar, well lighted, as a room for setting the milk, is indispensable,
with a broad, open flight of steps, from the main floor above, into it.
Here, too, should stand the stone slabs, where the butter is worked, and
the churns, to be driven by hand, or water, or animal power, as the two
latter may be provided, and introduced into the building by belt, shaft,
or crank. If running water can be brought on to the milk-shelves, from
a higher level, which, for this purpose, should have curbs two or three
inches high on their sides, it can flow in a constant gentle current
over them, among the pans, from a receiving vat, in which ice is
deposited, to keep the milk at the proper temperature--about 55deg
Fahrenheit--for raising the cream; and if the quantity of milk be large,
the shelves can be so arranged, by placing each tier of shelf lower than
the last, like steps, that the water may pass among them all before it
escapes from the room. Such a mode of applying water and ice, renders
the entire process of cream-rising almost certain in all weathers, and
is highly approved wherever it has been practiced. The low temperature
of the room, by the aid of water and ice, is also beneficial to the
butter packed in kegs, keeping it cool and sweet--as much like a
spring-house as possible, in its operation.
The washing and drying of pans, buckets, churns, and the heating of
water, should all be done in the room above, where the necessary kettles
are set, and kept from contact with the cool atmosphere of the lower
room. The latter apartment should have a well-laid stone or brick floor,
filled and covered with a strong cement of water lime, and sloping
gradually to the outer side, where all the water may pass off by a
drain, and everything kept sweet and clean. The buttermilk may, as in
the case of the whey, in the cheese dairy, be passed off in spouts to
the pigsty, which should not be far distant.
As all this process of arrangement, however, must conform somewhat to
the shape of the ground, the locality, and the facilities at hand where
it may be constructed; it is hardly possible to give any one system of
detail which is applicable to an uniform mode of structure; and much
will be left to the demands and the skill of the dairyman himself, in
the plan he may finally adopt.