Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1985

Rh ranged, one shelf, or dresser, of slate or marble, being kept for the various occupations of the dairymaid; it will be found a better plan than putting them on shelves and corners against the wall. There should be a funnel or ventilator in the ceiling, communicating with the open air, made to open and shut as required. Double windows are recommended, but of the lattice kind, so that they may open, and with wire-gauze blinds fitted into the opening, and calico blinds, which may be wetted when additional coolness is required. The other apartment will be used for churning, washing and scrubbing—in fact, the scullery of the dairy, with a boiler for hot water, and a sink with cold water laid on, which should be plentiful and good. In some dairies a third apartment, or, at least, a cool airy pantry, is required for storing away butter, with shelves of marble or slate, to hold the cream-jars while it is ripening, and where cheeses are made, a fourth becomes necessary. The dairy should be removed both from stable and cowhouse, and larder; no animal smells should come near it, and the drainage should be perfect.

The dairy utensils are not numerous—churns, milk-pails for each cow; hair-sieves, slices of tin, milk-pans, marble dishes for cream for family use, scales and weights, a portable rack for drying the utensils, wooden bowls, butter-moulds, and butter patters, and wooden tubs for washing the utensils, comprising pretty nearly everything. Pails are made of maple-wood or elm, and hooped, or of tin, more or less ornamented. One is required for each cow. The hair-sieve is made of closely-twisted horse-hair, with a rim, through which the milk is strained to remove any hairs which may have dropped from the cow in milking. Milk dishes are shallow basins of glass, of glazed earthenware, or tin, about 16 inches in diameter at top, and 12 at the bottom, and 5 or 6 inches deep, holding about 8 to 10 quarts each when full. Churns are all sorts and sizes, from that which churns 70 or 80 gallons by means of a strap from the engine, to the square box in which a pound of butter is made. The churn used for families is a square box, 18 inches by 12 or 13, and 17 deep, bevelled below to the plane of the dashers, with a loose lid or cover. The dasher consists of an axis of wood, to which the four beaters or fanners are attached; these fans are simply four pieces of elm strongly dovetailed together, forming an oblong shape, with a space left open, two of the openings being left broader than the others; attached to an axle they form an axis with four projecting blades; the axle fits into supports at the centre of the box; a handle is fitted to it, and the act of churning is done by turning the handle.

Supply of Milk.—The dairymaid receives the milk from the cow keeper, each pail being strained through the hair-sieve into one of the milk-basins. This is left in the basins from twenty-four to thirty-six hours in the summer, according to the weather; after which it is skimmed off by means of the slicer, and poured into glazed earthenware to "turn" for churning. Some persons prefer making up a separate churning for the milk of each cow, in which there is some advantage.