Page 14 - DairyOnThePrairie

12 Dairy on the Prairie
BUTTER-MAKING

The early stimulus to local butter production Clockwisefrom top left: an unidentified creamery in Delaware County, Iowa, courtesy of the Delaware County His-
was the arrival of butter dealers in the early 1860s. torical Society; packing butter, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society Loc# HD7.3 rl6 Neg# 19851; and butter
These individuals sampled products and ar- being shipped on a refigerated rail compartment, ca. 1915, Palmquist, Minnesota Historical Society Loc# HD7.3 r9
ranged purchase of much of the following year's Neg# 20416.
production on contract from individual farms, to
be sold to Eastern buyers. Much as cheese-mak-
ers saw profitability in factory manufacture of
cheese, so too did butter-makers. Unlike cheese,
butter needed to be refrigerated for transport over
any great distance. Rail cars known as "ice-boxes
on wheels" were available in limited amounts
starting in 1857. This situation rapidly improved
with mass availability of refrigerated rail cars be-
ginning by 1867.42

The first creamery in Iowa was built in 1872
by John Stewart. Stewart is given much credit for le-
gitimizing Iowa factory butter. He won several first
place international awards for his butter in the 1870s,
and was a savvy businessman: soon Eastern markets
were clamoring for high-quality Iowa factory butter.
There was no analogous proponent of Iowa cheese,
and cheese was never in demand in the East like Iowa
butter.

The basic steps in butter-making involved allow-
ing the milk to cool, so the cream would rise to the
top; the cream was skimmed off, and the cream was
usually allowed to sour. Then, the cream was
churned, washed, salted, and packaged. Factories em-
ployed steam-powered or horse-powered churns,
with half-dash and hexagonal churns being especial-
ly popular.43