126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from it without the aid of salt, but when salt was well worked in, 

 and the mass allowed to stand twenty-four hours, and then well 

 washed and worked, it could be extracted. 



The same gentleman, after an experience of thirty years, came 

 to the conclusion that butter is yielded in the largest quantity and 

 of the best quality from entire milk kept until it was perceptibly 

 sour. When put in the churn, warm water is to be added, as he 

 says, sufficient to bring the temperature to 65° (or 10° higher than 

 when cream is churned.) It should then be churned at the rate of 

 thirty-eight or forty strokes per minute, until the butter comes, 

 which usually requires three to three and a half hours, when the 

 velocity is diminished in order to gather the butter. 



There is much difference of opinion among the best dairymen as 

 to whether butter should be washed or not ; some holding that the 

 finest flavor is inevitably lost thereby ; while others maintain that 

 without washing in pure soft water it cannot be made to keep well 

 above a year, if so long, so that for exportation or for long voyages 

 washing cannot be dispensed with, and that, if properly done, the 

 flavor is uninjured. Hard water, especially that containing lime, 

 is undoubtedly injurious. It is also generally understood that 

 butter cannot be made from red clover feed, by any process, to 

 keep a great length of time. However good at first, it soon loses 

 its good flavor, and is more liable to rancidity than when made 

 from other feed. A good share of white clover is to be desired 

 above any other single variety of forage plants. 



The proper working of butter so as to remove thoroughly the 

 buttermilk, is a point of the first importance. To do it properly 

 requires the highest degree of practical dairy skill ; over-working 

 being very injurious, as it tends to destroy the grain of the butter 

 and to give it a sa^u?/ consistence which is very objectionable. The 

 aim should be to secure Sifirra, waxy texture, and so far as working 

 afiects this, it is best secured by pressing out the buttermilk, with 

 the ladle and butter worker, by a sort of kneading motion. Drato- 

 ing a ladle or spatula over it, as an apothecary prepares ointments, 

 injures the grain, and induces salviness. 



In working butter, much assistance to the complete removal of 

 the milk may be gained by applying a slightly damp napkin to the 

 surface, as in this way the very small globules of moisture stand- 

 ing on the surface but whicli will not run off, can be removed. A 

 better way still is to use a damp sponge covered with a napkin for 

 this purpose. 



