BUTTER DAIRYING. 125 



carriers for prints, lumps, or rolls, are desirable for packing solid, 

 for the same markets where the packages can be easil3^ returned, 

 the stone jars in common use are among the best. When sent to a 

 distant market tubs or firkins made from hard wood are cheai), and 

 continue to be the chief means for storing and transporting l)utter. 

 To prepare tubs for use thej- should be soaked with strong brine 

 two or three da^-s, then this brine turned out, and boiling hot brine 

 turned in, filling the packages to the brim ; when this gets cold the 

 tub is fit for use. 



By all means avoid storing butter in damp cellars, no matter how 

 much care may be exercised, it cannot remain long without injury. 



I have thus briefly touched upon some of the leading points of 

 butter making ; the fear alone of wearying you forbids my entering 

 more full}- into the details, but an omission of their discussion here, 

 an idea of their unimportance is not to be conveyed, for it is onl}' 

 "by the closest attention to every minute operation, from beginning 

 to end, that we can hope to succeed. 



The great objection to dairying as a pursuit, entertained by people 

 generally, is the vast amount of labor and the life of drudgery it 

 entails upon its followers. The attempt is too frequently made by 

 farmers to do as much labor upon the farm as though they have no 

 dairy work depending upon them. This they attempt to accomplish 

 in two ways. The ambitious, hard-working man, rising earh', milk- 

 ing, and choring till breakfast call, doing as much woi'k in the field 

 during the day as his neighbor over the fence, returns to his chores 

 at night, only to finish them by lantern light, and go tired and dis- 

 couraged to bed. His neighbor reverses the order of things ; and 

 finishing his supper, enquires of a passer if he has any news from 

 the election returns, lights his pipe, leans over the barnyard fence 

 and watches his wife and daughters milk the cows among the whole 

 herd of frolicking farm stock. 



Is it any wonder "the boys leave the farm," or the girls marry 

 men that don't keep cows? All this must be changed, and the care 

 of the stock and dairy become a part of the regular day work, and 

 those whose work it is should stop labor in the field at an hour early 

 enough to warrant the completion of all chores by sunset. They will 

 be done better and more cheerfully, and an opportunity for social 

 intercourse afforded. Nothing so completely robs farm life of its 

 enthusiasm as persistently dragging day into night. 



