COMMITTEE EEPORTS. 433 



tlie operation of cliurning should be done as quickly as possible, 

 the action being regular, and the churn should be warmed to 

 raise the temperature of the milk or cream. The air which is 

 generated in the churn, should be allowed to escape, or it will 

 impede the process by the froth which it creates. After churn- 

 ing is performed, the butter should be washed in cold spring 

 water, with a little salt in it, two or three times, to extract all 

 the milk which may be lodging around the mass. The less milk 

 which is in the butter, its quality is proportionably improved. 

 After the milk is carefully extracted, the butter should be mixed 

 with \hQ finest ground rock salt, in the proportion of five ounces 

 to seven pounds. The butter and salt should be well mixed, 

 with the ladle or the hand. This superior salt for dairy pur- 

 poses, may be obtained at the very lowest prices, by addressing 

 your orders to us. Firkins, made of oak, with walnut hoops, to 

 contain 100 pounds of butter, are generally the most desirable. 

 These should be made smooth, and brought to market clean as 

 possible. Butter, when received by merchants from small dai- 

 ries, should be packed down solid while fresh and sweet ; and 

 as there is usually a diversity of color, much pains should be 

 taken to keep each shade by itself. To accomplish this, several 

 packages may be filling at the same time, each one receiving its 

 respective shade, so that when full it will bore uniform in color 

 upon the tryer. A clean linen cloth, well saturated in strong 

 lime, should be laid on the top, and a slight layer of moistened 

 salt upon it. This not only preserves the butter, but gives to it 

 a neat appearance. 



Cheese may be made from cream alone, or from the whole 

 milk ; the object, in either case, being in the first place to separ- 

 ate the serum from the other materials. This is effected by 

 curdling the cream or milk, by the infusion of pan acid, the 

 refuse being the serum or ivhey, which is of scarcely any value 

 except as partial food for hogs. No acidulous substance is found 

 so suitable for curdling milk as rennet, which is formed of the 

 gastric juice of a calf that has been fed on milk. Take the maw 

 of a newly-killed calf, and clean it of its contents ; salt the bag, 

 and put it into an earthern jar, for three or four days, till it forms 

 8a 



