STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 261 



dred and fifty pounds of butter, exclusive of the milk and butter 

 used in a family of seven persons. We send our winter and 

 spring made butter to market up to about the first of May;' the 

 remainder in the fall. We have for the last four years consigned 

 our butter to A. H. Hovey, formerly a commission merchant of 

 Boston, who has supplied his own table and those of individual 

 families with it; and being now located at Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 has ordered some three 50 lbs. packages via. Chicago, for his 

 own use. 



B. MINTHORxNE'S 



IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING BUTTER. 



Wafer and Buttermilk removed by Solar Evaporation. 



This butter is made by my improved method, whereby every 

 drop of water or buttermilk is taken out of it by solar evapora- 

 tion. In this process, I claim to have so perfected butter making 

 that butter may be kept sweet several years, without the rancid 

 odor caused by the decomposition of water and buttermilk that 

 pervades most of the butter at the present time. The following 

 is an outline of my improved process : Firstly — in churning 

 the cream, enough ice should be put into it, occasionally, to make 

 the butter come in crumbs — pour off the buttermilk and wash 

 the butter several times in soft ice water, till there ceases to be 

 any milky appearance. During the process of washing, should 

 there be a solid lump of butter large enough to contain a cell of 

 fluid, that lump should be crushed while in the water, and broken 

 into a corresponding size of the other crumbs. 



Lastly — Wash it in brine made of rock salt, saltpeter, soft 

 water and ice — kim the crumbs out of the brine with a ski-nnier 

 — drain each skiinmer-full well and spread the crumbs of butter 

 on zinc plates. (In cool weather wooden tables will do instead 

 of the zinc.) In very hot weather these zinc j>lates should set on ico 

 water while the crumbs are spread out thinly. Place the butter 

 in the middle of a milk room — open all the windows, and a cur- 

 rent of air passing over it will evajxjrate all the moisture in less 

 than an hour in warm weather, if the room is suitably ventilated. 

 Care should be taken not to have any other moisture in the 

 room, like water on the floor, or wet dairy furniture. When 



