THE BUTTER DAIRY. 135 



that, in the butter, we detected the presence of buttermilk 

 and an undue degree of salt, and, in the cheese, a too smart 

 and strong taste, that would render them unpalatable to us. 



The use of too much salt in butter is a fault with too 

 many dairymen. Whether it is done to meet the demands 

 of the popular taste, to increase its weight, or add to its 

 keeping qualities, we do not know ; but the fact was perfectly 

 apparent ; for, in some packages presented for our examina- 

 tion and award, there was an amount of salt, that, when 

 tasted, left a burning and painful sensation in the mouth, and 

 when swallowed made its unpleasant presence distinctly felt 

 by the delicate membranes of the throat. Salt is good ; but 

 an overdose is an evil when used as an article of food, and in 

 our judgment this accusation would justly lie against a 

 majority of the entries of butter. So, too, in two or three 

 instances we distinctly detected the presence of buttermilk. 

 When used in a fresh state, this is not so objectionable as 

 oversalting ; but whenever it remains, even in small quanti- 

 ties, it reduces the quality, so that, whatever may be its other 

 merits, it cannot be ranked as prime or first-class butter. 



At our examination we did not carefully read all the state- 

 ments appended to the several entries ; but those belonging 

 to the specimens of which we made honorable mention were 

 taken by us to be read at our leisure. But they were mis- 

 laid, and so lost ; which fact we greatly regret, as without 

 them we cannot make our report complete, so that now we 

 have no means of learning the methods employed in their 

 preparation. 



These two were the main faults we detected in the pack- 

 ages offered for our inspection, and these we think can be 

 easily remedied. With two packages, with their exceeding 

 saltness, there was a slight degree of rankness, which de- 

 tracted from their value. This might have been for want of 

 proper care of the utensils used in their production ; or the 

 milk might have been kept in an unsuitable room ; or it might 

 have been in the quality of the salt used. If there is lime in 

 the salt, that will in a short time give to butter a bitter, rank, 

 or strong taste, and make that which otherwise would be a 

 superior article an inferior one. Hence only the purest salt 

 should be used in butter and cheese making; and this is 

 found to be, after careful analysis, either the Ashton (an 



