EXPERIMENT STATION. 75 



is sometimes employed in salt manufacture, to purify the brine, 

 and some years ago, I believe, salt containing slacked lime, got 

 into market and damaged or was thought to damage a large quan- 

 tity of butter. The mistake is of so serious a kind to the salt- 

 makers that it will not be likely to occur again. 



5. " Can salt be too fine for salting butter ?" 



Yes ; salt may be too fine or too coarse, for siich use. Fresh 

 churned butter contains a quantity of the milk-serum (butter- 

 milk) which it is one object of salting to remov^e. When salt is 

 worked into butter each grain of salt gradually dissolves in the 

 butter-milk and withdraws it from the butter, probably shrinking 

 the bulky, jelly-like casein just as salt mixed with a jelly of soap 

 shrinks the soap into a small, firm cake, and unites with the water 

 to make a brine. If the salt be very fine the result is to fill the 

 mass of butter with a multitude of very small drops of brine 

 which are diflicult to work out of the butter. On the other hand, 

 if the salt be very coarse the butter-milk will gather in large 

 drops, easy to work out, but the salt grains will not be entirely 

 dissolved and will make the butter too salt and gritty to the taste. 

 The proper fineness, therefore, is that which comes just short of 

 occasioning the last-named difficulty, so that by its use we remove 

 the butter-milk thoroughly, without leaving any unpleasant sur- 

 plus of salt in the butter. 



The Ashton butter-salt, and the Syracuse factory-filled dairy- 

 salt, are commonly reputed to have the degree of fineness suitable 

 for dairy use. According to Alexander Muller, the grains of a 

 good dairy salt should have dimensions lying for the most part 

 between -^ and -^ of an inch in diameter (^ and 1 millimeter). 



6. " Which of the kinds of salt sent do you think (according to 

 the samjDles) the best for butter ?" 



The mechanical analysis of these salts is as follows : 



100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 



It will be seen that the Deakens, Ashton and PhcEnix salt are 

 quite alike as to mechanical condition. Higgins' and Holmes' 

 salt are very considerably finer. 



