LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 283 



uniform color ; but proper feed for the cows will obviate the necessity of artificial 

 color. While salt is not to be undervalued as a preserving agent, it must be 

 remembered that too much of it will destroy the fine flavor of the best of but- 

 ter; use just enough to remove its insipidity; about one ounce of Ashton salt, 

 sifted, to a pound of butter; on no account should it stand too long after 

 being salted before the buttermilk is worked out, as it is apt to become 

 streaked, and a tendency to rancidity will be rapidly developed. I realize the 

 difficulty in giving explicit directions for the second and last working ; if not 

 worked enough it will spoil; if worked too much it is spoiled already. It 

 should be worked with careful, gentle, yet firm pressure, and not by indis- 

 criminate stirrings, and spattings, and grindings against the sides of the bowl. 

 Butter is composed of minute grains or globules which are crushed by this 

 careless handling, thus rendering it greasy and sticky, whereas it should 

 retain its clean, solid individuality. It should not be worked until it is per- 

 fectly dry; it should have a slight moisture about it — a sort of insensible 

 remnant of the clear brine that has been working off. Never work butter 

 with the hands; besides being an uncleanly practice, it makes it greasy and 

 disagreeable, if not positively bad. In packing, the jars or tubs should be 

 scrupulously clean and sweet, the butter packed in solid and a cloth laid on 

 the top with a laying of salt on the cloth ; the cover should fit close, leaving 

 no room for air between it and the butter. When butter is taken to market 

 it should present a neat and attractive appearance ; if taken in rolls each roll 

 should be wrapped in a clean, damp, white cloth to prevent the rolls sticking 

 together and looking broken and rough. That there are many defects in the 

 present system of managing the dairy on many of our farms is an undeniable 

 fact, but in many cases I think it is more a lack of conveniences than the 

 fault of the farmer's wife. Some, of course, will not take the extra trouble to 

 make a good article, saying "they get as much for their butter as Mrs. A. 

 does for her gilt edge, and don't work half as hard to make it." Well, per- 

 haps they do, and they get a bad name besides. I hope the day is not far dis- 

 tant when creameries and butter factories will be established at convenient 

 distances through the country to take the milk from the farms, thus dis- 

 pensing with the drudgery incident to the care of milk, and leaving more time 

 for the wife and daughters to read and study and cultivate their minds, that if 

 called upon to write an essay for an occasion like this, they would not so 

 keenly feel their inability to respond to the call. 



FEEDING STOCK. 



BY J. C. BRAY. 

 [Read at Hastings Institute.] 



Mr. President, — It has fallen to me to read an essay on feeding stock; 

 this should have been placed in abler hands than mine. It is a subject that 

 interests every cultivator of the soil, especially the farmer who practices 

 mixed husbandry. The kind of stock to be kept upon the farm and feed, so 

 as to make a profit, depends upon the farmer and the condition of his soil. 

 To make the feeding of stock profitable to the farmer, he should adopt a 



