348 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



cow. The common market and shop butter, however, is of the 

 same various character with that in our own markets, with no 

 larger proportion of very excellent butter than is to be found in 

 the markets of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Indeed, 

 much of the butter found in the market of the last-named city, 

 for its freshness and deliciousness, is no where surpassed. The but 

 ter in England is generally sent to market fresh, and you are left 

 to salt it at your pleasure, as you use it. The salted butter, in 

 tubs or firkins, is mostly imported from Ireland, or the Continent. 

 Even this, however, is not heavily salted. In most of the mar 

 kets, a good deal of butter made from the whey of cheese is sold 

 at a reduced price. It is of inferior taste and quality, and is 

 bought by the poor, or to be used in cooking, where, like a good 

 many nameless things, it may be thoroughly disguised, and pass 

 without detection. 



The Dorsetshire butter, which stands at the head of the mar 

 ket, comes packed in neat casks of about thirty pounds each ; 

 but is very lightly salted, and of course will not keep long. 

 It is likewise sent up to London in lumps, perfectly fresh for the 

 table. Its quality is excellent. The table butter likewise, from 

 Epping, and especially Aylesbnry, is of the best description. 



The Devonshire butter is almost universally made by first 

 heating the milk, just so much as to cause the escape of the 

 fixed air. In twelve hours the cream is all brought to the surface, 

 and in a state of consistency to be easily taken off. It is a dis 

 puted point, whether as much butter is obtained in this way as 

 by the ordinary mode of letting it stand, without being heated, a 

 much longer time. The butter is thought to acquire in this way 

 a peculiar taste, but it is by no means unpleasant. The skimmed 

 milk remaining is perfectly sweet, and appears the richer for 

 being heated. In this way is obtained the famous clotted crearn 

 which is to be found on the hospitable tables of Devonshire, and 

 is a great luxury. 



Glass milk-pans, made of bottle-glass, are much approved, and, 

 with proper care, are in no danger of being broken. They re 

 commend themselves by their cleanliness and incapacity of rust, 

 or corrosion, or decomposition. In some dairies I found shallow 

 leaden troughs used for setting the milk, with a tap at the bot 

 tom, so as to draw the milk off and leave the cream. Some 

 persons maintain that, the more shallow the pan, the more cream 



