302 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



sweet, the butter little handled only, I believe, in 

 taking it out of the churn ; it was washed as usual, put 

 on the butter -working machine, and the buttermilk 

 squeezed out, and lifted with wooden trowels in a lump 

 on the table. The scales had a flat marble top, on which 

 a boy with trowels rapidly weighed out half-pounds. 

 These half-pounds he again, with the trowels, rolled on 

 the table (which, I believe, had a marble slab for its 

 top), till it formed a cone of 8 or 9 inches high. This 

 was very dexterously and nicely done. The stamp, to 

 make it a half-pound pat, was pressed down on the 

 point of the cone till it became a round pat of equal 

 thickness throughout. This, again, was turned on its 

 side upon the slab, the stamp still holding on, and form- 

 ing a guide for the size as well as a handle to it, so that 

 it could be again rolled round and round on its side till 

 the pat was smooth and looked well, the hand never 

 touching the butter after it took it out of the chum. 

 It was a very pretty sight to see it done. All the work 

 of the dairy was done by men and boys. The Manag- 

 ing Director, Mr. Allender, thinks women are of no use 

 in a dairy, and that it is much harder to get them to 

 keep, to rules. He advises any one who wants to have a 

 first-rate dairy to employ young men and boys who have 

 learnt the business. The butter-working machine used 

 at this dairy was an American machine. The edges of 

 the flutings of the roller that presses the butter are 

 much sharper than those of Ahlborn's German machine. 

 Ahlborn justifies the roundness of the edges of his 

 machine by saying that a dairymaid's knuckles are round 

 and not sharp. But the better opinion seems to be 

 that the round edges of the roller a little " smear " the 

 butter, and that the sharper edges are best. 



