986 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



is opened, a strong brine of common salt (strong enough to float an egg) should be 

 poured, when cold, upon the surface of the butter ; and although the quality of the 

 latter will be slightly injured by the action of the water upon it, yet that is a much less 

 evil, than the slightest rancidity would occasion. 



6326. When butter is to be exposed to the heat of a warm climate, it should be purified by melting before 

 it is salted and packed up. For this purpose, let it be put into a proper vessel, and this be immersed into 

 another containing water. Let the water be heated till the butter be thoroughly melted : let it continue 

 in this state for some time, when the impure parts will subside, leaving at the top a perfectly pure trans- 

 parent oil. This, when it cools, will become opaque, and assume a color nearly resembling that of the 

 original butter, being only somewhat paler, and of a firmer consistence. When this refined butter is 

 become a little stiff, but while it is still somewhat soft, the pure part must be separated from the dregs, 

 and be salted and packed up in the same manner as other butter ; it will continue sweet much longer in 

 hot climates, as it retains the salt better than in its original state. It may also be preserved sweet, with- 

 out salt, by adding to it a certain portion of fine honey, perhaps one ounce to a pound of butter, and 

 mixing them together thoroughly, so that they may be perfectly incorporated. A mixture of this sort 

 has a sweet pleasant taste, and will keep for years without becoming rancid : there is no doubt, therefore, 

 but that butter might thus be preserved in long voyages without spoiling. 



6327. -As winter made butter is mostly pale or white, and, at the same time, of a 

 poorer quality than that made during the summer months, the idea of excellence has 

 been associated with the yellow color : hence various articles have been employed in 

 order to impart this color ; those most generally used, and certainly the most wholesome, 

 are the juice of the carrot, and of the flowers of the marigold, carefully expressed and 

 strained through a linen cloth. A small quantity of this juice (and the requisite pro- 

 portion is soon ascertained by experience) is diluted with a little cream, and this mixture 

 is added to the rest of the cream when put into the churn. So small a quantity of the 

 coloring matter unites with the butter, that it never imparts to it any particular taste. 



6328. The butter most esteemed in London is that of Epping and Cambridge ; the 

 cows which produce the former feed during summer in the shrubby pastures of Epping 

 forest, and the leaves of the trees, and numerous wild plants which there abound are 

 supposed to improve the flavor of the butter. It is brought to market in rolls from one 

 to two feet long, weighing a pound each. The Cambridgeshire butter is produced from 

 the milk of cows that feed one part of the year on chalky uplands, and the other in rich 

 meadows or fens ; it is made up into long rolls like the Epping butter, and generally 

 salted, not cured, before brought to market. By washing it, and working the salt out 

 of it, the London cheesemongers often sell it at a high price for fresh Epping butter. 



6329. The Suffolk and Yorkshire butter is often sold for that of Cambridgeshire, to which it is little 

 inferior. The butter of Somersetshire is thought to equal that of Epping; it is brought to mari<et in 

 dishes, containing half a pound each, out of which, it is taken, washed, and put into different forms 

 by the buttermen of Bath and Bristol. The butter of Gloucestershire and of Oxfordshire is very good ; 

 it is made up in half pound packs or prints, packed up in square baskets, and sent to the London market 

 by waggon. 



6330. The butter of the mountains of Wales and Scotland, and the moors, commons, and heaths of 

 England is of excellent quality, when it is properly managed ; and though not equal in quantity, it often 

 is confessedly superior to that produced from the richest meadows. Bad butter is more frequently the 

 result of mismanagement, want of cleanliness, and inattention, than of any other cause. Ireland would 

 produce the finest butter in the empire, were it not for the intolerably filthy state of their cows, and the 

 want of cleanliness in their dairies. 



6331. In packing fresh butter, or butter salted only for immediate use, the leaves of 

 cabbage, white beet, or of the garden orache {^Atrijilex hortensis) are to be preferred. The 

 bottomofthe basket should be bedded with a thick cloth, folded two or three times ; then 

 a thin gauze, dipped in cold water, spread over it, on which the prints or rolls of butter 

 are to be placed, each with one or more leaves beneath, and smaller ones over it. The 

 lowermost layer being adjusted, fold half of the gauze cloth over it, put in another layer 

 in the same way, and then cover with the remainder of the gauze. The butter should 

 be put into the basket, as well as taken from thence, without being touched. 



6332. Whey butter, as its name implies, is butter made from the whey which is taken from 

 the curd, after the milk is coagulated for the manufacture of cheese. It is chiefly made 

 in those counties where cheese is manufactured, and where it forms no inconsiderable 

 part of the profits of the dairy. In the county of Derby, more butter is said to be made 

 from whey than from the cream of milk, or from milk churned altogether. 



6333. Whei/ is divided into two sorts, green and white, the former escaping readily from the curd, 

 while the latter is freed from it by means of pressure. "There are different methods of extracting the 

 whey. In some dairies the whole whey, when taken from the cheese tub, is put into pails or other 

 vessels, where it remains for about twenty-four hours ; when it is creamed, and the whey is applied to 

 the use of calves and pigs, which are said to thrive as well on it, after the cream has been taken from it 

 as before. The cream, when skimmed off the whey, is put into a brass pan and boiled, and afterwards 

 set in pans or jars, where it remains till a sufficient quantiiy for a churning be procured, which, in large 

 dairies, happens generally once, but sometimes twice in the week." 



6334. Butter forming an important article of commerce as well as food, the legislature 

 has passed various statutes respecting its package, weight, and sale. The principal of 

 these are the 36th and 38th of Geo. III. 



Sect V. Of the Process of Cheese-making. 



6335. The production of cheese includes the making of rennet, the selection of a color- 

 ing matter, the setting of the curd, and the management of the cheese in the press. 



