538 HANDT-BOOK OP HUSBANDRY. 



' self, by a long trial of both systems, that the dry room is the 

 ' best. He attributes the advantage to greater dryness of the air, 

 ' but as, with a free circulation against the cold stone the walls 

 ' were covered with moisture, he had gained very little in this 

 ' respect, even supposing, which is doubtful, that dryness would 

 ' be a gain. 



" The thermometer on the wall of his vault was not more than 

 'one degree higher than that of the spring-house, and our impres- 

 ' sion was that a low and uniform temperature, however attained, 

 ' is the important consideration. In the dairy that we were now 

 ' visiting there were no shelves, and no provision was made for a 

 ' circulation of air around the pans, as is considered important in 

 ' the dairies of our own region. In the vault, as in the spring- 

 ' house, the pans, which are equally deep and have even a greater 

 ' depth of milk (over four inches) were placed directly upon the 

 ' floor. In this dairy the milk was allowed to stand thirty-six 

 ' hours before being skimmed. The butter is worked and 

 ' salted in the same way, and is equally good in its texture, and 

 ' of very fine flavor. The color, however, it being thought 

 ' desirable to bring it up to ' Alderney ' standard, was secured by 

 ' the use of annotto^ which is used winter and summer to secure 

 ' uniformity of coloring. A solution of the annotto is made by 

 ' boiling it in water, and the extract is mixed with the cream in 

 ' the churn. On this farm we saw some fine specimens of the cel- 

 ' ebrated Chester white swine, which are bred in their perfection 

 ' in this region, and are sold at very high prices. They are sent 

 ' by express, at a tender age, to all parts of the country. 



" From here we went to another farm in the vicinity of West- 

 ' Chester, which bears an equally high reputation for its butter, and 

 ' where the spring-house has been abandoned, and the cream is kept 

 ' as previously described, in a dry vault. In the manufacture of 

 ' the butter, the same processes obtain, and the same good result 

 'is secured. In all of the instances described a very high price, 

 ' much above that of the common market, is obtained." 



My own milk-house at Ogden Farm, where it was impossible 

 to secure the advantages of a living spring, has been so constructed 



