FOREIGN BUTTER -MAKING. 137 



about forty- eight hours after leaving the separator. This exten- 

 sion of the usual duration of the souring process was made with 

 the object of overcoming the more or less frothy condition of 

 the cream from the centrifugal separator in order to obtain a 

 firmer butter." 



The washing of butter in the churn is not a general practice, 

 but it is recommended when the cream is very sour, or when 

 little or no salt is used. In some establishments it is washed 

 while on the butter-worker ; but it is obviously too late, there, 

 to wash it perfectly. 



The practice is not to touch the butter with the hands. This 

 indeed was followed out at the Roden Dairy Station in 1877, 

 in which year it was my good fortune to pay a visit of inspec- 

 tion to the estate of Graf von Schlieffen, in Mecklenburg, where 

 the station is situated. It was then under the superintendence 

 of Dr. Wilhelm Fleischmann, to whose experiments and 

 teaching the dairying of Germany to-day is so greatly indebted. 

 The butter is first passed lightly through the "worker," and 

 then put into a cool place to harden, after which it is again 

 passed through the worker. 



An enormous quantity of margarine is still sold for genuine 

 butter, as the convictions of offenders testify, and it must be 

 borne in mind that these convictions represent only a small 

 percentage of the offences committed. 



Margarine has been too tempting for the virtue of some 

 dairy farmers, or its competition has been too strong in any 

 case it has been used in farm houses to adulterate home-made 

 butter. 



German butter-makers, equally with those of England, 

 have reason to complain of the nefarious competition of the 

 margarine men. The time has arrived when, it is considered, 

 very stringent laws should be passed to effectually prevent 

 the sale of margarine under false pretences. 



