CATTLE. 141 



there be an appearance of shrinkino;, the cask must be opened, and 

 melted butter poured I'onnd it so as to till up the interstices between 

 the butter and the cask. There is a mode of preserving butter for 

 domestic use without salt, m the followiug manner : the butter is set 

 in a clean pan over tbe fire, and melted veiy gently ; it is not allowed 

 to boil, but is heated very nearly to the boiling point. Experience has 

 shown this heat to be attained when the retiection of the white of the 

 eye is distinctly seen on the surface of the butter on looking down into 

 the pan. All the watery particles are then evaporated, and the curd, 

 of which a portion always remains in the butter, and which is one cause 

 of its becoming rancid, tails to the bottom. The clear butter is poured 

 into an earthen vessel and covered over with paper, and a bladder or a 

 piece of leather is tied over the jar to exclude the air. When it is 

 cooled, it much resembles hogs' lard. It has lost some of its flavor, but 

 it is much superior to salt butter for culinary purposes, and especially 

 for pastry. 



The Devonshire method of making butter is peculiar to that county. 

 The milk, instead of being set for the cream to rise, is placed in tin or 

 earthen pans, holding about eleven or twelve quarts each. Twelve 

 hours after milking, tljese pans are placed on a broad iron plate, lieated. 

 by a small furnace. The milk is not allowed to boil, but a thick scum 

 rises to the suiface. As soon as small bubbles begin to appear, where a 

 portion of this scum is removed with a spoon, the milk is taken off and 

 allowed to cooL The thick part is taken off the surface, and this is 

 called clouted cream ; it is a sweet, pleasant substance, more solid than 

 cream, but not so solid as butter, and is generally considered a dainty. 

 A very slight agitation converts it into real butter, after which it is 

 treated exactly as we have before described. 



Another method of making butter, which is more generally adopted, 

 is to churn the milk and cream together. This metliod is pursued in 

 parts of Holland, Scotland and Ireland, and is said to produce a greater 

 abundance of butter from the same quantity of milk. In the Dutch 

 method the milk is put into deep jars in a cool place, and each meal, 

 or portion milked at one time, is kept separate. As soon as there is a 

 slight appearance of acidity, the whole is churned in an upright churn, 

 which, from the quantity of milk, is of very large dimensions. The 

 plunger is worked by machinery moved by a horse, or sometimes by a 

 dog walking in a wheel, which he turns by his weight. When the but- 

 ter begins to form into small kernel-, the contents of the churn are 

 emptied on a sieve, which lets the buttermilk pass through. The but- 

 ter is then formed into a mass, as described before. 



It is an acknowledged fact, that such are the niceties of the dairy 

 that great experience alone can insure a produce of superior quality, 

 and this experience would be more readily acquired if the circumstances 

 were accurately observed and noted. We would recommend to those 

 who have extensive dairies, to mark by the thermometer the tempera- 

 ture of the milk and cream in the different stages of the process ; occa- 

 sionally to test the acidity of the buttermilk by means of alkalis; and 

 to note any peculiarity in the atmosphere by an electrometer. A few 

 observations, carefully noted, repeated, and compared, would throw 



