142 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



more light on the true causes which favor or oppose the production of 

 good butter, than all the guesses that have hitherto been made. 



The quality of the butUT depends materially on the nature of the 

 pasture. The best is made from cows fed in rich natural meadows. 

 Certain plants, which grow in poor and marshy soils, give a disagreea- 

 ble taste to the butter. The common notion that the yellow liower 

 called the buttercup gives color and flavor to butter is a mistake ; cows 

 never crop the liower if they can avoid it, and the whole plaut is acrid 

 and unpalatable. AVhen cov>'s are fed with cut grass in the stable, the 

 butter is inferior, except in the case of some artificial grasses, such as 

 hicern. Turnips and other roots given to cows in winter communicate 

 more or less of a bad taste to butter, which is corrected in some degree 

 by means of a small quantity of water and saltpetre added to the milk ; 

 and also, it is said, by giving salt to the cows with their food. But there 

 is no butter made in winter equal to that which is made when the cows 

 are fed entirely with good meadow hay, especially of the second crop, 

 called after-math hay, which contains few seed stalks. 



The yellow color of May butter is frequently imitated artificially, by 

 mixing some ground anatto root, or the juice of carrots, with the cream. 

 This is easily detected by the taste of the butter, which is not improved 

 by it, and has not the peculiar flavor of fine grass butter; but in other 

 respects it is a harmless addition. Some cows give a much yellower 

 cream than others, especially the Alderney cows; and the butter made 

 from it is of a peculiarly fine flavor. AVhen a cow has lately calved, 

 the milk is also much yellower, but this soon goes oflf, if it be not the 

 natural color; and the butter made by mixing this with other milk, al- 

 though of a deeper color, is not improved by it. 



According to the accounts of the produce of .butter from diff"erent 

 countries and various breeds of cows, we may state that, on an average, 

 four gallons of milk produce sixteen ounces of butter ; and to make the 

 feeding of cows for the dairy a profitable employment, a good cow 

 should produce six pounds of butter per week in summer, and half that 

 quantity in winter, allowing from six weeks to two months for her being 

 dry before calving; that is one hundred and twenty pounds in twenty 

 weeks after calving, and eighty pounds in the remainder of the time till 

 she goes dry — in all, about two hundred pounds in the year. If she 

 produces more, she may be considered as a superior cow ; if less, she is 

 below par. 



The quality of the butter produced in England and in Holland is 

 considered the best. A considerable quantity of Dutch butter is export- 

 ed, but all that is produced in England is consumed at home, in addi- 

 tion to large quantities imported from Ireland and the continent of 

 Europe. The quantity imported has been for some time progressively 

 increasing. 



Premium Bllttcr-llukinjr.— The following, read at the last meeting 

 of the American Institute Farmers' Club, details the practice of one 

 of the best butter-makers in the State of New York, Mr. Jesse Carpen- 

 ter, of Elmira, in that state. It was communicated by Mr. H. E. Low- 

 man. We invite the special attention of all our dairy readers to the 

 views here propounded, as they come from a source entitling them to 



