20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



taken up and neutralized by souring it. Much of the skill 

 in fancy dairying depends on the skill with which these oils 

 are managed. 



Our chief interest in the fatty matters in milk centres in 

 the butter globules. Upon the structure and treatment of these 

 infinitesimal bodies and the peculiarities of the fats which 

 compose them depends the success of the dairyman in turning 

 out a gilt-edged product of either cheese or butter ; and it is 

 important that every operator and producer, and all who 

 handle or care for, or are in any way concerned in the manu- 

 facture of butter, should be familiar with all that is known in 

 regard to them. A clear knowledge of a few leading facts 

 concerning the structure of the butter globules, and the other 

 fatty matters found in milk, will be found more efficient in 

 leading to desired results, especially in butter-making, than 

 the random labors and blind imitations of rules made by 

 parties ignorant of their structure and properties, though the 

 parties may boast of long years of experience. 



In searching for ultimate facts in regard to dairying, and 

 especially the department of butter-making, the microscope 

 becomes an efficient and interesting aid, and should be in the 

 hands of every intelligent and progressive dairyman. In 

 examining milk with a strong magnifier, we discover not only 

 that globules of fatty matter, of unequal dimensions, float me- 

 chanically in the watery mass, but that these little bodies, 

 minute as they are, are made of a speck of several kinds of 

 fat, and in a state of emulsion, with a little curdy matter or 

 caseine, and the whole is inclosed within a very thin sack of 

 curd-like matter. 



In the manufacture of butter it is the business of the ope- 

 rator to work off the delicate sacks which inclose the still 

 more delicate emulsion of fatty material within them, and to 

 leave the peeled globules in an unaltered condition. To do 

 this successfully, without a pretty full knowledge of the 

 structure and nature of what he is dealing with, is, to say the 

 least, a critical undertaking. One who knows nothing of the 

 nature of the work he was undertaking could hardly be ex- 

 pected to do it successfully. He might, indeed, wear the 

 pellicles off by friction — and most people go to work that 

 way ; but then the larger globules, meeting with the most 



