160 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



Butter. 



There were seven competitors for five premiums. The but- 

 ter was all well made and of excellent quality, so good that it 

 is believed that the two parcels rejected, would, in former years, 

 have been more fortunate. Several of the lots of butter were 

 too salt, and the salt was too coarse. The lot of butter num- 

 ber eight, of twenty-four lbs., presented by Charles E. Miles, 

 for exhibition, was of very superior quality, and had it been 

 placed in competition with the others, would have been enti- 

 tled to a high premium. It was noticed that some of the boxes 

 were made of soft wood. It was the opinion of the committee, 

 that all butter-boxes and firkins should be made of white oak, 

 as being less liable to impart an unpleasant taste to the butter 

 placed in them. 



A butter-worker was examined, which was entered by the 

 chairman for exhibition. It was gotten up by him about ten 

 years since, and from that time a similar machine has been in 

 use on his farm, and is there considered as a valuable labor- 

 saving machine. The committee would recommend its use in- 

 stead of the hands. The top is of marble ; a wooden top would 

 be better and less expensive. They may be procured of Ruggles, 

 Nourse, Mason & Co. In the Prize Essay of Prof. Norton, of 

 Yale College, on the " Elements of Scientific Agriculture," for 

 which a premium of $100 was awarded him by the New York 

 Agricultural Society — of Butter, he says : " We are now to 

 consider the various methods of making butter, and some of 

 the questions connected with its preservation. The object in 

 churning, is to break up the coverings of the little globules of 

 butter. This is done by continual dashing and agitation ; 

 when it has been continued for a certain time, the butter ap- 

 pears first in small grains, and finally works together into 

 lumps." 



" Where cream is churned, the best practice seems to be, to 

 allow of its becoming slightly sour. This sourness takes place 

 in the cheesy matter, or casein that is mixed in the cream, and 

 has no effect on the butter beyond causing its more speedy and 

 perfect separation." 



