300 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



by ^Ir. Ahlborn. Of cheese-making I know nothing ; 

 I attended only to butter. 



Improved Implements, 



The chief feature was the use of the Circular Butter- 

 working JMachines for squeezing out the buttermilk. It 

 was impossible to see these machines at work without 

 being convinced of their great usefulness. They save 

 much labour, and squeeze out the buttermilk much more 

 thoroughly, leaving the butter much firmer than the 

 hand can do. It is easy with them to make up butter 

 without ever touching it by hand from first to last. In 

 North Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, their 

 use is almost universal ; in America, too, they are com- 

 mon. They are much too dear in price. But there is 

 no trouble in contriving a simple straight form, instead 

 of the circular form, at a very moderate cost within the 

 reach of all, if our machine-makers will condescend to 

 do so. I can say, from trial, that the small hand- 

 machine which only costs a fcAv shillings, answers per- 

 fectly for a few cows, though too slow for a large dairy. 



The sooner we work our butter by machines in 

 Ireland, instead of by hand, the better it will be for us. 



There were many forms of churn, more of the com- 

 mon barrel churn (with small variations in the dashers), 

 than of any other. The Aylesbury Company used 

 barrel churns chiefly ; the French dairy had no other. 

 There was an eccentric churn that turned round and 

 up and down at the same time eccentrically ; it cost 

 double the price of barrel churns, and seemed to have 

 no particular advantage. There was an American churn 

 that is much praised in the Report of our Secretary of 

 Legation at Washi:igton for this year. In American 



