220 CLEANLINESS. — GOOD BUTTER. 



cessful dairy husbandry are good cows, and abundant 

 and good feeding, adapted to the special object of the 

 dairy, whether it be milk, butter, or cheese ; and that, 

 with both these conditions, an absolute cleanliness in 

 every process, from the milking of the cow to bringing 

 the butter upon the table, is indispensably necessary. 



Cleanliness may, indeed, with propriety be regarded 

 as the chief requisite in the manufacture of good but- 

 ter; for the least suspicion of a want of it turns the 

 appetite at once, while both milk and cream are so ex- 

 ceedingly sensitive to the slightest taint in the air, in 

 everything with which they come in contact, as to 

 impart the unmistakable evidence of any negligence, 

 in the taste and flavor of the butter. 



It is safe to say, therefore, that good butter depends 

 more upon the manufacture than upon any other one 

 thing, and perhaps than all others put together. So im- 

 portant is this point, that a judicious writer remarks that 

 " in every district where good butter is made it is univer- 

 sally attributed to the richness of the pastures, though 

 it is a well-known fact that, take a skilful dairymaid 

 from that district into another, where good butter is not 

 usually made, and where, of course, the pastures are 

 deemed very unfavorable, she will make butter as good 

 as she used to do. And bring one from this last district 

 into the other, and she will find that she cannot make 

 better butter there than she did before, unless she takes 

 lessons from the servants, or others whom she finds 

 there ; " and a French writer very justly observes that 

 " the particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose color, 

 flavor, and consistence, are so much prized, depends 

 neither on the pasture nor on the particular species of 

 cow, but on the mode of making;" and this will hold- 

 to a considerable extent, in every country where but- 

 ter is made. 



