A NEW PROCESS. 239 



tion or to market in new and improper boxes. A new 

 pine-wood box should always be avoided. 



Butter that has been thoroughly worked, and per- 

 fectly freed from butter-milk, is of a firm and waxy con- 

 sistence, so as scarcely to dim the polish of the blade 

 of a knife thrust into it, leaving upon it only a slight 

 dew as it is withdrawn. If it is soft in texture, and 

 leaves greasy streaks of butter-milk upon the knife that 

 cuts it, or upon the cut surface after the blade is with- 

 drawn, it shows an imperfect and defective process of 

 manufacture, and is of poor quality, and will be liable 

 to become rancid. 



An exceedingly delicate and fine-flavored butter may 

 be made by wrapping the cream in a napkin or clean 

 cloth, and burying it, a foot deep or more, in the earth, 

 from twelve to twenty hours. This experiment I have 

 repeatedly tried with complete success, and have never 

 tasted butter superior to that produced by this method. 

 It requires to be salted to the taste as much as butter 

 made by any other process. A tenacious subsoil loam 

 would seem to be best. After putting the cream into 

 a clean cloth, the whole should be surrounded by a 

 coarse towel. The butter thus produced is white 

 instead of yellow or straw-color. 



Butter has been analyzed by Prof. Way, with the fol- 

 lowing result: 



Pure fat. or oil, 82.70 



Caseine, or curd, 2.45 



^Yater, with a little salt, 14.85 = 100 



The fat or oil peculiar to butter is in winter more 

 solid than in summer, and known as margarine fat, 

 while that of summer is known as liquid or oleine fat. 

 The proportions in which these are found in ordinary 



