326 EFFECT OF LYE ON THE BARRELS. 



also be of five degrees strength by Beaume's scale, and 

 it can be used over and over by adding more alum now 

 and then. After emptying out the alum and lye, they 

 are dried a day in the sun and air, and then rinsed out 

 in fresh, pure water, when they can be used for packing 

 butter without fear. Some add a little sulphate of 

 iron or green copperas to the alum, when the solution 

 is more powerful ; yet the management of the butter- 

 barrels is then more troublesome, and requires more 

 experience. The effect of the copperas has also the 

 disadvantage that it blackens the barrels, which, though 

 it does not injure them, is not liked by the purchaser. 



By this treatment the new butter-barrels are much 

 more quickly and cheaply cleansed, and got ready for 

 packing and transporting butter, than by the course 

 pursued with old barrels. The barrels, treated as above, 

 are not only quite water-tight, but the wood is stronger 

 and more durable. By means of the potash-lye and the 

 alum solution the tannin is taken from the oak-wood 

 used in the barrels, which, if it remained, would give a 

 disagreeable taste to the butter. The effect of the pot- 

 ash and alum upon the wood of the barrels is quite 

 harmless, and does not impart the least unhealthy quality 

 to the butter. 



When the old or new barrels have been cleansed and 

 prepared, in either of the ways indicated, suitably for 

 packing the butter, the bottom of the barrel is evenly 

 covered with salt. Then a layer of butter which has 

 been thoroughly washed and salted is made, and 

 another layer of salt, and so alternate layers of salt 

 and butter till the barrel is full, when a little brine of 

 salt and water is poured on top. The butter is now 

 ready to be laid in the cellar, and thence to be sold and 

 exported. When the dairy is not sufficiently large to 

 fill a barrel each day, the butter of several churn- 



