140 



GENESEE FARMER. 



June. 



From th* Providence Transcript. 



Butter Making. 



The annexed tirticle is from one of our most 

 experienced and intellectual agriculturists. Of 

 his successful practice we can attest, tis we never 

 saw finer butter, not even in Philadelphia, than 

 we have eaten at his hospitable mansion. 



Milk Apartmcnis, Sfc. — The milk cellar should 

 be deep, well ventilated, and dry; the bottom 

 covered with stone flagging. Bricks will absorb 

 milk, and other liquids that may fall upon them, 

 and will soon contract mildew, the smell of 

 which, like the odor of cheese, vegetables, fish, 

 or foul air of any kind, will be imparted to the 

 cream and butter. Over this celler should stand 

 the dairy room, with shelves to set milk upon in 

 cool weather; the cellar is to be used during the 

 extremes of heat and cold. The temperature of 

 the milk apartment, if possible, should never be 

 above 6.5 '^ nor below 45 ° . Set kettles should 

 not stand in the dairy-room ; neither should 

 cheese-making, nor cleansing milk-vessels be 

 done there, but in a convenient room near by. 



Cream may be kept good much longer, if it be 

 kept in a white oak vessel, with a tight cover, 

 and a faucet or tap near the bottom, to draw off' 

 the milk when it settles, before the customary 

 daily stirring. The quality of the butter is 

 much improved by this management. If the 

 milk be not drawn off", and it be churned with 

 the cream, the butter will be longer in coming, 

 and it will show specks of sour curd, taste like 

 cheese, and will soon become rancid.. Butter 

 will come quickly at all seasons of the year, if 

 the cream be of a temperature of from 60 ° to 

 70 ° ; to this end, use hot water in winter, and 

 ice in summer ; hut never add either to the cream, 

 in or out of the churn. 



Salt. — Pure salt chrystalizes into perfectcubes. 

 All other forms of chi-ystalization found in com- 

 mon salt, arise from impurities ; those of a needle 

 shape in Liverpool bag, or blown salt, indicate 

 the presence of lime, magnesia, &c. One great 

 cause of the failure in making good butter, may 

 be traced to the use of impure salt. Rock salt, 

 and the large lumps of Turk's Island, washed, 

 dried, and finely pulverized, are preferable to all 

 other kinds, being highly preservative, and hard- 

 ening the butter, so that it will be sooner ready 

 to work over in warm weather. The Liverpool 

 bag or blown salt, the Salina salt in small bags 

 from New York, and the fine part of every kind 

 of imported salt, contain a great portion of iinpu- 

 rity. Less than one ounce of pure salt, is suffi- 

 cient for a pound of butler; many put in but 

 half an ounce. 



In the manufacture of cheese, a preference is 

 sometimes given to Liverpool bag or blown salt. 

 This contains salts of lime and magnesia, which 

 attract moisture from the air, and iiavc the desi- 

 rable effect of softening the cheese, and the pun- 



gent bitter taste which they impart to it, is an im- 

 provement, in the estimation of some. 



General Remarks. — The cream should not 

 rise more than 36 hours ; it should be sweet when 

 taken ofi", and sweet when churned; yet there is 

 a degree of maturity to be acquired by keeping. 



The kegs for packing butter should be made 

 of white oak, bilging in the form of casks for the 

 more perfect exclusion of air, and convenience 

 of transportation. If tiie butter is not to be sent 

 to a warm climate, or a foreign market, let the 

 bilging kegs have moveable covers, to accommo- 

 date inspection ; they should be soaked in strong 

 brine, made also of pure salt, in order that jus- 

 tice may be done to the purchasers in tare, and 

 to save the butter from being spoiled for one or 

 two inches deep all around, from its contact with 

 dry wood. In case the wood is anything but 

 white oak, there is danger of its giving an un- 

 pleasant taste to the whole. For the convenience 

 of families, the size should vary from twenty-five 

 to fifty pounds. A keg of butter is exposed to 

 the air for a long time, while on broach in a 

 small family, and the bottom, in consequence, be- 

 comes rancid. 



The consumer will cheerfully pay an extra 

 price lor one hundred pounds of butter, packed 

 in four kegs instead of one. No salt should be 

 put on the sides, bottom, or between the layers. 

 If the kegs are made with covers, put a cloth over 

 the top, and cover that with pure fii.c sail. — 

 Keep a cloth w'et with strong brine ONcr tliC 

 butter, while the keg is filling, to exclude the 

 air. The practice of washing butter is not 

 approved of in Europe : it destroys its fragrance 

 and sweetness by dissolving the sugar of milk, 

 which it is said is always present in good butter. 

 It is practiced in Holland, when the article is de- 

 signed for exportation to India ; then the opera- 

 tion is usually performed with cold strong limpid 

 brine made of pure salt and pure water ; water 

 that has lime in it will not answer, as the lime is 

 readily absorbed by the butter. 



To exclude the air more effectually during the 

 process of putting down, let a little melted sweet 

 butter be run into the cavity, where the bottom, 

 liead and staves come together, then after each 

 layer is completed, let the dairy-woman pass her 

 finger round so as to press the butter hard and 

 close against the side. 



I'rom the Albany Cultivator. 



Profits of Poultry. 

 Having seen frequent articles in your paper 

 where the Poland Top-Knot fowls were higldy 

 recommended as layers, I was induced in the 

 spring of ISli to purchase some eight or ten of 

 them in order to test the difference, if any, be- 

 tween them and the common breed. From ob- 

 servation I soon became satisfied that they were 

 rightly called " everlasting layers," from the fact 

 that while the latter were continually annoying 



