DAIRY. 



DAIRY. 



biestmilk butter will injure a whole firkin. 

 The practice of scalding cream in cold wea- 

 ther should also be avoided, as cream thus 

 treated will never make good butter. 8. Great 

 care should be taken not to steep the firkins, or 

 other dairy vessels, in boggy or unwholesome 

 water ; only the purest spring or clear running 

 water should be used. 9. Old butter should 

 never be mixed with new. 



Lime-tree yields perhaps the best wood for 

 butter firkins ; and the St. Ubes' Bay or ma- 

 rine sweet salt, free from bittern, is the best 

 salt to use for dairy purposes : this should be 

 kept in a dry, clean cask, in a place where 

 smoke (which is apt to impart a bad flavour 

 to it) cannot reach it. The management and 

 construction of the dairy of necessity varies 

 with the articles for which it is chiefly intend- 

 ed to be devoted, as BUTTER, CHEESE, MILK : 

 see these heads. 



In the United States one of the most cele- 

 brated dairy districts is that of Western Re- 

 serve, in Ohio, peopled generally by settlers 

 from New England. It is computed that this 

 fine grazing country sells, annually, cheese to 

 the amount of a million and a half of dollars, 

 besides large quantities of butter, and a great 

 amount of beef and pork. 



There is reason to believe that the exporta- 

 tion of butter and cheese from the United 

 States to other countries will annually in- 

 crease, and especially to England, where a 

 great reduction of duties on these and other 

 articles of the provision trade has recently 

 taken place. From the objections made to 

 American butter and cheese sent abroad, it 

 seems highly desirable that more pains should 

 be taken at home to improve their qualities, 

 which can only be done by paying more at- 

 tention to their manufacture. There is no dis- 

 guising the fact, says a late writer in the Cul- 

 tir<i/i,r, " that immense quantities of butter find 

 their way to market in a condition which ren- 

 ders it unfit for any thing but grease. Hot 

 weather, or the shortest voyage, renders it in- 

 tolerably rancid. Now, butter made in Holland 

 may be carried to any distance, and in any cli- 

 mate, without suffering material deterioration, 

 and hence it is in such demand for exportation. 

 Vast quantities annually find their way to Great 

 Britain for domestic consumption and other- 

 wise, and the high prices demonstrate the esti- 

 mation in which it is held. There are no finer 

 pastures in the world than in the United States, 

 particularly those north of the Ohio, and if pro- 

 per attention and skill were given to the pro- 

 ducts of the dairy, those products might be un- 

 rivalled. There is a considerable amount of 

 excellent butter made in the country, but it is 

 used for domestic consumption, and the pro- 

 portion of the first rate article bears but a slight 

 comparison with the whole. There is less dif- 

 f-rence in the cheeses of this country and the 

 European ones than there is in the butter, and 

 consequently less difference in the prices. But 

 in both butter and cheese, so far as the great I 

 mass of these products are concerned, there is j 

 room for a decided improvement, and we doubt 

 not our dairy women would consult their own 

 interest, as well as the credit of the country, in 

 49 



giving more care to the production of superior 

 articles ; but to the extract. 



" At a public sale of American butter at Liver- 

 pool, it brought, the best sorts, 84s., seconds 72 

 to 74s. per cwt., duty paid, while inferior sold 

 only at 43 to 44s. in bond, of which the parcel 

 chiefly consisted. The quantity arrived at the 

 London market shows the same results, the 

 principal part being sold for greasy purposes. 

 The American makers of butter are very far 

 behind the Irish, English, or Dutch ; from the 

 first operation to the last, all seems to be done 

 without system or care. The same materials 

 would, if managed by experienced hands, bring 

 in this market 25 or 30s. more money. There 

 is evidently no proper attention paid to the 

 making, salting, putting down, or packing. A 

 correspondent of one of our commercial papers 

 says, 'The best American butter imported in- 

 to England this year has sold not higher than 

 95., while the best from the continent has 

 brought 110 to 115s. per cwt.; this latter will 

 keep for years.' " (London Commercial Journal 

 for March, 1841.) 



As a large portion of the United States is 

 favoured with all the advantages requisite for 

 dairy purposes, such as good pastures, excel- 

 lent cows, fine spring-houses or facilities for 

 making them, there is no apparent reason why 

 good butter and cheese should not be produced 

 in the greatest abundance. Among other in- 

 structions for improving the manufacture of 

 butter, given in a recent volume of the Cultiva- 

 tor, the following merit particular attention ; 



"Every thing connected with the making of 

 butter should be perfectly sweet and clean. No 

 smoke, dust, or disagreeable smells should ever 

 exist in the milk-house or dairy. Every thing 

 of this kind has its effect on the cream, and 

 leaves its taint on the butter. The milk should 

 be skimmed, and the cream churned at the pro- 

 per time and the proper temperature. The but- 

 termilk should be promptly separated; and in. 

 salting, none but salt of the finest, purest kind 

 is admissible. Next to leaving milk or whey 

 in the butter to putrefy, the use of bad salt has 

 the most influence in making this article worth- 

 less. Many recommend washing butter in clear 

 cold water to free it from the milk, and this 

 mode is practised in some of the best butter 

 districts of Europe or the United States. If the 

 milk is thoroughly separated, however, the par- 

 ticular method is of very little consequence; 

 and perhaps a machine for working the butter- 

 milk out, such as has been figured in the Cul- 

 tivator, or some similar contrivance, will be 

 found as effectual as any thing. But butter, if 

 made ever so perfectly, will not keep well un- 

 less it is also packed well. Total exclusion 

 from the air seems necessary, and when this 

 is combined with a low temperature, butter can 

 be kept for an indefinite period of time. It is 

 the adventitious circumstances only that make 

 poor butter, for, as it is a pure animal oil, if 

 freed from those things that have a tendency to 

 spoil it, it would keep as long and with as little 

 trouble as tallow or lard. It is the difficulty 

 of freeing butter from the substances connect- 

 ed with it, that have a constant tendency to 

 putreiaction, that renders the packing of butter 

 2K 385 



