234 



Better Butter. 



Vol. VUL 



new tubs or kegs — for glazed vessels are 

 never safe, and stone-ware is too expensive 

 for common use. 



The production of good butter depends 

 something on the breed, more on the keep- 

 ing of the cow, but chiefly on the mode of 

 curing and putting down ; and I think it 

 would be easy to prove the saying true, that 

 "good butter is more easily — i.e. cheaply, 

 made, than poor." Of two cows designed 

 for the dairy, the one having no very bad 

 qualities, and some good ones, valued at 

 $10 — the other, quite a superior animal, 

 though not the very best, prized at $50 — be 

 sure to take the latter — if you have not 

 money enough, don't buy either, till you 

 can pay for the best; to begin with the 

 poor one, would be to enter on the road to 

 poverty, the otlier leads to wealth. 



Clean cultivation and good seed, will, on 

 most soils, secure a good pasture. Having 

 thus a good cow, good grass, and good hay, 

 a warm stable for winter, and kind treat 

 ment in every respect, will ensure the 

 greatest product at the least possible ex- 

 pense. 



So much has been said of the necessity of 

 cleanliness in the dairy, that it would seem 

 unnecessary to add another line or anotlier 

 precept — there is a single item, however, 

 on which I would say a word to all, but to 

 the milk-men supplying the city, especi- 

 ally: — much of the milk exposed for sale, 

 has, on standing a few hours, a dark sedi- 

 ment ; I know of a few exceptions to this — 

 doubtless there are many — and these men 

 may be found asking and obtaining a higher 

 price for their milk than their less cleanly 

 neighbours. I suppose every dairyman 

 knows where this black precipitate comes 

 from; if not, I can tell him — it is from the 

 udder and belly of the cow — 'in the process 

 of milking, it has been disturbed by the 

 hands and sleeves of the milker, and fallen 

 into the pail in the form of dust, or some- 

 times in larger portions, and these have 

 been thoroughly divided and intimately min- 

 gled with the other contents of the vessel, 

 by the quick streams poured upon them. If 

 the animal be well bedded, a hand-brush 

 freely used upon these parts, before the pail 

 is brought near, will generally sufficiently 

 cleanse them; not unfrequently, however, 

 a resort to water is found essential to purity, 

 "A word to the wise," &c. 



With cleanliness, good butter, possessing 

 the quality of keeping a twelvemonth, may 

 always be made by regarding a few essen- 

 tials — thoroucchly expel the butter-milk — 

 season with the best fine salt — pack closely 

 in new clean casks — this will secure good 

 butter; but there are degrees of excellence, 



depending on the greater or less complete- 

 ness with which the two great conditions, 

 freedom from butter-milk, and exclusion of 

 air, by careful packing, are complied with- 

 The manner of accomplishing the firsts 

 might be left to the option of the dairyman, 

 provided it be certainly done — but certainly 

 it is not usually done, though all make some 

 attempts to do it. The hand is better than 

 a ladle or wooden spatula, for this purpose ; 

 but a better mode, one that lessens the la- 

 bour and renders it more efficient, is, to 

 clothe the hand with a piece of linen, the 

 cloth readily absorbing the fluid it comes in 

 contact with ; this method, I am assured, is 

 pursued in making the Goshen butter, and I 

 know it to be practised by some others noted 

 for their success in this manufacture. But 

 there is another mode more effectual still, 

 and which I apprehend should be adopted 

 by all, in putting down butter for future 

 use ; it consists in washing or kneading in 

 cold spring water, using successive portions 

 of water, till it comes away perfectly limpid. 

 A sponge having fallen into a dirty pool, we 

 may by compression, especially if a cloth be 

 used beneath the hand, get rid of most of 

 the water it contains, and the filth witli it — 

 but no one, I am sure, would think of say- 

 ing it was quite clean, till it had been washed. 

 I know there is a prejudice against bringing 

 cold water in contact with butter, a sort of 

 hydrophobia ; and the practice has received, 

 too hastily, I think, the unqualified condem- 

 nation of others ; for instance, J. P. Kirt- 

 land, of Rockport, in an able article on 

 " Butter Making," published in the Cleve- 

 land Herald, and copied into the Cabinet 

 some months since, says : " Some persons 

 destroy its richness and sweetness by wash- 

 ing out the butter-milk by means of cold 

 water, a practice always to be avoided." 

 Another writer over the signature " Old 

 Dutchess," say5 : " Butter should be cured 

 without the aid of water." 



On the other hand, some of the most noted 

 dairies in the vicinity of Dublin, supplying 

 that city with fresh butter, practise washing 

 it, I am assured, with spring-water. A 

 writer in the New England Farmer, says : 

 "In the large towns of Holland, of Flanders, 

 and of Switzerland, where they make a 

 great quantity of butter, they knead it in its 

 whey — when it is well consolidated, and has 

 no lumps, and appears quite rich; they wash 

 it in several waters, until the last pours off 

 quite clear." Doubtless some of the colour- 

 ing matter, and a portion of its sweet milky 

 taste are lost by this process, especially if 

 continued too long a time, and hence the 

 propriety of kneading it in its own whey 

 till consolidated, as practised in Holland and 



