MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURB. 



ly, a close waxy texture in which the extremely minute and transparent beads 

 of brine are perceptible ; but if these drops be either larjje or in the slightest de- 

 gree tinged with milk color, it is considered as marknig an imperfect working of 

 the butler, while an entirely dry, tallowy appearance is equally disapproved ; 

 thirdly, a fresh fragrant perfume, and a sweet kernely taste ; fourthly, the qual- 

 ity of keeping for a considerable time without acquirmg an old or rancid 

 tiavor. 



There are four qualities or varieties of butter known in Holstein. These are 

 named. Fresh-milk, May, Summer, and Stubble butter, according to the season 

 m which each is produced. The Fresh-milk butter is that made in the sprmg, 

 between the time when the cows calve and their being turned out to pasture. 

 The May butter is that produced in May, after the cows have been sent to grass. 

 This is highly prized for its peculiarly fine aroma when fresh, but is found not 

 to keep well,' and, therefore, like the Fresh-milk butter, is generally sent to mar- 

 ket as it is made. The Summer butter is made in June and July, and from that 

 time till the cows are removed from pasture, the butter bears the name of Stub- 

 ble butter. Both these latter sorts, if properly made, keep well, and retain their 

 tine flavor nearly unimpaired until the following spring. The small quantity 

 produced between the time of the cows being housed and becoming dry, is call- 

 ed old-milk butter, and is least of all esteemed. 



In winter, when the cows are confined to dry food, and the butter loses its fine 

 yellow color, artificial means are employed to remedy the defect ; for the Hol- 

 stein merchants find that without the usual degree of coloring, their butter will 

 not in some markets (as in Spain and Portugal) fetch its accustomed price. The 

 ino-redients used for this purpose are a mixture of annatto and turmeric, in the 

 proportion of five ounces of the latter to one pound of the former. These ingre- 

 dients are boiled in butter for half an hour, stirring them frequently, and then 

 straining through linen. The preparation can then be kept for use. When but- 

 ter is to be colored, a portion of this mixture is melted over the fire: it is then 

 poured into a hollow made in the mass of fresh churned butter, and by rapid 

 stirring is intimately united with the butter immediately in contact with it, which 

 being then spread over the whole mass, is, together with the requisite propor- 

 tion of salt, carefully kneaded and worked through until no particle remains more 

 highly colored than another ; and when smaller portions have thus been colored 

 from day to day, before a cask can be filled, the whole must, before packing, be 

 kneaded once more, that no disparity of shade may disfigure it. 



The greater portion of the butter made in the dairies of Holstein and Schles- 

 wig, is bought up by the Hamburgh merchants, though it is likewise sent in con- 

 siderable quantities from Keil and other parts to England and Copenhagen, and 

 the West Indies. 



We have already noticed the importance attached to every particular relating 

 to the milk-cellar, and the utensils employed in making this celebrated butter. 

 The different materials used for milk-pans were named, and we may now give 

 some farther notices from the same aulliorily on this head. Various kinds of uten- 

 sils have been tried in Holland, in the hope "of discovering how, in iiot weather- 

 more especially when a thunderstorm is gathering— the milk can be kept from 

 too early an acidity. Those in most general use are shallow wooden vessels, 

 nearly of an equal diameter at top and bottom, containing, when full, eight quarts 



but in which, during summer, seldom more than six quarts are poured The 



chief disadvantage of these vessels is the great labor and attention required to 

 remove all acidiTy, which, in some states of the atmosphere, is almost una- 

 voidable ; and which, penetrating the pores of the wood, sometimes resists all 

 the patient scrubbing, first with hot water and small birch-scrubbers, and sec- 

 ondly, with boiling water, and a hard round brush made of pig's bristles, with 

 which every part of the utensil is carefully polished over. Sometimes the dairy- 

 maid is comi)elled to resort to washing in a lye of wood-ashes or boiling, or even 

 scorching over lighted chips, followed by countless rinsings in pure spring water. 

 To diminish this labor the milk-venders in town paint the milking-pails and 

 dishes with a preparation of cinnabar, linseed-oil and litharge; but this is expen- 

 sive, for the vessels require three coats of the composition at first, and one yearly 

 afterward— and, after all, the milk, for some days after these vessels are brought 

 into use, has a perceptible taste of paint. Tinned copper milk-pans are very 



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