BUT 



BUT 



twenty-four hours, and when salted ] 

 soon becomes rancid. Thus a j];real- : 

 er quantity is produced, but of inferior 

 quahty. When cheese is made of [ 

 tlie milk from which the cream has 

 been taken, it will be found most 

 profitable not to attempt to take off 

 all the cream by repeated skimming ; 

 for more will be gained in the better 

 quality of the cheese than by an in- 

 crease in the quantity of the butter 

 at the expense of the quality. 



It is an acknowledged fact that, 

 such are the niceties of the dairy, 

 great experience alone can ensure a 

 produce of superior quahty, and this , 

 experience would be more readily 

 acquired if the circumstances were i 

 accurately observed and noted. We 

 would recommend to those who have j 

 extensive dairies to mark by the ther- i 

 mometer the temperature of the milk | 

 and cream in the different stages of j 

 the process, occasionally to test the 

 acidity of the butter-milk by means of | 

 alkalies, and to note any peculiarity j 

 in the atmosphere by an electronic- j 

 ter. A few observations carefully 

 noted, repeated, and compared would 

 throw more light on the true causes 

 which favour or oppose the produc- 

 tion of good butter than all the guess- 

 es that have hitherto been made. 



The quality of the butter depends 

 materiaUy on the nature of the pas- 

 ture. The best is made from cows 

 fed in rich, natural meadows. Cer- 

 tain plants which grow in poor and 

 marshy soils give a disagreeable taste 

 to the butter. When cows are fed 

 with cut grass in the stable, the but- 

 ter is inferior, except in the case of 

 some artificial grasses, such as lu- 

 cerne. Turnips and other roots given 

 to cows in winter communicate more 

 or less of a bad taste to butter, which 

 is corrected in some degree by means 

 of a small quantity of water and salt- 

 petre added to the milk ; and also, it 

 is said, by giving salt to the cows 

 with their food. But there is no but- 

 ter made in winter equal to that which 

 is made where the cows are fed en- 

 tirely with good meadow hay, especial- 

 ly of the second crop, called after-math 

 hay, which contains few seed stalks. 



124 



According to the accounts of the 

 produce of butter from different coun- 

 tries and various breeds of cows, we 

 may state that, on an average, four 

 gallons of milk produce sixteen oun- 

 ces of butter ; and to make the feed- 

 ing of cows for the dairy a profitable 

 employment, a good cow should pro- 

 duce six pounds of butter per week 

 in summer, and half that quantity in 

 winter, allowing from six weeks to 

 two months for her being dry before 

 calving ; that is, one hundred and 

 twenty pounds in twenty weeks after 

 calving, and eighty pounds in the re- 

 mainder of the time till she goes dry ; 

 in all, about two hundred pounds in 

 the year. If she produces more, she 

 may be considered as a superior cow ; 

 if less, she is below par. To produce 

 this quantity the pasture must be 

 good, and we must allow three acres 

 to keep a cow in grass and hay for a 

 year, which is not very far from the 

 mark. 



An inferior kind of butter is made 

 in some cheese dairies from the oily 

 portion of the milk skimmed from the 

 whey, which is set in pans, like milk, 

 after the cheese has been made. It 

 is totally unfit for salting and keeping. 

 It is known by the name of whey but- 

 ter.— {W. C. Kham.) 



BUTTERFLY. Insects of the ge- 

 nus Papilio (Lin.) in the imago state. 

 Many of them are produced from the 

 caterpillars most injurious to culti- 

 vated plants and trees, as the goose- 

 berry and cabbage butterflies. 



BUTTERNUT. A tree of the wal- 

 nut genus, Jiiglans cinerca. It is dif- 

 fused throughout the United States. 

 The wood is of a reddish colour, 

 light, soft, but very durable, and not 

 liable to attacks from insects. It is 

 highly esteemed for turnings in the 

 Eastern States, and is abundantly 

 used for panelling for carriages, and 

 building generally. The inner bark 

 is cathartic, and a decoction is used 

 by housewives. 



BUTTERS, VEGETABLE. The 

 solid oils of the cocoa, nutmeg, pahn, 

 chocolate, &c., are so called. 



B U T T N -\\' O O D. False syca- 

 more. The Platanus occidenlalis, west- 



