228 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



Where the butter is intended for family use, the 

 best way we know of keeping it sweet is to put it 

 down in stone crocks or jars which will hold from 

 thirty to forty pounds. The butter should be packed 

 close and solid, as directed for firkins, leaving a 

 space of one or two inches at the mouth unfilled. 

 Then make a strong brine, carefully boiling and 

 skimming it, and with this fill the jar. Place the 

 jars in a cool, sweet cellar; cover them xiarefuUy 

 and securely to prevent any dirt getting in ; examine 

 them occasionally to see that the butter is covered 

 with brine, and that the brine remains sweet and 

 good. If a scum rises on the brine, turn it off and 

 boil it, putting in salt if necessary, and skimming it 

 until it is perfectly pure, when it may again be pour- 

 ed on the butter. Butter in this way has been kept 

 nearly two years perfectly sweet and good ; indeed, 

 where coolness is desirable, nothing is better adapt- 

 ed to promote it than stone. A few years since, a 

 friend of ours, for an experiment, filled a small fir- 

 kin with butter in June, headed it up tight and threw 

 it into his well, where it remained till November ; 

 and, when taken out, it was as sweet and fresh in 

 taste as when put in. Perhaps, where the means 

 exist of forming a vat in the dairy-house, and of 

 throwing into it a stream of cold spring-water, this 

 method of keeping butter might be advantageously 

 adopted, as the water could not come in contact 

 with the butter, while it would, at the same time, 

 keep it cool and exclude the air. 



Where the making of butter is the great object of 

 the dairyman, it is necessary to understand working 

 the whole of the milk, as in that way alone can the 

 greatest quantity and best quality of butter be com- 

 bined. The whole of the milk must be churned, or 

 the whole of the butter will not be obtained. This 

 process, we have reason to believe, is very imper- 

 fectly understood, and our object is to lay before our 

 readers such practical information as may be neces- 



