BUTTER. 23 1 



washing should be continued no longer than lo free 

 the butter from the milk ; keeping it in the water 

 for a length of time has a tendency to injure its fla- 

 vour.* 



Quest. 5th. What kind of salt do you prefer, and 

 what is the average quantity used per pound of but- 

 ter ? 



We prefer the Liverpool sack-salt to any with 

 which we are acquainted, and use less than an 

 ounce to the pound. When butter comes soft, it 

 requires a greater quantity tJiau in cool weather, as 

 ihe salt in such a case will work out more. In no 

 case, however, do we use an ounce to the pound of 

 butter. We use no saltpetre. f 



* Since receiving this communication from Mr. Gilbert, we 

 have had tiie pleas\ire of a conversation with A. Wilkins, Esq., 

 now a resident of Onondaga county, but formerly of Orange, 

 and extensively engaged in the making of butter, who fully cor- 

 roborates the opinions advanced by Mr Gilbert as to the advan- 

 tage of washing butter when first churned. In the great butter- 

 dairies of Orange, and they are exceeded by none in the United 

 Slates, there exis:s scarcely a difference of opmion as to the 

 absolute necessity of washing bu ter in order to produce an ar- 

 ticle of the first quality. Pure, cold, hard water is considered i;i 

 the Orange county dairies a sine qua nun, and the idea that such 

 washing injures the fl.Hvour of the butter, as has been maintain- 

 ed by some, is viewed by them as quite ridiculous. In the Or- 

 ange dairies, the practice of souring the milk is universally 

 practised ; and, in the language of Mr. Wilkins, " milk should 

 jn all cases become sour, and, if convenient, thick, before churn- 

 ing." 



t We are convinced that the excellence of butter depends much 

 on the quality of the salt used. In Western New. York, most of 

 the butter is salted with the common Onondaga salt made by 

 boiling, and which, though sutficiently pure for all ordinary pur- 

 poses, is not entirely free from substances that are improper 

 where perfect purity is required. It is, besides, too coarse in 

 the g.rain to be adapted to salting.butter; the finer the salt is for 

 this purpose, the belter, and it is this which renders the Liver- 

 pool sack salt preferable to ours. There can be no doubt that 

 the Onondaga salt made by evaporation, and ground fine, any 

 quantity of which may be readily obtained at Syracuse, and, we 

 presume, in most of our villages, is fully equal for butter or 

 cheese to the best imported salt, and we trust its use will soon 



