258 MAKING BUTTER. 



persuade dairy-women to follow them. It is quite an 

 object to make butter of the first quality, if we make 

 any, since the purchasers have begun to bid up hand- 

 somely for the best ; and the difference in the labor of 

 making the best and the poorest is so trifling that none 

 should think of making any of inferior quality. 



It should be remembered by all who make butter for 

 sale, that, for several years past, the best made, the 

 premium butter, has brought at auction more than 

 forty cents a pound, some of it forty-five, while 

 ordinary butter has not, in firkin, commanded half that 

 price. To lose one half of the proceeds of the dairy 

 merely for want of skill and care is rather more than 

 we can well aff'ord to do, and it is time to resolve not 

 to submit to this loss when we can avoid it. 



Much of the butter that is made for sale in sum- 

 mer is sent off" to market immediately, and before the 

 rancid matter, shut up in the lumps, has begun to fer- 

 ment and send forth its efiiuvia ; and, as most fresh- 

 made butter will, for a few days, taste sweet, the pur- 

 chaser makes but little difference in price ; and this is 

 the principal cause why so great a proportion of our 

 butter is carelessly made. It is hurried off to market, 

 and is not suffered to rest long enough to rot on our 

 hands. The old tune of "Robin's alive" is sung ; 

 " If it dies in my hands you may saddle-back me." 



To make butter that may be kept sweet through 

 the winter, we need not say the pails and the pans 

 must be perfectly clean. If cream is to be kept more 

 than three days before churning, it must be salted and 

 daily stirred. When the butter is formed and gathered, 

 the buttermilk should be all turned from the butter, 

 and a good quantity of pure cold water should be put 

 in the churn, and the whole should be agitated for 

 some minutes, that no buttermilk may lodge in the 

 cavities of the butter. 



We are well aware that some have fancied " we 

 wash away the goodness " when we churn the butter 



