SALT FOR DAIRY USE. 



27 



ON DAIRY SALT. 



The dairy business, a most important branch of our agricul- 

 tural industry, has attained of late such commanding propor- 

 tions, that the amount of salt required in its operations bids 

 fair to be counted henceforth by millions of bushels. The 

 peculiar nature of our dairy products calls for the best qualities 

 of ealfc in our markets. A good dairy salt ought to be of a 

 • neutral reaction and of a pure saline taste — free from pungent 

 after-taste ; it ought to be of a properly reduced granulated size, 

 free from any offensive odor, without any stain in color, and, 

 what is of not less importance, free from colored specks. The 

 better qualities of the English " common fine salt," for instance, 

 Ashton's brand, etc., were not many years ago almost exclu- 

 sively used by our dairymen. This practice, it appears, was not 

 a little favored by the fact that the exporters of provisions in 

 our seaport towns dealt also largely in foreign salt. Whatever we 

 may think at present about the past, we have to recognize the fact, 

 that the home manufacture of superior articles of salt has re- 

 ceived of later years considerable attention ; our salt manufac- 

 turers have taken advice, and numerous farmers' societies and 

 experienced dairymen assure us, that there is at present less cause 

 to believe in the assertion of bygone days, that nothing but 

 Ashton's, or English double refined salt, will make a good 

 butter. As a common fine or boiled salt is in every instance the 

 result of a more rapid evaporation, and thus most liable to be 

 affected in its desirable good composition by the retention of 

 impure mother liquors, washing processes have been devised, 

 by which our fine salt, designed for dairy purposes, is freed from 

 its obnoxious features. It was quite apparent that the presence- 



