PRODUCTS OF THE DAIRY. 309 



few suggestions may serve at least to keep the subject before 

 the mind. 



In the first place, the farmer who would manage his dairy 

 with the intention of making the greatest profit from it, should 

 be very particular in the selection of his cows, as some cows 

 may yield a great quantity of milk, and still make less butter 

 and of poorer quality, than others that yield less milk, but of a 

 quality much better for butter. The food of cows when making 

 butter, has very much to do with the quality and quantity of 

 butter made. Bushes and wild grass make poor butter. 

 Upland pastures are to be preferred for a dairy. Cows should 

 have access to plenty of pure water and salt. There should be 

 a regular time of milking, and cows should be milked from day 

 to day, by the same person. Milk should be strained into pans 

 in very small quantities, as that conduces much to the short- 

 ness of time in gathering the cream, which is very essentilil. 

 The cellar or dairy room should be kept clean and well ven- 

 tilated. A dry cellar is to be preferred to one that is damp. 

 Milk should not be allowed to sour before removing the cream, 

 as cream taken from sour milk will not make sweet butter. 

 Cream should be kept in a cool place, and stirred often, as 

 mould is very liable to collect on it if this is not done, and when 

 this is the case the butter will not be so good. It is very 

 necessary that the cream should be of the right temperature 

 when put in the churn, — say about 58° Fah. in summer and 62° 

 in winter, — that the butter may be in a suitable state to be well 

 worked when taken from the churn. It should then be salted 

 and kept in a cool place from twelve to twenty-four hours ; then 

 it should be thoroughly^ worked and prepared for the table. It 

 is a fact well known to all dealers in table butter, that much of 

 the butter exposed for sale in the market, is injured very much 

 by containing too great a quantity of salt, and will not sell so 

 high as butter that is fresher. The objection is often made to 

 this plan, that butter will not keep unless it is made very salt, 

 and it is not uncommon to find butter in which the salt is much 

 more plainly tasted than the butter. Butter which has the 

 watery particles thoroughly worked out of it, can be preserved 

 for a long time with very little well pulverized salt, and it is 

 such butter which commands the highest price. 



