THE TASTE AND THE EYE. 359 



will keep it at a proper temperature when making, and 

 after it is made, by the judicious use of ice, and avoid 

 exposing it to the bad odors of a musty cellar. You 

 will discard the use of artificial coloring or flavoring mat- 

 ter, and take the utmost care in every process of mak- 

 ing. You will stamp your butter tastefully with some 

 mould which can be recognized in the market as yours ; 

 as, for instance, your initials, or some form or figure 

 which will most please the eye and the taste of the 

 customer. You will send it in boxes so perfectly pre- 

 pared and cleansed as to impart no taste of wood to the 

 butter. If all these things receive due attention, my 

 word for it, the initials or form which you adopt will 

 be inquired after, and you will always find a ready and 

 a willing purchaser at the highest market price. 



But, if you are differently situated, and it becomes 

 necessary to pack and sell as firkin-butter, let me sug- 

 gest the necessity of an equal degree of nicety and 

 care in preparation, and that you insist, as one of your 

 rights, that the article be packed in the best of oak- 

 wood firkins, thoroughly prepared after the manner of 

 the Dutch, as stated on page 325. A greater attention 

 to these points would make the butter thus packed 

 worth several cents a pound more when it arrives in 

 the market than it ordinarily is. Indeed, the manner 

 in which it not unfrequently comes to market is a dis- 

 grace to those who packed it; and it cannot be that 

 such specimens were ever put up by the hands of a 

 dairy-woman. I have often seen what was bought for 

 butter open so marbled, streaked, and rancid, that it was 

 scarcely fit to use on the wheels of a carriage. 



If you adopt the course which I have recommended 

 in regard to skimming, you will have a large quantity 

 of sweet skimmed milk, far better than it would be if 

 allowed to stand thirty-six or forty-eight hours, as is the 



