CHAP. v. COLOURING OF BUTTER. 



possible. A thin layer of salt should then be strewed on the bottom 

 of the cask, and each successive layer of the butter thoroughly moulded 

 into that beneath it. When the cask is full, more salt should be 

 strewed over it, and the head put on. If the butter has been previously 

 well freed from the milk, and the salt moulded into it quite dry, it will 

 not shrink in the cask. This is always regarded as one criterion of 

 the goodness of the butter. 



The best butter is that which is made during the season of fresh 

 grass ; but, with the addition of a certain portion (which experience 

 only can determine) of the juice expressed from the pulp of carrots, or 

 some ground annatto-root (Bixa Orellana), to the cream previously to 

 churning, winter-made butter will acquire the appearance, though not 

 the flavour, of that which has /been churned during the prime part of 

 the summer season. 



Upon the subject of colouring, Miss Maidment says, " If this must 

 be practised, aim at a natural colour and uniformity. The best 

 standard is the natural summer tint, and to maintain this, when the 

 butter would be otherwise pale, add such colour as will make good the 

 deficiency. The best preparation known to the writer is Nicholls's 

 Annatto, of which one drachm will colour from two to eight gallons of 

 cream, according to need. Whatever is used should be carefully 

 estimated and measured in a glass measure (one of two ounces divided 

 in drachms, and costing 9d.) and diluted with water (a pint is sufficient), 

 the water to rinse the measure added, and the whole thoroughly mixed 

 with the cream." 



The process of making butter by churning milk and cream together, 

 which was formerly much practised in Holland, is usually as follows : 

 The milk is put into deep jars in a cool place, each meal or portion 

 milked at one time being kept separate. As soon as there is the least 

 appearance of acidity, the whole is placed in an upright churn. When 

 the butter begins to form in small kernels, the contents of the churn 

 are emptied on a sieve that lets the butter-milk pass through. The 

 butter is then formed into a mass, as before described. 



In Ireland the process still is similar in some parts of the country, 

 but the milk is allowed to arrive at a greater degree of acidity. This 

 is a defect. 



The practice of making butter from lappered (i.e., coagulated) milk 

 is followed in Scotland. The milk is placed in a large barrel and left 

 for from two to three days till a sufficient degree of acidity is attained, 

 and then the whole milk is churned. Butter thus made has been very 

 successful in the butter classes at Scottish agricultural shows. 



Of the average quantity of butter produced from one cow, or from a 

 dairy of cows, it is impossible to give any accurate estimate. It would 

 vary with the breed, the pasture, arid the management. From 2| to 

 3| gallons 10 to 14 quarts will generally produce about a pound of 

 butter, and a good cow, in order that dairy husbandry may remunerate 

 the farmer, should yield 200 Ib. at the least, in the course of the year, 

 this being produced from 600 gallons of milk. A cow, including 

 pasture and hay, can scarcely be fully provided for from less than three 



