206 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



the first is the action of salt, and the second that of the 

 pyroligneous acid, which' is furnished by combustion, and 

 which constitutes by far the greater part of smoke : this 

 acid, as I have found by repeated experiments, penetrates 

 the meat and preserves it from putrefaction, but when em- 

 ployed alone, the meat becomes hard, and acquires a disa- 

 greeable blackish hue. 



Animal substances, by being immersed in a weak acid, 

 or in water acidulated with sulphuric acid, may be preserved 

 a long time without undergoing putrefaction, but this process 

 is not applicable to such as are designed for food. 



Other salts may be employed as substitutes for marine 

 salt ; but besides being more costly, they are either injurious 

 to the health, or give to the meat a disagreeable taste, of 

 which it cannot be entirely deprived. 



Butter is a valuable article of food, and forms a great re- 

 source for the inhabitants of the country ; but in those re- 

 gions where the extent and fertility of the pasture lands per- 

 mits great numbers of horned cattle to be raised, it is im- 

 possible for them to consume all the butter they make, whilst 

 it is fresh ; and besides, as the quantity of butter made is 

 not the same at all seasons of the year, it is necessary that 

 some means should be resorted to of preserving it from be- 

 coming rancid, and this is done by salting it. 



The choice of a kind of salt suitable for preserving but- 

 ter is not a matter of less importance, than when it is used 

 for salting meat. Only such should be used as has, by long 

 exposure upon the edges of the salt-pans, lost all the deli- 

 quescent salts which combined with it; salt in this state -is 

 drier and purer, than the new salts extracted by evaporation 

 from sea-water, and has neither the sharpness nor the bit- 

 terness which characterize these. But whatever salt is 

 used, it is advisable that it be whitened and purified by the 

 process commonly made use of in our kitchens ; it must be 

 dried in an oven, and afterwards pounded in a marble or 

 wooden mortar. 



Nothing more is requisite in salting butter, than to work 

 it well, so that the salt may be equally distributed, and then 

 to put it down in clean and dry stone jars. If it should be 

 perceived, seven or eight days after, that the butter has 

 shrunk so as to leave a vacancy around the sides of the 

 pot, a brine must be prepared by saturating hot water with 

 pure salt, and this when cold must be turned gradually 

 upon the butter till every part of it is well covered : the 



