284 THE ox. 



butter, the latter is put in jars or casks. The casks should 

 be of lime-tree, or other hard wood, carefully seasoned by 

 being boiled for several hours before being formed into casks, 

 and afterwards by being exposed to the air, and well soaked 

 in cold water or brine previous to use. The cask being rub- 

 bed in the inside with salt, the butter is pressed into it, and 

 in seven or eight days a quantity of melted butter, or a satu- 

 rated solution of salt and water, may be poured in to fill up 

 any vacuity between the butter and the wood ; and the whole 

 being then covered with a layer of salt, the top of the vessel 

 is put on. With the salt employed in curing may be mixed 

 a proportion of purified nitrate of potash, and sometimes a 

 quantity of sugar, which preserves the butter without com- 

 municating a saline taste. 



The other method practised consists in churning the milk 

 and cream together. In this case the milk, as it is brought 

 from the cows, is put into the cooling vessels, as before, in 

 order that it may cool down quickly to the temperature of 

 the milk-house. When this has taken place, or even with- 

 out the preliminary cooling, the whole milk is emptied into 

 a barrel, where it remains until it becomes acid and coagu- 

 lates. This will take place in a week or less, according to 

 the temperature of the air. It is then put into the churn, 

 and gently churned for a few seconds, so as to break the 

 coagulum, and mix its parts ; and then a little hot water is 

 added, so as to raise the temperature to 70 or 75. The addi- 

 tion of hot water is not necessary, but it saves labour by 

 causing the butter to separate more readily. The process of 

 churning is more laborious than when the cream alone is 

 used ; and therefore machinery should be employed to move 

 the churn. In the larger dairies the churn may be made to 

 contain sixty or seventy gallons or more, and this quantity 

 of milk may, by means of a small pony or slight water-power, 

 be churned in an hour and a half. 



When the cream alone has been used in churning, the re- 

 siduum, after removal of the cream, is skimmilk. This sub- 



