BUTTEK. 291 



and press out the salt water. By carefully directing the 

 pressure to merely squeeze the butter the rounded grains 

 are pressed flat or lengthwise and intermingled with each 

 other so as to give the butter, under the microscope, a 

 fibrous appearance, much like that of lean meat, the 

 fibers passing in and out among each other, and having 

 a texture much like that of felt. It is this which gives 

 the irregular, waxy fracture to well made butter and 

 makes it solid and free from excessive moisture. To the 

 eye no water appears in butter so made, but when it is 

 newly cut minute drops of clear brine exude from the 

 fresh surface. When examined under a microscope of 

 two hundred diameter power the moisture is seen in very 

 small globules among the fibers, but no crystals of salt 

 are detected. This moisture amounts to about ten or 

 twelve per cent of the weight of the butter. As water 

 holds in solution a large quantity of salt, the ounce of 

 salt to the pound of butter which has been mixed absorbs 

 all the water from the butter and makes it really dry ; 

 the salt brine left after the working simply forming a 

 superficial coating over the fibers and protecting them 

 from the atmosphere and the consequent oxidation. The 

 antiseptic effect of salt is due to this absorption of water 

 from whatever substance it is brought into connection 

 with. Water is the most active agent of decomposition 

 and dry matter is indestructible by decay. It is quite a 

 mistake to suppose that animal fats are free from water, 

 and hence salt has no preservative influence upon them. 

 These fats contain a large proportion of water, and salt 

 abstracts the water from them and thus prevents de- 

 composition. Clear mess pork is all fat, and j^et it is 

 preserved by salting, and so butter in the same way is 

 preserved from rancidity, which is decomposition of the 

 oleine or soft oily part of it, by this action of the salt, 

 which is called antiseptic, or opposed to decay. 



Good butter is wholly spoiled by improper salting, 



