JBFTTEE. 295 



thing and should never be used, hence the advantage of 

 such packages as may be given to the purchasers. 



In packing pails of this size some precautions are ad- 

 visable. The pails should be soaked in salt water the 

 night before they are used. When the butter is ready 

 for packing the pail is rinsed out with boiling water, 

 which stands in it a minute or two, and then with clear 

 cold water ; after this the butter is packed at once. A 

 small quantity is pressed down firmly in the bottom, and 

 no more is put in at once than can be packed so closely 

 as to exclude the air and squeeze out any moisture which 

 may be in it. When the pail is full to the edge, a sheet of 

 paraffine^ paper is pressed over it and the cover is put on 

 and nailed down. Larger pails, tubs, or firkins are packed 

 in the same way. If the packing is carefully performed 

 the butter will improve in flavor by keeping. The slow, 

 gradual ripening process of butter is akin to that which 

 goes on in cheese or in wines and also in fruit. It is an 

 intrinsic change of the elements by chemical decompo- 

 sition and the formation of new compounds. New but- 

 ter is no more perfect than is new cheese or new wine. 

 Certain acids are produced in the butter by the slow de- 

 composition of the oleiue, as they are in cheese by the 

 slow decomposition of the caseine. The popular idea of 

 decomposition is that it is decay, rottenness, and putrid- 

 ity. To the chemist it is something entirely different. • 

 The most delicious odors and flavors are produced by 

 the decomposition of alcohol, and the flavoring extracts 

 and many perfumes are thus produced. The ripening 

 of fruits is a process of decomposition, and so is the 

 ripening of butter and cheese, and the exquisite bouquet 

 of the finest wines. But bad butter or bad cheese, and 

 the vin ordinaire of the common kinds, do not contain 

 the pure elements which produce fragrance and exquisite 

 flavor, but their impurities produce the most disagree- 

 able results. Hence the dairyman who can turn out per- 



