BUTTER. 



297 



because they have not learned the secret. Professor 

 Sheldon, the English dairy expert, gives the following 



pertinent example : , -. n u i.^ 



"Some years ago we knew a widow lady whose butter, 

 especially with respect to -flavor, was of a very superior 

 kind ; we asked her what her secret was, for we had 

 never tasted such butter at a farm house. 'I have no 

 secret,' she said, ^beyond this. I am always very par- 

 ticular about keeping thoroughly clean every vessel with 

 which the milk and cream come in contact. I frequent- 

 ly have them scalded with boiling water, scrubbed with a 

 hard brush, and well rinsed in clear, cold water, and I 

 am also careful to keep the milk-room clean and dry, and 

 well supplied with fresh air. I am not aware that I have 

 any secret beyond this ; in fact, there is no secret m the 



matter. '" . 



Many so-called -experts" in dairying, but whose in- 

 formation is gained from theories and not from practice, 

 claim to know a secret or two. Some say brme salting 

 is the secret; others, granular butter; others, again, say 

 ripenino- of the cream is the one thing needful, while 

 some interested persons will say that Jersey cows, or 

 Holstein-Friesians, or Guernseys, must be kept, or there 

 can be no fine butter made ; forgetting that brme saltmg 

 and granular butter are not new by any means, but as 

 oil as our grandmothers, who "ripened" their cream 

 too by simply keeping it until it became slightly acid 

 (the modern ripening), and there was as good butter 

 made by these excellent old ladies as by any modern 

 dairyman, or professor or expert in the dairy art. 



The anthor can never forget the excellent butter made 

 by his mother fifty years ago— the sweetest, most fragrant 

 and well-flavored ever tasted— and can never dissociate 

 * it from her exquisitely neat and clean management ; the 

 sleek clean Ayrshire cows ; the sweet green clover ; the 

 old brick stable with smooth stone floor, so clean that 



