^98 THE dairyman's manual. 



the mistress could go about in it with the dainty satin 

 slippers of those days, and silk dress and lace cuffs, and 

 pet her favorite cows ; the milk-house of stone into 

 which a clear spring bubbled from its rocky course close 

 by, cold and clear in the hottest day ; the long pool 

 inside made of stone slabs, in which the bright red 

 earthen milk jars stood, covered with golden cream ; 

 the cool clean brick floor, over which a stray sunbeam 

 flickered as it escaped through the mass of ivy and roses 

 which festooned the barred window, so made to exclude 

 the cats and admit the cool night air, which came sweep- 

 ing over the green meadows and the waving rustling 

 trees ; and the long stone bench raised on brick piers, 

 which held the tubs of butter, packed for sale in the 

 fall, or the jars put down in golden June for the domestic 

 winter supply, and the great bowl filled with the newly 

 churned butter of which it was a grand luxury to steal 

 some to eat with a fresh biscuit. All. this, fixed like a 

 photograph on the mind, made a dairyman of the author, 

 and gave him the ambition to own at one time just such 

 a dairy with such a cold spring, and such a solid struct- 

 ure with so pure and sweet surroundings. For if -there 

 be a secret in making fine butter these comprise it. 



Cleanliness may be said to be entire absence of un- 

 necessary and inappropriate matter. Dirt, as anything 

 unclean is commonly termed, has been aptly described 

 as any matter that is out of plnce, and there are a great 

 many things connected with dairying which may be out 

 uf place. Some articles of food may be wrong ; sour 

 food is unclean, for instance ; an excess of any kind of 

 food may also be considered in the same light, because it 

 is essentially out of place in the cow's stomach, causing 

 disturbance of the digestive organs, and consequent im- 

 purity of the blood, and this injuriously affects the milk 

 and necessarily the butter. 



Impure water and foul air are 'also essentially unclean, 



