BUTTER. 307 



cles of perishable substances as to hasten their disorgan- 

 ization and decomposition on the occurrence of a higher 

 temperature. And once this higher temperature occurs, 

 the mischief is done, and cannot wholly be arrested by 

 restoring the former couditions. So tliat unless one is well 

 provided for maintaining a steady degree of low temper- 

 ature, it is better to avoid the use of ice altogether, and 

 trust solely to a deep> closed cellar, used only for this 

 storage. June butter is better adapted for long keeping 

 than that made at any other season, for its quality is of 

 the best, and its texture is firm and solid, and if it is 

 well packed in air-tight tubs, pails, or firkins, it may be 

 very well kept at the ordinary temperature of a fairly 

 good cellar or well-constructed spring-house. The pack- 

 ing, however, has much to do with the preservation of 

 the butter, for the air must be excluded so that its de- 

 composing effect is avoided and the evaporation of the 

 moisture in the butter is prevented. When the butter is 

 packed, the top may be covered with a sheet of paraffine 

 paper, and if the whole inside of the tub or firkin were 

 covered with it the air might be better excluded. The 

 butter should not come within a quarter of an inch of 

 the top edge of the package, and this space should be 

 filled with a mush of wet salt plastered evenly over it 

 and level with the edge. This will dry in a solid cake, 

 and if covered with parafiBne paper would be still more re- 

 sistant to the atmosphere. Packages so prepared may 

 be safely kept in a. good cellar. But it would be prefer- 

 able to prepare a cellar specially for this use. An excel- 

 lent one for this purpose will be a two-story cellar — so to 

 speak — or one that has a sub-cellar under it. These are 

 common in the Southern States, but are seldom seen in 

 the North, where, however, they would be equally useful, 

 for our summers attain as high a temperature sometimes 

 as those in the South. These cellars are made about 

 twelve to fifteen feet deep, are lined with brick or stone, 



