KIND AND CONDITION OF SALT 277 



It will thus be seen that the property of water to take up 

 salt is seemingly lessened when the water is present in a state 

 of minute division, as it is in butter. In the first instance 

 quoted the butter completely dissolved about 2.7 per cent of pure 

 salt; and in the second instance it dissolved only about 2 per 

 cent during one hour. 



From the foregoing it is evident that where butter contains a 

 high per cent of salt, the salt is not thoroughly dissolved. 



Kind and Condition of Salt. Salt for butter should be fine 



FIG. 103. Volumes of the same weight of salt of various brands. 

 (Bui. 74, Wis.) 



and readily soluble, so that it will be completely dissolved -and 

 incorporated when the working of the butter is completed. But 

 fineness alone does not determine solubility; some salts that do 

 not seem very fine are quite readily soluble, because the crystals 

 are somewhat flat and flaky and dissolve quite quickly. Again, 

 good dairy salt is clean and white in appearance. When it is 

 dissolved in a cylinder of water there should be no settlings and 

 nothing left floating on the surface of the water. 



Some salt is chemically impure, one of the impurities being 

 magnesium chloride, which, when present to any extent, imparts 

 a bitter flavor to butter. Good butter salt is practically free 



