RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



many months without deterioration and would remain 

 firm for long shipment to warm climates. Butter, on 

 the other hand, would deteriorate with age and could 

 not be handled at all for a southern trade except in win- 

 ter. 



For many years the making of butter was limited al- 

 most entirely to the family supply and was confined to 

 the months of June and September. The butter from 

 the spring and early summer pasturage was esteemed 

 of especially fine flavor, while that of the cooler months 

 of the fall was thought to have better keeping qualities. 

 As the use of bacteria cultures had not been discovered, 

 their part in the production of fine flavor was not yet 

 recognized. When one considers the conditions of 

 barn and stable, the wonder grows that butter would 

 keep at all. One reason why good butter was made was 

 doubtless because during the butter-making season the 

 cattle were kept in the open practically the whole time. 

 Even the milking was done in the barnyard or in a small 

 enclosure in a corner of the pasture. Thus there was 

 little chance for contamination by undesirable forms of 

 bacteria, and the housewife had discovered the neces- 

 sity of scrupulous cleanliness in the case of all milk 

 utensils in order to make good butter. 



The milk was drawn into open wooden pails, strained 

 and set in wooden buckets or later in earthen crocks or 

 tin pans. Sometimes a spring house or milk room was 



