128 CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING 



butter for water; but it should be remembered 

 that the perpetrators of a fraud of this character 

 often defeat their own object, inasmuch as butter 

 of high quality cannot be produced, nor will it 

 keep if the water is excessive. Excessive 

 salting is equally deleterious to the quality ; a 

 minute proportion of salt improves the flavour 

 common to butter, but a large quantity masks 

 it, at the same time adding to the weight. We 

 have remarked that there should be no other 

 material in butter than fat, water, and salt. 

 In practice, however, it is next to impossible to 

 remove either the whole of the sugar, or the 

 casein or curdy matter ; and this being the case, 

 in the course of time and it depends entirely 

 upon the proportion of caseous matter left in the 

 butter a sample becomes rancid and unfit either 

 for sale or consumption. The prime object, 

 therefore, under the British system of butter- 

 making is to produce as large a quantity of 

 butter of the finest flavour as possible, re- 

 ducing the moisture and the extraneous curdy 

 matter and sugar to the lowest possible pro- 

 portions. In the first place, then, in order to 

 produce quantity it is necessary to use the cream 



