ANIMALS AND THEIR PRODUCTS. 137 



waste if all the salt used in a dairy were thus washed. 

 Now, with washed salt, let a lump of buttel* be salted ; 

 and let another, from the same churning, be salted 

 with some of the same salt unwashed. K the latter 

 have a bitter taste, from which the former is free, you 

 may conclude that the salt contains lime, or magnesia, 

 or more probably both ; and that the whole should be 

 washed, as above described, before being used for but- 

 ter, or else its place should be supplied by purer salt. 



247. Many a pasture has been blamed for producing 

 bitter weeds, when all the bitterness was in the salt. 

 The pasture was well enough, but the salt manufac- 

 turer could make half-purified salt cheaper than pure. 



248. We have said that all the buttermilk must be 

 worked out. This is true, but it is liable to be mis- 

 understood. What is buttermilk ? It is water, with 

 fine particles of curd, a very little oil, and a little milk- 

 sugar in it. The particles of curd give it a whitish 

 appearance. Now, the butter must be worked till this 

 whitish appearance has ceased, but not till the last 

 drop of liquid has left it. The best butter in the 

 world is full of fine particles of a transparent liquid. 

 It would not be best to work these out if 3^ou could, 

 for the butter would then become tough and waxy. 

 More butter is damaged by not working it enough, 

 but much is damaged by working it too much. The 

 dairy-woman should watch the complexion of what 

 flows from the butter as she works it. When this be- 

 comes perfectly transparent, limpid, like pure water, 

 with not the least whitish appearance, the operation 



