382 [Assembly 



There is slCll one little matter that requires more attention 

 than 1st, 2d or 3d milk, and without wliich butter cannot by any 

 chance be made fit to eat ; and that is cleanliness, which is in- 

 dispensable in the manufacture of butter ; it is absolutely neces- 

 sary that the dairy should be well aired, and located remote 

 from any cliance of bad odors, cream will absorb them at once, 

 and taint the butter with them. The taste of butter is unlike 

 that of any other fat substance, and is exceedingly^ agreeable 

 when the cows are fed upon proper food ; leguminous plants, 

 clovers, &c., will enable the cow to give milk yielding good 

 cheese; while cereal plants containing oily substances, will fa- 

 vor the production of butter. If the cow eats madder her milk 

 will be blood-red — and if she be fed upon saffron it will be yellow. 

 If attention is not paid while working butter, to extract all the 

 buttermilk, it will spoil in a very short time ; if the dairy maid 

 works it too much, it will become tough, resembling glue; and 

 if the cream is warmed before churning, not an uncommon prac- 

 tice, the butter has a tendency to become rancid. The cream 

 that is permitted to rise naturally, without artificial heat, will 

 make the best butter. If it is well made by an experienced per- 

 son, it will not adhere to the knife when cut. 



Butter may be coiisidered the oil of milk separated by agitation, 

 it is unlike animal fats, from the fact that it contains stearin and 

 olein, and in addition thereto butyric acid, to which butter owes 

 its agreeable flavor. 



An inferior butter is often made in cheese districts from whey, 

 separated from curd in manufacturing cheese ; as the pressing 

 operation is performed, the whey is collected, and allowed to 

 stand about thirty hours, when the scum thrown up is taken off 

 and churned. 



Butter is very extensively used not only as food, but in the 

 culinary art, in America, and the northern countries of Europe. 

 But in southern Europe, olive oil, and oils extracted from sundry 

 vegetables, take its place. In tropical climates, where the ther- 

 mometer ranges between 86° and 96°, butter melts, and conse- 

 quently, if eaten, it must be in the form of oil. In India, butter 

 is made from the milk of the buffalo, clarified and known by the 



