152 " AsSEMBLl 



flavor of butter which results from melting. If the latter be adopted, 

 the washing must be continued until the curd is thoroughly removed, 

 the particles of which are very putrescible, and if permitted to re- 

 main will prove very injurious. The water should always be expressed 

 to the greatest possible extent, before salting. It is the opinion of 

 some, that the oxygen of the water, uniting with the oil, forms that 

 peculiar acid which causes the butter to become rancid. If this be 

 so, it must be owing to its excess, since during the operation of churn- 

 ing, oxygen is always absorbed. 



We are assured by an agricultural gentleman of great experience, 

 that the best method known to him for removing the curd, is to mix 

 with the butter when removed from the chum, sugar and salt, say two 

 table spoons full of salt, and one ounce of clean sugar, to twelve 

 pounds of butter. This mixture seems to dissolve the curd, and by 

 working thoroughly, it can be disengaged to any desired extent, and 

 the flavor of the butter is improved. 



The Dutch salted butter from Holland, of which vast quantities 

 have been exported to England and various parts of the world, has 

 sustained an undeviating reputation for a long period of years, and at 

 this day, probably, is as good for exportation and use as any that can 

 be found. It owes its reputation, we understand, more to thorough 

 purification and cleanliness, than to any other cause. Butter made in 

 hot countries is generally liquid. In India it is prepared from the 

 milk of Buffaloes, and called ghee. 



" The Arabs are said to be the greatest consumers of butter in the 

 world. It is a common practice for them to drink every morning a 

 coffee cup full of melted butter or ghee. The poorest individuals 

 will expend half their daily income to procure it." [Travels in Arabia. 



m 



The price of butter, with the exception of occasional years of 

 scarcity, has been slowly advancing. Mr. M'Culloch furnishes tables 

 of the contract prices paid for butter at the Greenwich Hospital, 

 vrhere sound merchantable butter is required, for a period of 102 

 years, from 1730 to 1832, from which we make the following sum- 

 mary : 



