PRODUCTION OF BUTTER AND CHEESE. 297 



working to free it from the butter-milk ; the importance of doing this is well understood. A 

 reference to the composition of milk, which I have given in the first volume, will show that 

 sugar and casein are present in milk, and as butter-milk contains both, unless indeed the sugar 

 is all consumed in forming lactic acid, etc. (which imparts the peculiar sourness to milk,) so, 

 unless they are removed by working, rancidity will occur very early in the mass, and it will 

 be impossible to preserve it in its original sweet condition. Those, then, are some of the con- 

 ditions which should be attended to in making sweet butter. 



I have omitted a very important matter, the salt which is to be employed for this purpose. 

 It is necessary that salt should be free from impurities. Let any one take a few quarts of the 

 common Turks-island salt, and wash it with water, it will discolor the water and become quite 

 dirty, and at the same time it may have acquired a bitterish taste, from the chloride of magnesia 

 and other bitter salts, which are frequently present. By washing the salt in a small quantity 

 of water, and giving the remainder an opportunity to dry in a thin suspended bag, is an admi- 

 rable mode of obtaining good salt from most of the kinds in market. 



The milk which is best for butter making, and indeed for cheese also, is that which is milked 

 last from the cow. This is very well understood by our milk-men, who furnish families in cities. 

 Their practice is to put all the first milkings into their cans for sale, and keep the last for them- 

 selves, for making butter. They are sometimes, perhaps, on this account, charged with watering 

 their milk. It is possible there are instances where both practices are common. Another mode 

 of increasing the quantity of milk is to feed the animals on brewer's grains. Instances are com- 

 mon, where this feeding is carried to a considerable extent, where the cow becomes diseased 

 or lame and feverish : this watery milk is one of the results. It is too bad to water, still farther, 

 milk of this kind : and yet it may be said, perhaps, the less we get of it, and the more water 

 it contains, the better for our health. The richness of milk depends upon the quantity of butter 

 which can be made from it ; thus, a cow which yields milk, nine quarts of which will make one 

 pound of butter, has a richer milk than one which requires twelve quarts to make the same 

 amount. It is not the casein, then, which imparts the desirable quality to milk, but the oils, or 

 fatty matter. The milk which is intended for cheese may be less rich, or the cows may be 

 pastured on poorer land, and where they will be obliged to take more exercise in procuring 

 their food. Most of the cheese of this country has been made by guess, and yet there are 

 many excellent dairies, and much good cheese made. 



To make good cheese certain preliminary points should be attended to. 1. Keep none but 

 quiet cows, and those which are milked easily. 2. The milk should be received into sweet, 

 dry pails, and strained as soon as possible after milking. A strainer should be fixed upon a 

 ladder laid across the tub into which the milk may flow as it passes through the strainer, which 

 should also be perfectly free from sourness and all impurities. In small dairies where only one 

 cheese is made daily, the milk usually stands over night, and is skimmed in the morning : the 

 morning's milk is afterwards added. The milk should now be set for the cheese. The first 

 step to be taken is to raise the temperature of the milk to 85° Fah. ; if it is raised to 90° it 

 may be too hard. If it is to be transported to a distance, it is safer to raise to 88° and per- 

 [Ageicultural Keport — Vol. hi.] 38 



