ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 35 



apartment the temperature of whick rises above 60^ Fahrenheit, we do 

 not believe will keep butter well under any conditions. The past season has 

 been peculiarly unfavorable in respect to temperature. The heated term 

 was long and extreme. Most cellars showed a temperature from 65° to 

 70^, hence many parties who have heretofore succeeded in keeping butter 

 in their cellars, have failed this Jyear. On the authority of Mr. Reall, of 

 Philadelphia, a dirt or bank cellar cooled by the temperature of the sur- 

 rounding earth, is better than an apartment cooled by ice. A deep cellar 

 protected from the hot rays of the sun and remaining uniformly below the 

 temperature of 60'', sweet and properly ventilated, is without doubt one of 

 the very best places of storage for butter. 



2. The package : 



Butter, to remain sw^et, no matter what the temperature, must be pre- 

 served from contact with air. In mid-winter, even, butter exposed to the 

 air will soon become bad ; in summer this will occur in much less time. 

 The perfect butter package, therefore, will be air and water tight. The 

 butter must be immersed (surrounded) by very strong, pure brine— or pos- 

 sibly, as some recommend, by strong brine with a little saltpetre and refined 

 sugar added. It matters little what the shape, size or material of the pack- 

 age is provided this object is attained. As it was intimated at the begin- 

 ning of this paper, butter can only remain sweet, and must be expected to 

 loose a certain aroma and freshness of new butter. No long kept butter can 

 be expected to remain in the class of fancy butter. A fancy or expensive 

 package, therefore, is hardly in place in handling butter of this grade unless 

 it is really better than a cheaper one and is so accepted by the trade. I^ow 

 we know of no style of package so acceptable to the trade in butter, all 

 things considered, for accomplishing the end desired, than the old style oak 

 firkin. Properly prepared by soaking in hot brine, afterwards in cold, and 

 handled in the approved methods, we consider it quite as reliable as any 

 other, and decidedly cheaper than any other we know of. We express this 

 opinion with our present knowledge of the trials made in this direction. 



3. As to the contents :^ 



The first thing to be said under this head is that butter to keep must be 

 good butter— butter well handled from the milking to the packing— and 

 nothing but butter. It is well understood that rancidity comes from that in 

 the butter which is not butter— from the buteric acid which develops chem- 

 ically, and the development of which is greatly hastened by bad handling ; 

 by the presence of caseine, buttermilk, water or other foreign substance not 

 butter. We are inclined to think that the apparent quality of butter when 

 first made is not a sure indication of its keeping quality. A poorer butter 

 for present use seems sometimes to outkeep a better quality. The minutia 

 of different processes of making butter we can not dwell upon here, al- 

 though coming within the purview of this question. 



Possibly right here lies in large part the solution of this question. Rely- 

 ing upon authority we could recommend different modes of procedure as 

 the best, each condemning the other. This whole subject is still involved 



