80 ILLINOIS dairymen's association. 



done in the churn, by stirring the salt in without the least bit of working. The 

 butter was taken from the churn in the granular form — Mr. Leslie said as fine 

 as mustard seed— and put directly into the package, where it was for the first 

 time pressed into a solid mass. All his butter was treated in this way. But, of 

 course, without a fine, even-grained, freely-dissolving salt, this would be 

 impossible. 



With a large dairy or a factory, this may seem to some to involve a good 

 deal of difficulty and labor. On the contrary, it saves both. Mr. Moran, of 

 Chicago, who runs a number of creameries in Iowa, told me he always salts his 

 butter without working, and packs it as soon as salted. He washes in brine and 

 in water at 48 degrees, I think he told me, takes the butter out of the churn on 

 to an inclined butter table, lets it properly drain, then sprinkles on the salt and 

 rakes it in with a common hay-rake. He finds this the most convenient and 

 effective tool he can get. He begins on the edge and carefully hauls a few 

 granules toward him a little, then takes a few more, and so on gently until the 

 whole is gone over with. It is next raked crosswise, and the raking is continued 

 until the salt is all dissolved. Of course, the moment the salt becomes brine, it 

 settles all through the mass and covers every granule. There is no other way 

 of possibly getting the salt so evenly distributed through the butter. It is then 

 ready for packing. But Mr. Moran has been in the habit of first pressing the 

 butter together into a solid mass. When I told him of Mr. Leslie's practice, he 

 said he thought the idea a good one, and that he would try packing the granu- 

 lated butter directly into the tub. 



But, as already indicated, this method of salting and packing butter will 

 not do with all kinds of salt ; yet it is the only method that leaves the texture 

 perfect and the butter in its best condition for all purposes. The salt should 

 have an even, natural grain, be perfectly and freely soluble, and free from all 

 deleterious ingredients. Undoubtedly "salt is salt" the world over ; but not 

 all salt has the same impurities, nor in the same proportions, nor is all salt in 

 the same condition. Hence there is wide difference in the different brands of 

 salt — wider than most people suppose, when we come right down to the manu- 

 facture of the best possible article of butter. 



Dairy salt should be free from mechanical impurities — such as black specks, 

 of which I have heard much complaint from users of American salt and pan- 

 scales, or flakes of sulphate of lime, which are found in some of the English 

 brands — in one, at least, often in great abundance. These get in from impurities 

 settling on the bottom and sides of the kettles or pans, in boiling, and then 

 scaling off in thin flakes. They are claimed by some to be perfectly harmless. 

 This might be if they remained in the scale form, when they would appear as 

 hard lumps in dairy goods— a thing not to be desired, to say the least; but when 

 they decompose, setting the sulphur and lime free, to remain so or to unite with 

 other elements and form other compounds, they are far from harmless. If 

 ground up with the salt, so they do not appear to the eye, as is the case where 

 the grain is secured by grinding, they are no better. This does not get rid of 

 them. On the contrary, it puts them into a more soluble form, so they sooner 

 dissolve to injure the flavor of the product. 



As to other specks and dirt in salt, they may come from careless manufac- 

 ture or careless handling. I have seen the best salt spoiled by lazy handling— 



