THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



237 



son, Dr. Lee and many others of the best sci- 

 entific writers on agriculture Lave long been 

 groping in " pitchy darkness" in this particular 

 matter. 



From the Providence Journal. 

 RANCID BUTTER. 



BY OWEN MASON. 



"A French scientific journal states that it 

 has been ascertained by frequent experiments 

 that the bad smell and taste of butter may be 

 entirely removed by working it over in water 

 mixed with chloride of lime. The discovery 

 was made by a Brussels farmer, whose practice 

 is to take a sufficient quantity of pure cold 

 water to work it in, and put into it from twen- 

 ty-five to thirty drops of chloride of lime for 

 every ten pounds of butter. When it has 

 been worked until the whole has been brought 

 in contact with the water, it should be worked 

 again in pure water, when it will be found to 

 be as sweet as when originally made. The 

 experiment can easily be tried, and we commend 

 it to our citizens who are driven to the neces- 

 sity of buying rancid butter, or of using none. 



Another effectual mode of renovating butter 

 is said to be, to churn it over with milk until 

 the old salt and bad taste are all removed, and 

 then work it over and salt it afresh. We find 

 the above in the Syracuse Star, and think it 

 may be worth a trial." 



The above article has been extensively co- 

 pied into agricultural as well as political news- 

 papers. We have tried both of the methods 

 described, as well as some of our own, and 

 have found them all utterly ineffectual for the 

 renovation of butter that has once become 

 rancid. The best disposition to be made of 

 such butter is to put it into the receptacle for 

 soap grease. Anything so offensive, to all but 

 those of the coarsest taste, must be unwhole- 

 some. 



Pure butter, that is salted with pure salt, 

 may be kept for years without becoming rancid ; 

 this we know to be a fact, and butter makers 

 would do well to inform themselves of all the 

 causes productive of rancidity, or any other 

 quality that interferes with its preservation or 

 injures its flavor and relish. 



In an editorial article of the Journal, some 

 weeks since, almost all the poor butter was 

 charged to the want of skill or attention on the 

 part of the dairy women. A correspondent, 

 whose communication is rather too long for 

 publication, comes up to the defence of this 

 useful class of the community, and attributes 



nearly all the poor butter to the neglect of 

 farmers in providing suitable places for the 

 keeping of milk and butter. A short essay, 

 by one of the best judges in the State, was 

 published in the transactions of the Rhode 

 Island Society for Encouragement of Domestic 

 Industry, and in pamphlets for general distri- 

 bution, in which the author, while he does not 

 overlook the circumstances influencing the qua- 

 lity of butter noticed by the Journal and its 

 correspondent, points out several others, and 

 very comprehensively the means of avoiding 

 them. 



That writer considers that the use of impure 

 salt, from Liverpool and Onondaga, is one of 

 the most common causes of that rancidity and 

 bitterness that characterize, in a greater or less 

 degree, by far the greatest portion of the but- 

 ter brought hither from New York. 



That the quality of butter made in New 

 York has constantly deteriorated, from what- 

 ever cause, we think is undeniable. Time was 

 when there was no difficulty in procuring a 

 prime article, and "Goshen butter" had a re- 

 putation equal to the best products of our own 

 dairies; but of the butter for winter use, sold 

 in this market during the past two years, three- 

 fiths would be branded as grease in England, 

 and it deserves no better name any where. 



The exorbitant prices it has commanded 

 for some time past seems to have produced a 

 perfect recklessness in regard to its quality, 

 both on the part of the makers of it and the 

 large dealers, and the market has at length be- 

 come glutted with the execrable stuff. We 

 wish no greater punishment to them than that 

 they should be compelled to eat the article 

 with which they hoped to grease the throats of 

 their customers at the rate of thirty cents per 

 pound. Good butter is both a necessary and 

 a luxury, and it constitutes a most important 

 item in the disposable products of the farm ; 

 the whole community are therefore interested 

 in having all the causes investigated and ex- 

 posed which contribute to the deterioration of 

 its quality, and the authorities of New York 

 are specially interested in ascertaining what 

 portion of the mass of bad butter, sent from 

 that State, is fairly attributable to the employ- 

 ment of impure salt. We have seen many 

 analyses of the New York salt, some purport- 

 ing to have been made by authority, and all 

 representing it of the purest kind. That the 

 purest salt may be made from the brine springs 

 of Onondaga there is no doubt, and yet it is 

 difficult to find commercial samples, even qf 

 that which is sold under the name of " dairy 

 salt," in which the presence of lime, magnesia, 

 and sulphuric acid may not be detected by the 



