238 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



appropriate tests, showing contaminations of 

 two or more of the following articles, viz. ep- 

 som and glaubers salt, sulphate of lime, and 

 the chlorides of calcium and magnesium — 

 precisely such ingredients as a chemist would 

 prescribe with which to make hitter butter. 



Very recently, at our suggestion, a friend 

 has subjected to chemical examination every 

 variety of salt to be found in this market. 

 Among the six or eight varieties examined, 

 that from Syracuse, called dairy salt, was the 

 most impure, while the purest variety was that 

 from St. Martin's, as prepared and ground by 

 Messrs. Sweet & Angell. 



The term "rock salt," though erroneously 

 applied, is meant, in this vicinity, to designate 

 the clean, coarsely crystallized article, produced 

 by solar evaporation, and imported from the 

 West India Islands. The very best samples 

 of this salt are always procured by our most 

 skilful butter makers, by whom it is carefully 

 washed, dried and pounded or ground very 

 fine. If carefully selected and thus prepared, 

 it is generally sufficiently pure for the purpose. 

 If any doubt of its purity exist, it may be de- 

 termined by the following process. If distilled 

 water cannot easily be procured, collect some 

 rain water as it falls, in a clean earthen pan, 

 (not from the roof,) and in it dissolve a portion 

 of the salt. ■ Take half a gill of the solution 

 and add to it three or four tea-spoonfuls of a 

 solution of carbonate of soda, and boil in a 

 glass dish or a well tinned vessel a few moments, 

 then pour into a tumbler. If the solution 

 become milky, and a white sediment form, the 

 presence of lime or magnesia, or both, is cer- 

 tain. Into a wine glass of another portion of 

 the solution, put drop by drop, a solution of 

 chloride of barium, and if the liquid become 

 milky and a white precipitate form, the presence 

 of sulphuric acid is certain. Salt upon which 

 these tests produce these effects is unfit for 

 butter making. If, however, the solutions 

 show only a very slight milky tinge, as when 

 a drop of milk is added to a wine glass of 

 water, the foreign contaminations are not in 

 such quantity as to materially injure the salt. 

 These tests are easily applied, inexpensive, and 

 sufficiently decisive for practical purposes. The 

 carbonate of soda and chloride of barium can 

 be procured of any scientific apothecary. 



We commend the essay alluded to above to 

 those who are engaged in butter making. Co- 

 pies can be obtained of the Secretary of the 

 Rhode Island Society for the Encouragement 

 of Domestic Industry. 



Fraud in Butter Making. — The recent 

 exposures that have been made of the adulte- 

 ration and manufacture of milk in New York, 



are so disgusting in their details, that we should 

 suppose an inhabitant of that city could hardly 

 look at a milk pot without a sensation of nausea. 

 It would seem, from the following article, that 

 similar practices are resorted to in the making 

 of butter, but we defy the most ingenious ras- 

 cality to make, of whatever materials, a worse 

 article than is now often sold in the market : 



" The Boston Herald, in an article on this 

 subject, says unprincipled speculators have 

 been, and are still at work adulterating butter 

 prepared for the market — though the blame is 

 generally thrown on the dairies. From evi- 

 dence that has come to our knowledge, says 

 the Boston Herald, we are persuaded that this 

 adulteration is extensively practised. A cor- 

 respondent who has purchased and tested the 

 base article, writes as follows : 'A new fraud 

 appears to have been discovered in butter mak- 

 ing. The fraud is this: The butter maker 

 adds a substance which appears to be of a ve- 

 getable nature to the real butter. A dealer, of 

 whom I purchased a few lumps, told me that 

 the express-man who delivered the butter to 

 him from Greenfield, acknowledged that when, 

 they churn the cream, it is now an almost uni- 

 versal custom to put rennet into the butter- 

 milk, to turn it to a cheese, and so work it with 

 the butter for market, increasing the quantity 

 about thirty per cent. I discovered the fraud 

 by melting the butter in the oven, and found 

 that a substance equal to one-third the original 

 weight was left. The person of whom I pur- 

 chased the butter says that this fraud is very 

 extensively practised, especially for the New 

 York market.'" 



COCHIN CHINAS— A LONDON STORY. 

 " Rara avis in terris." 



" Oh, Willie, dear, before you go, I want a 

 favor !" 



"Well, what is it now?" said Willie, in a 

 gruff, good tempered sort of way, as if he was 

 rather used to hearing of these "favors." — 

 Willie was an officier de dragons, six foot three, 

 with a great yellow, well twisted moustache, 

 and looking altogether just what he was — "a 

 swell," and a gentleman. 



"What is it now?" asked Willie. 



" Oh, please then, don't be angry, but I've 

 heard so much about them — and before you 

 leave town, I should like it so much— you can 

 get them in town, I know; and I only want 

 one, just one, you know?" 



" No, I don't know, you know — come, out 

 with it, Polly — what is it?" 



" Well, then — here whisper — I want a Co- 

 chin China, please, sir." 



