Mould in Butter Casks. 



385 



able concerning the area which is not returned as agricultural 

 land, and there is no precise knowledge as to its condition, 

 whether virgin and valuable forest growth or useless brush, 

 or whether it is waste but open country. In 1893, however,, 

 an estimate was made by the Department of Agriculture,, 

 which indicated that 350 million acres of the total area of the 

 United States were farm lands, more than two-thirds of which 

 were hewn out of the forest ; that the productive area of 

 forest growth, by no means all virgin, fell somewhat below 

 500 million acres ; that nearly 450 million acres were open 

 country, presumably incapable of producing any valuable 

 forest growth on account of climatic deficiencies ; leaving 

 a balance of 600 million acres as brush and waste land., 

 of which at least three-fourths have been made so by the 

 combined efforts of axe and fire. 



Mould in Butter Casks. 



Owing to complaints of the presence of mould in butter 

 casks, the Finnish Department of Agriculture has recently 

 undertaken an investigation on the origin of such mould. It 

 has been generally supposed that it was due to the use of 

 inferior materials for the casks, too thin parchment paper,, 

 and a too prolonged steeping in water of the casks prior to 

 the butter being put in them. But the results of the inquiry 

 indicate that neither of these practices nor the fact of a cask 

 remaining too long on one bottom have anything to do with 

 the formation of mould. They may perhaps to some extent, 

 advance the moulding, but it seems certain that the mould 

 itself is due to infection. 



Mould germs may, of course, locate themselves on the out- 

 side as well as the inside of the cask, both on and between 

 the staves, and it seems probable that mould infection of the 

 cask may as often occur at the place of production itself as 

 in cellars and warehouses. Mould germs may no doubt also be 

 found in the parchment paper. Indeed, the experiments have 

 proved that the cask and the paper themselves are capable of 



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