Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 307 
side which is out of sight. Immediately above the pediment 
is a channel which receives the expressed water or butter-milk, 
and carries it off by means of a pipe shown at the right-hand 
side of the engraving. The table itself is surrounded by an 
outside protecting rim. When in action, the table revolves 
towards the slightly bevelled cog-roller, which itself turns towards 
the table, and thus the butter is drawn between the two and the 
butter-milk squeezed out. The bevelled cog-roller is faced at 
each end by curved shields, which prevent the butter from 
clogging it at either end ; and it is surmounted by a water-jet, 
which can be turned on or off as required. There are also 
arrangements for bringing the roller closer down to the table, or 
raising it higher up, according to the greater or less pressure 
which it is desirable to exert upon the butter. Some tables are 
furnished with an index which registers the revolutions made 
in the course of the day, and thus acts as a check upon the 
workpeople. A machine of this kind Messrs. Bretel Brothers, 
at Valognes, was said to be capable of working, washing, and 
salting from 10 to 12 tons of butter per diem, requiring an in- 
dicated power of 3 horses by the 6-horse nominal fixed steam 
engine, which, however, is capable of being worked up to 
12-horse power without difficulty. Such a butter-working 
machine, about 7 feet 3 inches in diameter, costs in France 
about 200/., but smaller machines can be purchased at a some- 
what reduced cost. 
The best butter destined for exportation to England is not 
actually salted, but for the final washing a strong solution of 
salt is used in place of pure water. Ordinary butter is salted 
by the admixture of from 3 to 5 per cent, of its weight of 
salt if for consumption in England, and as much as from 8 
to 10 per cent, if intended for the Brazilian market. The fact 
is that French butter of ordinary qualities receives so much 
battering after it is made that whatever strength of grain it 
may have originally possessed is utterly destroyed. The article 
as " made up " by the butter-merchants is excellent for imme- 
diate consumption, but it will not keep very long without the 
addition of a large quantity of salt. Then the butter-merchants 
are less economical about the percentage of salt than they other- 
wise would be, because they receive a " drawback " upon the duty 
which they had previously paid on the quantity used. 
Recently the French butter-merchants who export to Brazil 
have found the competition of the Danish tinned butter so 
severe that they have begun to copy their rivals. At one factory 
near Carentan (entirely devoted to this trade), Messrs. Denant 
and Co., of Periers, employ no less than 200 persons in making, 
filling, and packing the tins for exportation to tropical climates, 
X 2 
