140 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
steam power may be easily attached, and though there have been many 
forms of churn in use, we are not certain that any very great improve- 
ment on the above form has so far been discovered. Plans have been 
adopted to diminish the labor, but this has often ended in defective 
operation. The American and the table churns, available for the ex- 
temporaneous manufacture of butter every morning for the tables of the 
rieh, are so far a step in advance, and a luxury ; but for the large opera- 
tions of the dairy-farmer, a better application than the churn of his fore- 
fathers has not yet been discovered. 
Some experienced dairy-men pretend that the butter is deteriorated 
by much washing, and therefore they express the buttermilk by simply 
beating the butter with the hand, kept cool by frequently dipping it in 
cold water, or with a moist cloth wrapped in the form of a ball, which 
soaks up all the buttermilk, and leaves the butter quite dry. This 
operation requires the greatest attention, especially in warm weather, 
and no person should work the butter who has not a cool hand. The 
less it is handled the better, and therefore a wooden spoon or spatula is 
much to be preferred. 
When it is entirely freed from the buttermilk, and of a proper con- 
sistency, it is divided into portions of the weight required, if it is in- 
tended to be sold fresh. But the greatest part of the butter that is 
made, especially at a distance from large towns, is immediately salted 
and put into casks, which usually contain fifty-six pounds, and are called 
firkins. The quality of the salt used is of great importance ; if it be 
pure, the butter will keep its flavor a long time ; but when it is impure, 
and contains bitter and deliquescent salts, the butter soon becomes 
rancid. The Dutch are very particular on this point. They use a kind 
of salt which is made by slow evaporation, and perfectly crystallized. 
The salt is intimately mixed with the butter. From three pounds to 
five pounds is sufficient for a firkin of fifty-six pounds.* The casks are 
made of clean white wood. They are carefully washed inside with 
strong brine made hot, and rubbed over with salt. The butter, being 
quite dry, is pressed close into the cask, a small layer of salt having 
been first put on the bottom. Every addition is carefully incorporated 
with the preceding portion. If there is not a sufficient quantity to 
fill the cask at once, the surface is made smooth, some salt is put over 
it, and a cloth is pressed close upon it to exclude the air. When the 
remainder is added, at the next churning, the cloth is taken off, and 
the salt, which had been put on the surface, is carefully removed with 
a spoon. The surface is dug into with a small wooden spade, and laid 
rough, and the newly-salted butter is added and incorporated complete- 
ly. This prevents a streak, which would otherwise appear at the place 
where the two portions joined. When the cask is full, some salt is put 
over it, and the head is put in. If the butter was well freed from all 
the buttermilk, and the salt mixed with it was quite dry, it will not 
shrink in the cask, and it will keep its flavor for a long time. Should 
* The follow' '.g mixture has been found superior to salt alone in curing butter — 
half an ounce if dry salt pounded fine, two drachms of sugar, and two drachms of 
saltpetre, for every pound of butter. 
