THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
AU8. 4 
74 
PRESERVING BUTTER FOR WINTER USE. 
Several inquiries have reached ns from va¬ 
rious parts of the country with regard to the best 
mouths for putting up butter for winter use, and 
also as to the best methods of working, packing 
and storing it so that it may suffer the least de¬ 
terioration. 
There are in Europe and this country upwards 
of a half-dozen special systems of preserving 
butter for months, or even years, known chiefly 
by the names of those who have either advocated 
their merits or invented them. The use of either 
of those by the publio at large, however, would 
bo in the nature of an experiment, whereas, it is 
our wish, hero, to describe a method of keeping 
butter, which has boon already widely practised 
in different parts of the country, and has never 
failed to prove successful, except where some one 
or more of the needful precautions were over¬ 
looked or neglected. 
There are several minor points connected with 
the practice which vary, and each practitioner is 
apt to insist on the absoluto necessity of the pre¬ 
cise formula which he has himself successfully 
followed ; but the fact that butter has been kept 
sweet and nutty when either of these minor di¬ 
rections has been observed, is ample proof that 
the adoption of any special one of them is a mat- 
tor of littlo consequence. 
Some commenoe to lay by a supply of butter 
for winter use as early as Juno or July, on the 
ploa that at that time the butter has a finer lla- 
vor; but, as a rule, it is advisable to delay doing 
this until September or October, or if the season 
ho late, it may even be carried on into Septem¬ 
ber. By this moans, the danger of taint and 
other injuries to the article during the heated 
term customary in July and Angust, is avoided, 
which fully compensates for any real or imagin¬ 
ary difference in the quality of the butter at Uie 
different seasons. Before making the butter, 
extreme care should be taken to preserve the 
milk and cream from all possiblo contamination. 
It should be borne In mind that both thoso arti¬ 
cles readily absorb impurities from the atmos¬ 
phere, and whenever fniit., groceries and other ar¬ 
ticles of domestic use are kept in tho milk-room, 
the butter will always, to a delicate palate, have a 
taste of one or more of its neighbors. Ttie milk 
should, therefore, be kept by itself, and this iso¬ 
lation is one of the chief reasons for the superi¬ 
ority of spring-house butter. 
To keep well, it is essential that it should ho a 
first-rate article, wall and carefully handled from 
the milking to the packing. With regard to tho 
respective advantages of washing and not wash¬ 
ing, there is a wide difference of opinion. Some 
insist that no w ater should be allowed to come 
in contact with the butter, and that puch contact 
will certainly injure its chalices of keeping well, 
besides detracting from its aroma and flavor by 
washing away the sugar of milk, on the presence 
of which these, in a great measure, depend. For 
our own part, wo are convinced that although 
unwashed Imttor, when properly made, may have 
a moro delicious aroma tlxan washed butter, yet 
in nearly every case itH keeping qualities will be 
greatly enhanced by washing it. 
The thin policies of caseine inclosing the but¬ 
ter globules, are broken In churning, and the 
butter liberated. As caseine is extremely liable 
to putrefaction, unless these policies, which are 
mingled with tho butter as it comes from the 
churn, are separated from it, they soon begin to 
decompose and ferment, producing butyric and 
a qua iter of a dozen other acids whose presence 
soon gives rise to acidity. Nov,', the easiest and 
most efficacious way of getting rid ol these case- 
ine skins is, not by working them in with the but¬ 
ter, without sufficient moisture to separate them 
from the oily particles, but by washing the butter 
as it comes from tho churn. Moreover, when all 
iujurions substances are expelled by worliiug the 
butter, there is always danger of overworking it 
and spoiling the grain. Hondo, wo are of opin¬ 
ion that while working it alone may be of ton ad¬ 
visable, when tho butter is intended for Bpcody 
use, it is always safer to wash it, when designed 
to be preserved for a considerable time, using only 
sufficient water to remove all traces of butter¬ 
milk. This opinion is opposed by some of the 
most skillful butter-makers, it is true; but their 
success in keeping butter which has been worked 
only, is due rather to their superior skill than to 
the merits of tho system they have followed. 
Whatever method is adopted, it is essential that 
nothing but pure butter should be allowed to re¬ 
main, and ail butyric acid, caseine, buttermilk, 
water, etc., must be carefully eliminated. If 
intended to bo used in tho early wiutor, Bomc 
advocate that salt alone should be mixed with it; 
others, again, insist that it can be kept, without 
being salted ; but tho most general and success¬ 
ful plan is to make a compound, in the propor¬ 
tion of two pounds best dairy salt, one pound 
refined sugar, and one pound of saltpeter finely 
pulverized; mix these well together, and the 
mixture should then be well worked in with the 
butter at the rate of a tablespoonful and a half 
to the pound. There are Blight variations in the 
proportion of these ingredients, but the above is 
given merely because it has been successfully 
tested. 
In packing butter for winter use, earthen-ware 
crocks or jars, iron jars glazed inside, or per¬ 
haps, best of all, sound, well-seasoned oak tubs 
or firkins, can bo used. If tho latter arc em¬ 
ployed, they should he made in the best manner 
and strongly hooped, so as to admit of no leak¬ 
age. It is absolutely essential that all air should 
be excluded, and to effect this, the butter should 
be immersed in a strong brine. After tho butter 
has been packed closely in the vessel, to within 
an inch or two of the top, a doth should be 
placed over it. and this covered with a layer of 
salt or brine, so as to exolnde the air as much ftB 
possible. Tho oovor should then bo nailed down 
oarofully, so as to render tho package air and 
water-tight. 
In storing the packages, tho first requisite is 
that the place where they arc kept should be cool 
and, as nearly as possible, of a uniform temper¬ 
ature. A spring-house or a deep, cool, clean and 
well-ventilated cellar, in which tiie temperature 
never rises above 60 ' Fahr., are both excellent 
places for storage. If tho temperature of tne 
store-room cannot bo maintained below 60 Fahr. 
by shading it from the sun and piling earth 
around it, it should be artificially cooled, in very 
warm weather, by ice, but an apartment in which 
this is not needed is always preferable. 
---• 
DAIRY ROOM. 
At this season of the year special attention 
should be paid to extreme cloanlinesa about the 
dairy room and all its appurtenances, for during 
tliis heated term noxious odors and other con¬ 
taminations are generated most readily, and do 
the most mischief. In this connection Willis 
P. Buzzard, in Butter and Butter-making, is not a 
jot too exacting in insisting that everything 
must be removed that will impart impure odors 
or taint the atmosphere of the dairyroom, and 
thus iujure the butter. The shoes of the dairy¬ 
man should be removed when coining from the 
barnyard, and exchanged outside the spring- 
liouso door for another pair kept there for the 
purpose. Otherwise it would bo impossible to 
prevent carrying in sufiioieut filth to taint the 
atmosphere and communicate it to tho milk. 
Another source of injury to the taste of butter 
Is the imperceptible odor from kerosene lamps, 
which have often to bo used in the dairy house. 
This can be obviated by having the lamps set in 
sockets, and a pipe, loading outside, placed over 
the top of the chimney, which will carry off the 
odors. Or a box containing the lamp and re¬ 
flectors can bo so constructed, either built in tho 
wail with glass front on the inside of the houso 
and opened only from the outside, or arranged 
in the window. It should project on the outside 
so as to be readily reached from tho outside, and 
should have a pipe for the exit of the smoke. It 
is most important to have pare air, and that the 
milk room bo clean, cool, dry, airy and well ven¬ 
tilated. The temperature should range about 
60 to 65 degrees, never higher than the latter 
and not lower than 51 degrees, as creams sep¬ 
arates host in a cool place. Milk set and kept 
at a temperature of 40 degrees, will not sour, 
and tho cream will hecorno bitter before it is fit 
to skim. If tho milk is set to rise in a hot room 
at a temperature of 70 to 72 dogreeB, it will very 
soon become sour and thick, will not yield bo 
much cream, and will make soft, oily butter, 
which will soon become rancid. The dairy should 
front tho north, and be shaded by trees, so as to 
admit the light and air, as light is necessary to 
develop color in croam, but exclude the sunshine 
and tho heat. Evergreens are the best for this 
purpose, as thoy cool the atmosphere in summer 
and warm it in wiuter. 
In many of tho Western States where the 
ground is not so rolling and hilly as in some re¬ 
gions more favorod with springs, a spring-house 
can be made near a well, which will bo very con¬ 
venient and nearer tho houso than the spring 
might happen to be. The ground may be ex¬ 
cavated about four feet, by some 12 feet square, 
and a solid stone wall, two feet thick and four 
feet high laid in coment. The floor inside is 
laid in cement at the bottom of the excavation, 
slightly inclining to one corner, for complete 
drainage and washing. Tho wall is built up full 
width, four feet, and then an offset of 18 inches 
is made to the rear, or outside, where tho wall 
is carried up two feet highor, bat only six inches 
thick, to form tho foundation of tho frarno 
superstructure; on this is built a balloon frame 
with eight-feet posts, hoarded outside aud in, 
and the wall made as tight as possible. Upon 
the ledge created by tho offset, a narrow wall, 
about four inches high and wide, is made on the 
front edge of this ledge, by which, being well 
plastered with the cement, a gutter or vat is 
made some four inches deep, and of course 52 
inches wide, with a slight descent to the comer 
opposite to that where the water is introduced. 
Into this vat the fresh milk is set while warm, 
and cold water conducted to it from the well. 
The milk cools rapidly and a low temperature is 
maintained through the night. At each milking 
tho pans are removed to the shelves or on the 
cement floor in the center, to mako room for the 
fresh milk. The water can be pumped into a 
trough which will carry the water to the dairy 
house any distance it may he placed from the 
house; but the nearer the better, so that the 
water shall not warm in its passage. If it is in¬ 
troduced in tho center of one side, the gutter 
should slope both ways to tho comers, and fol¬ 
lowing the sides, bo allowed to escape at either 
far corner through a pipe built in the cement. 
These escapes should be furnished with plugs to 
bold the water, so as to allow it to be changed 
once or twice daily. 
HOW WE RAISE SPRING LAMBS. 
Is raising spring lambs, wo find that the 
weather has much to do with their growth. In 
clear weather, a lainb may be growing a pound 
a day, and the probabilities are that when a few 
days of cloudy, damp weather 1 come on, it will 
cease to grow and sometimes retrograde ; and 
this, too, even when carefully attended to. The 
real cause is a loss of appetite. We have been 
in tiie habit of testing tliis matter, and find that 
the rule bolds good when stock are stabled, or 
when they are rnnniug out to pasture. And hero 
let ub roniark. that, we can grow more pound* of 
lamb, in a given number of weeks, with the ewes 
and lambs constantly in the pen, than when they 
are running out; but tho sheep, when penned, 
need, or rather must have, dry quarters, with 
plenty of water to drink. Thoy must also bo 
kept in snob a manner, that there is no fermon- 
tation of the manure. There arc many sheep 
lost by lying on the wet ground iu spring, and 
also on account of being shut up in tight stables 
reeking with stench. Young lumbs will stand 
tbo cold without injury if kept dry and out of tho 
wind, and it is an act of cruelty to turn sheep on 
a barren pasture on cold, winter days. 
Sheep should always be in good condition ; and 
wo find that, the nearer thoy approach to the 
Southdown breed, the sooner arc tho lambs 
ready for market. Although a Leicester or Oots- 
wold ewo and Southdown ram will give a lamb 
that will weigh heavier aud bring more money, 
yet to do tint, takes a longer time and more feed. 
The owe with long, coarse wool, long legs, and 
slim body will never pay to breed from. For 
our own part, we would prefer Merino ewes to 
what are hero called Long-wools. 
Our manner of feeding ia to give the ow’ea 
about one pint each of uuground corn, and all 
the wheat-bran they will eat, besides plenty of 
good hay. Some turnips or potatoes are good, 
but thoy Bhould not he made to take the place of 
feed. Wo sometimes feed oats, but it is not so 
good as the bran. When three weeks old, the 
lambs have a feeding-trough for their especial 
benefit, in which we keep wheat-bran, so that 
thoy can always feed whenever thoy feel dis¬ 
posed to do so. When eight woeks old, they 
will stand some corn-meal, not over half a pint 
each a day; too much of it cloys them aud 
bringB on disease. 
We get our animals to average a half-pound 
growth a day, and here is tho trouble of meeting 
any particular market. A lamb that is a good 
feeder, with a mother who gives an abundance 
of milk, will grow a pound per day in good 
weather. A twin lamb will never grow so fast, 
nor can they be raised to the sizo of the single 
lamb, in tho same time, if ever, for they have 
not had a fair start. There will bo sorno single 
lambs that will be small, and Borne that are poor 
feeders, and some ewes that will get fat instead 
of fattening their lambs. Here is where we are 
not up to our business : we understand no way 
to make the small and weakly outgrow the 
strong and healthy. We feed all the young 
lambs, in cold weather, with cows’ milk, until 
thoy arc Btrong enough to take care of them¬ 
selves. We always visit the shoep-pen at nine 
o’clock at night and six in the morning, and 
sometimes in tho night-time, daring the lambing 
Beason. 
It is poor policy to undertake to raise lambs 
unless we give them care and strong feed, for a 
January lamb that gets stunted will not afford 
as largo a profit aB an April one that grows right. 
All who are afraid of working, aud of feeding 
them liberally, should not undertake to raise 
lambs earlier than April. 
Americans have no special desire for lamb so 
long as there is plenty of poultry, etc., as thore 
is a widespread dislike to the sheep as an article 
of food. Butchers do not question how a lamb 
was fed; if it is fat, that is all they want. Ho 
it iB with veal; the calf that eats plenty of corn- 
nioa), aud is furnished with a good supply of 
milk, will he the first sold, for it will be fat. We 
axe well aware that milk-fed calves are quoted 
higher than others in the New York market, but 
New Jersey veals there take the lead, and this, 
we judge, not on account of the milk so much 
as the corn they eat. Iba J. Blackwell. 
-♦_*_*- 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE UNITED 
STATES AND ENGLAND. 
Is tiie United States, as a rule, sheep rob and 
impoverish the pastures, while In England these, 
together with meadows and arable lands are 
greatly benefited by the animate grazing on the 
grass or eating forage or turnips on the land ; 
for there they are folded on the arable lands 
while feediug on the root crops. The housing of 
sheep bare, so much more than is necessary, tells 
injuriously, as it deprives the soil of a groat deal 
Of manure. Moreover, it causes the expense of 
hauling aud the trouble of carting the roots one 
way and the manure another, whilo thcro ia in 
the barns a loss of valuable urine. The keeping of 
large flocks of sheep In England has been the 
means of Baring agriculture from tho calamity 
attending it iu the States, for it is well known 
English crops have more than doubted during 
the last half century, while during the same 
time, crops have lessened one-half in all the 
Eastern States, and are gradually doing so all the 
way West, as fast as the dovasting tread of tho 
white man has extended. 
The English keep sheep for the good they do 
in enriching the soil, and would be unable to pay 
their rents and live well without them. If they 
were to ebarge hay and roots to thoir flocks at 
the market price, there would bo a great appar¬ 
ent loss, but knowing ths value of the preaouco 
of sheep on farms, as managed in England, they 
cheerfully submit to this as they gain fourfold in 
other ways. Americans should thoroughly bear 
iu mind this return for hay, corn, grain. Ac., to 
sheep and, in fact, to all kinds of livo stock, for 
by looking forward to results obtained from tho 
consumption of the produce on their farms, they 
will find it will pay hotter, in tho long run, to 
make ouJy two-thirds of tho price they would 
gel by selling. Indeed on farms which have 
been run down, it will pay to buy oileako and 
fatten extra quantities of animals, even if they 
fail to pay the full cost of the food, for it is a 
very cheap way of purchasing manure. The 
best farmers in England, though only yearly 
tenants, knew the effects of manure from sheep 
and from other stock eating oi'.cako and other 
forcing food, but tiie cake in particular, bo thoy 
use a groat deal of it. Nine-tenths of tho oil¬ 
cake In the States goes to England, I think, where 
farmers buy it by the ton, in the cake, for they 
don't like Jt ground, as adulteration is suspected. 
When they feed it, they merely break tho cakes 
in small pieces, sometimes by hand, while others 
run it through a simple machine which cracks it 
into little bits. 
By keeping poor farms in England heavily 
stocked with sheep, tho soil, though naturally 
inferior to the majority of other land, is often 
made so rich that the yield will equal that on the 
best farms, and tho tenant, too, doos well, for, 
although lie has to buy cake or grain to enable 
him to derive advantage from tho great uuuiber 
of sheep, he has to pay lens rent, aud all tiie 
other payments on land will bo proportionally 
loss. This fact gives en.iouragement to teuaut- 
farmers to rent light land, and farm it so that 
shoep and turnip husbandry will give fertility to 
force crops equal to tiie beat on tho fine, natur¬ 
ally rich Boils of favored districts. Thus when I 
was a boy, the Cotswold Hills were not half cul¬ 
tivated and turnips were sown broadcast, but 
ten timos as many acres are drilled now, aud at 
least five times the weight per acre grown. In 
Scotland, also, were moors and much upland 
similar in quality to the soil on the Gotswolda, 
from which little was obtained and which, in 
fact, merely supported a few sheep in the sum¬ 
mer, but these former wastes now support a great 
many moro shoep all the year round, besides 
growing grain and hay; and farmers and thoir 
laborers now thrive where no human habitation 
existed then. This soil, in its wild state, was not 
better than the lightest districts in the United 
States, but instead of being cropped as is done 
here, year after year, without any renovation, 
every fourth year turnip and shoep husbandry 
moro than restore all taken out of the soil by 
the graiu, Ac. 
Down South, rape and also turnips might be 
grown extensively aud fed to sheep in the winter, 
for the climate requires no Bheltor for well-fed 
animate, it has been proved by investigation 
by a State Commissioner, that sheep pay 63 per 
cent profit on the capital invested; aud this in 
spite of the fact that there are one-third as many 
dogs as there are sheep, and that 15 por cent of 
all the flocks are killed by dugs. It appears very 
strange, when it is so clearly demonstrated that 
wool-growing pays so much better than growing 
cotton in tho Southern States, that there are 
not there some magnificent sheep farms, and 
that the management of sheep is not better un¬ 
derstood. Although the right kind of sheep 
husbandry is not at all practiced, yet money in¬ 
vested in sheep pays 63 per cent, but if the dogs 
