THE CULTIVATOR. 
108 
by a ladle or spatula, and afterwards worked in a brake, 
similar to what is described in the last volume of the 
Cultivator, pp. 187, 240. The salt is then added, and it 
is set in a cool place for a day or two, when it is worked 
over once more; but care is taken that it is not worked 
too much, as it renders it oily and injures its flavor. 
Washing butter, when first taken from the churn, is 
a practice the propriety of which has been considerably 
controverted; but perhaps the true reason or it is not 
always understood. When the weather is warm, or 
the milk and cream has been exposed to too high a tem¬ 
perature, the butter is apt to “ come soft,” and in this 
state it is very difficult to work it properly. The use 
of cold water, in such cases, is to harden the butter and 
facilitate the expulsion of the butter-milk. It is of the 
greatest importance that butter be properly worked, for 
on the perfection of this part of the process, or the en¬ 
tire separation of the oleaginous from the serous and 
cheesey particles, its keeping quality greatly depends. 
There seems, therefore, to be no objection to the use of 
water, when butter is in the condition above mentioned; 
but it would, on the contrary, appear to be decidedly 
useful in such cases. 
But the question presents itself—Suppose butter 
could be properly worked and the butter-milk thorough¬ 
ly expelled without the use of water, would washing be 
expedient? « 
Practical results, so far as the knowledge of the wri¬ 
ter extends, furnish a negative to this question. If the 
milk and cream has been kept in a proper state, and is' 
not too much heated in churning, the butter will gene¬ 
rally come hard,” and may be readily worked in a 
thorough manner without water. Trials have been 
made by dividing parcels of butter, produced under such 
circumstances as are here mentioned, washing one por¬ 
tion and working the other without washing, and the 
unwashed portion has been found to keep sweet the 
longest; and the fact is deemed to be well established, 
that butter which u comes” sufficiently solid, is injured 
by being washed in water. In the best dairies of Eu¬ 
rope, the practice is not approved. In the chapter on 
Butter.” in the 11 British Husbandry,” it is remarked 
in reference to washing, that it, il is a practice not to be 
commended, and in many dairies has been relinquished.” 
In the li Farmers’ Series,” in the account of a u Glou¬ 
cestershire Yale Farm,” which is said to be conducted 
with superior management, we are told—it is found 
by long experience that butter retains its sweetness much 
longer when no water is used in making up.” 
Upon the whole, we would restrict the washing of 
butter to those cases where the butter-milk could not be 
expelled without it, and would prefer that course of 
management which would obviate the necessity of using 
water for this purpose. 
Dr. Philip Physick, of GernTantown, Pa., who for 
several years in succession received the first premium 
of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society, pursues the 
following mode in working butter. When the butter 
is taken from the churn, it is laid on a clean linen 
cloth spread out as flat as possible, and not more than 
two inches thick. A bag of pulverized ice, about half a 
peck in quantity is provided, and on this is placed the 
cloth which has the butter on it, where it remains till 
the butter is quite hard; it is worked on a marble slab, 
with a wooden spoon or ladle, having a linen cloth next 
the butter to take up the butter-milk. 
Salting. —The best rock salt, made perfectly fine, 
•ought always to be used, if it is wished to keep the but¬ 
ter long. A great deal of butter is spoiled by using 
impure salt. The loss to the farmers of this state from 
this cause, is annually very great, and it is felt to a 
■ serious, degree in all the western country. It is the 
opinion of experienced dealers in butter, that the price 
of a large portion of that which comes from the west 
and is sold in the eastern cities, is injured to the amount 
of six to eight cents per pound by the use of bad salt. 
Less than an ounce of the best Turk’s Island or St. 
Ubes salt, is sufficient for a pound of butter. In some 
good dairies, fourteen ounces of salt are used for six¬ 
teen pounds of butter. Sugar and saltpetre have been 
tried, but experience has shown that they are of no spe¬ 
cial benefit. The salt should be intimately incorpora¬ 
ted with the butter when it is first taken from the 
churn, and the butter should then be set in the dairy* 
room for twenty-four hours, when on working it over 
again, it will be found firm and solid. If intended for 
long keeping, the butter should be packed in well glazed 
stone jars, or well seasoned white-oak firkins. Smaller 
parcels are generally preferred than it was formerly 
common to put up. From twenty-five to fifty pounds 
is the quantity usually wished in a jar or firkin. It is 
recommended to keep a strong brine on the butter, to 
the depth of an inch. 
The preservation of butter depends more on the total 
expulsion of all extraneous ingredients, and on its per¬ 
fect exclusion from the air, than on the quantity of salt 
with which it may be mixed. It is prepared in Eng¬ 
land and sent to India, with but very little salt, and 
sometimes without any. For this purpose it is purified 
by melting before it is salted and packed. Loudon thus 
describes the process: “ Let the butter be put into a 
proper vessel, and this be immersed in another contain¬ 
ing water. Let the wafer be heated till the butter be 
thoroughly melted; let it continue in this state for some 
time, when the impure parts will subside, leaving at the 
top a perfectly pure transparent oil. This, when it 
cools, will become opaque, and assume a color nearly 
resembling that of the original butter, being somewhat 
paler, and of a firmer consistence. When this refined 
butter is become a little stiff, the pure part must be 
separated from the dregs, and be salted and packed tip 
in the same manner as other butter: it will continue 
sweet much longer in hot climates, as it retains the salt 
much better than in its original state. It may also be 
preserved sweet without salt by adding to it a certain 
portion of fine honey, perhaps an ounce to a pound of but¬ 
ter, and mixing them together thoroughly, so that they 
may be perfectly incorporated.” 
Farmers’ Barometer—Humbug. —Some of the 
papers have given or copied directions for constructing 
a very simple and cheap barometer, by balancing a 
sealed bottle on one end of a rod, by a metal weight on 
the other. The air confined in the bottle always re¬ 
maining the same, it is evident that when the atmos¬ 
phere is light, the bottle will sink, and when it is 
heavy, the bottle will rise. This is interesting in the¬ 
ory, but to show that the inventor never successfully 
reduced his theory to practice, a simple calculation only 
is necessary. Suppose the bottle contains a hundred 
cubicJnches, the enclosed air would weigh thirty grains. 
The column of mercury in the common barometer being 
about thirty inches, in falling one inch it would in effect 
add only one grain to the weight of the air in the bottle. 
But a depression of the mercury only the tenth of an 
inch often affords an important indication in the wmather. 
The question now arises, wrnuld the tenth of a grain 
move a balance readily and conspicuously which sup¬ 
ports a three-pint bottle? The answer is most obviously 
in the negative. Hence the impracticability of this 
proposed barometer. With a smaller bottle the diffi¬ 
culty is only increased. T. 
Waste of Manure in Cities. —The London sewers 
pour daily into the Thames, 115,000 tons of mixed 
drainage. One part in 30 is regarded as rich, fertiliz¬ 
ing. solid manure, or 3,800 tons daily. This amount 
would richly manure every year more than 50,000 
acres of land. 
