C0NVENTI02s^ — dairy BUSINESS. 
129 
eral surface of the ground. The butter was stored about four feet 
from the bottom of the floor, the part we considered the coolest 
that would likely be free from mold. We opened it September 28, 
and found it perfectly sweet, almost free from the usual packed 
taste of June butter. Mr. Willis pronounced it the most perfect 
tub of June butter he had ever examined that had been packed for 
that length of time. Had it been a firkin ora package headed up so 
as to exclude the air, the result would not have been so unex¬ 
pected. 
As to working butter, once, twice or thrice, I am not so clear. 
Our custom has been to work butter twice, once lightly when ad¬ 
ding the salt, and then again about twelve hours afterwards. I 
find dealers do not like what they term dry butter; they desire to 
see some bright tear drops "^of brine on the trier. Butter, salted 
from three-fourths to one ounce to the pound, and worked at twelve 
hours and again at twenty-four hours, the salt will be nearly all dis¬ 
solved and w’orked out, and probably leave the butter too dry; I am 
confident that butter that has been standing more than twenty-four 
hours after churning becomes set, and handling, packing, or re¬ 
packing, has an injurious effect. I have found lately that some 
good butter makers advocate working butter only once, something 
like the plan suggested by Mr. Willis. Butter is not supposed to 
improve in quality after it is made, hence the desirability of an 
early market. My experience is that butter sells best when fresh 
or newly made, in white ash pails, holding from Twenty-two to 
twenty-seven pounds, and costing from ^^2.75 to $3.50 per dozen 
according to size; they should be soaked with brine strong enough 
to bear up an egg, for twelve hours before packing; the butter 
packed in, hard and evenly, having at first put in a thin layer of 
salt at the bottom. If the package is not filled from one churning 
place over it a cotton cloth saturated with brine and covering the 
package itself. As soon as the package is filled, having been care¬ 
ful to pack hard and evenly, place over it a cotton cloth from -which 
the sizing has been washed and previously soaked in strong brine. 
Nail up the package and put it away in a cool place until it is con¬ 
venient to market it; then, when conveying it to market, avoid the 
rays of the sun upon it, doing all that is possible to have it placed 
upon the market in an unexceptionable condition. 
My sales, through commission merchants, have averaged thirty 
9 —A 
