The, surest method of making a sample of butter of high quality, and one that will keep, as well as butter can keep under such conditions as those imposed by refrigeration, until its arrival in the English market, is to rigidly carry out a system of washing the fine grains of butter in the churn with pure cold water. The inferior brands of Irish firkin-butter, which I have had opportunities of tasting both in the Cork and London markets, and the generality of Danish butter sent in casks, rapidly acquire a flavour which partially proceeds from the decomposition of the solid matter other than fat which has been left in the butter by an imperfect system of manufacture. It is this matter that it is necessary to remove in the dairy. It will be admitted that, although it is extremely difficult, if, indeed, it is possible, to wash butter clean, and to remove the buttermilk from it when it has been brought into a lump in the churn, yet that when brought in fine grains, which are subsequently hardened with pure cold spring water before uniting together, by far the larger proportion of this buttermilk can be removed. The buttermilk contains two constituents which, if conveyed into the butter, are ultimately certain to destroy its flavour. These are sugar and casein. While the sugar is the primary cause of fermentation and partial decomposition, the casein is responsible for its continuation. Therefore the more sugar and casein, or in other words, the more buttermilk, we remove, the greater chance we give the butter to preserve its sweetness and fine flavour. In some parts of the continent of Europe it is the practice of makers to send their butter to the English market without washing of any kind; and I have frequently been permitted to examine samples of Danish butter from seven to fourteen days old which, coming from some of the finest dairies of the country, have lost the fineness of their quality through the omission of this very necessary process. In some parts of England, however, especially in mining and other industrial districts, strong-flavoured and heavily-salted butters are preferred by the working-classes, who chiefly consume the butters of Denmark. In some of the Midland and Northern counties, where the population is large, page 8 there are shops under Danish control, where nothing but Danish butter and margarine are sold, and where very lucrative business is done. It is a common saying among high-class English butter makers that grains of butter should be washed by pouring cold water through the churn until it comes out as clear as it went in The finest mild butter is washed the last time with brine, but this plan is not suitable for butter required to keep for a considerable period. Nor is one other plan which is frequently adopted more suitable—namely, the salting of the cream. By this system the buttermilk is decreased in value, the bulk of the salt remaining in it; but numerous experiments which I have made have shown than it is possible to obtain a larger percentage of butter by this method than by the system of brining. Butter for transport should be hand-salted, care being taken to use only the finest and purest salt in the market. This salt should be ground, subsequently dried until the whole of the moisture is removed from it, and again passed through a specially-made salt-mill. There is considerable difference between well-salted and badly-salted butter. Under the microscope the former shows an even and consistent grain, the salt being thoroughly dissolved; in the latter, however, the salt, together with portions of other substances which are found in inferior salt, in the form of irregular and badly-distributed grains or crystals, are found in a solid condition. Coarse salt badly worked into butter does not all dissolve, but attracts moisture and gives to butter a mottled appearance which is most objectionable to the buyer.

In an experiment made by a professional man of eminence in order to test what quantity of salt can be used in the preservation of butter to the best advantage, five samples of butter, all from one churning, were respectively salted with ¼oz., ½oz., ¾oz., 1oz., and 1¼oz. of salt per pound. At the end of six months the butters were tested. The best sample was that which had been salted at the rate of ¾oz. to the pound, while the worst sample was that which had been salted at the rate of ¼oz. to the pound, and the worst but one was the sample which had received the largest quantity of salt. This entirely agrees with my own practice.

In addition to careful churning, washing, making-up, and salting, butter-making includes two other proceedings upon which the profits mainly depend. The first is the separation of the cream The three leading methods of creaming are (1) skimming the old-fashioned shallow pan, (2) the deep-setting system, and (3) centrifugal separation. With the last-named the work is always good and constant. Either of the other plans closely approximates in value to the separator when they are perfectly controlled. This, however, can seldom be the case. If we can maintain a temperature of 60° in the dairy throughout the year, shallow pans will answer very well, and will throw up almost all the cream within twenty-four hours; but if the temperature of the dairy in which these vessels are placed is subject to every change in the weather page 9 we can seldom hope for the best results. In the heat of summer the milk becomes sour and sometimes coagulated before all the cream has risen, the result being a great loss; whereas in winter, during very cold weather, we do not obtain all the cream, even when the milk has been standing for two or three days, unless it has been poured into the vessels at a temperature of about 95°, and rapidly cooled to 40° or 45°. Under this system, too, to obtain fine flavour, the daily must not only be even in temperature, but perfectly dry, a paid atmosphere, at a moderate temperature, which encourages the reproduction of certain organisms, being fatal to the quality of cream. Again, the deep-setting system, simple enough in its way, can only be controlled where water, never higher than 45°, can be obtained throughout the year, and even then the milk must be poured into the vessels at as near 95° as possible. Numerous experiments have been made at the Agricultural College of Wisconsin—and in some instances I have repeatedly confirmed them, the work being extremely simple—proving that there is a loss of from 10 to 15 per cent, of butter by setting milk which is partially cold in cold water in a dairy which is not lower than 50° in temperature. In practice, dairy-hands are often so careless and so little able to estimate the losses which really occur, and which are almost imperceptible, that it is a far better plan to use the separator under all conditions than to adopt either of the plans which have been referred to unless the butter-maker, who is working for himself, is able to control the system he adopts in the way which has been suggested and to determine that he will leave nothing to chance.