Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-06-01
From the y. Y. Mercantile Journal.l
BUTTER.

DOlIbhs
As the most active season for the
production of butter is about opening,
we submit, for the consideration OF
/ dairymen and others, a few sugges-
/ tiOns relative to butter making, etc
| The experience of our earlier days
taught US the painful lesson that the
| selling of second quality butter, on
commission or otherwise, always
proves most Improbable, as well as
unsatisfactory, to all parties con-
eerned. We quote:
Be very careful in handling the
early made white butter. Send it in
by express, without delay; for as soon
as we receive grass fed, the white is
only saleable for cooking purposes, at
lard prices. Until the 1st of June.
pack in tubs, and we would prefer
half-firkins, made as directed below.
Persons who are familiar with the
butter market of New York city,
wonder why all butter makers at the
West do not produce a better article.
The market is glutted with poor
greasy" butter. People i'll New
York know very well what good but
ter Is. Contemplate for a moment
how much money is lost by the pro-
ducer who does not make a prime arti-
Gle. Ahundred pound firkfn of prime
butter will now bring S35 to $40. The
same quantity, poorly made, will sell
slowly at half that price.
There is nothing connected with
dairying more certain than the fact
that everything a COW eats or drinks
affects the flavor of the milk and but
ter. Turnips, carrots, onions, cab
bage, grass, hay, bran, or corn meal,
each give, when eaten by the cows, a
distinctiveproperty to the milk, which
continues in a greater or less degree
in the butter and cheese into which
it is manufactured. The color of
butter (well and properly made) de-
pends more upon the feed given to
the cow, than upon all other causes
put together. In testing butter, it
does not require an expert to trace
bad flavor to its original cause. Stag
nant water asserts its presence by its
unmistakable musty odor; all pun
gent vegetables proclaim their ascend
ancy; the fine, sweet grasses impart
that delicious fragrance which gives
to butter the highest value.
~ NOOAf VI hNAA-oAelaNA anu
ventilated milk room is also a matter
of great importance. Milk kept in a
close, musty or unclean room, will
certainly be greatly injured.
In DuteheSs county, n. Y, those
farmers who enjoy the highest reputa-
ton for fine butter ignore washing,
but it must be taken into account
that their butter is sold and consumed
Immediately after it is made. From
observation and experience, we con-
clude that butter for immediate use,
if well worked and treated properly,
has higher flavor when not washed,
but when packed for keeping any
length of time, it ought to be well
washed in pure, cold spring water
The high grades of rich, yellow Irish
butter made for export, are always
washed; the lighter and more delicate
Holstein, made for immediate con-
sumption, generally is not washed
and keeps poorly.
One of the greatest faults at the
West in making butter, is that toe
| much salt is used. A large amount
of Western butter is cured with coarse
salt. This fault has been pointed
out very often, but it still exists to q
great extent. Butter salted so as to
/ be pleasant to the taste, will bring
| five cents per pound more in some
markets than it would sell for if there
had been a quarter of an ounce more
salt to each pound. The coarse salt
of commerce is not pure; besides be-
ing hard to dissolve in butter, it con-
tinues to be gritty and unpleasant to
the taste. 1t is not generally clean,
nor does it amalgamate with the but
ter or cheese fully. Liverpool salt, of
Ashton brand, is the best.
The amount of salt used by most
good butter-makers is one ounce to a
pound of butter, but the salting only
plays a very limited part of the pro-
cess of making good butter. Over
and above every other consideration,
scrupulous neatness must be observed
in milking, in the management of the
cream, in churning, in working the
butter, in packing, and in everything
else.
The kind of eOoperage used in pack
ing butter for market is of special i'm
pOrtance, and this is overlooked in
most western localities. One of the
reasons why western butter is at a
low standard in markets abroad, is
that the cooperage is very poor. Many
farmers and dealers do not generally
patronize the best eOopers, but the
cheapest ones.
There is a prejudice in eastern mar
kels against all butter in packages
known as western, even though the
article be quite good. We advise the
use of the New York " Welsh Tub, -
the Half-firkin Tub, - and the hun
dred-pOund "Firkin. The former
should be made of white ash or white
oak; the two latter of white oak only;
the Welsh tub of flat hoops; the other
two spoken of with round hoops. not
mere straps with rough bark and large
knots, but nice and smooth second
growth hickory, with smooth, shiny
bark, free from Jumps, each hoop q
half-pOle, and all uniform in size and
color; the wood to be free from sap
and of uniform color, everything neat
" and well done.
Size of firkins should be 22f inches
high, I3f inches diameter of head,
outside to outside, Is inches diameter
of bilge, outside to outside, should
weigh about 20 pounds, dry, and con-
tain about 100 pounds, net, of butter.
Half-firkins of same dimensions as
one of this description cut in two, and
should have a neatly made cover
nailed on top.
After butter Is packed, the top
should be neatly covered with white
muslin, after it has been washed free
from starch or sizing, and thoroughly
soaked in a clean, sweet brine. Upon
this covering should be spread a thin
layer of fine, clear salt; dairy salt will