Much attention is paid to the most minute circumstances in the manufacture of butter, especially in all that relates to cleanliness. In Switzerland men are chiefly employed in milk ing and in making butter and cheese; the women only cleaning the utensils and carrying green food to the cows when kept in the sta ble. The gradually extending use of the thermometer is an important improvement in dairy practice; and probably the electrometer may be found similarly useful, as the state of the atmosphere in reference to electricity evi dently has a powerful influence on the making of butter. The nature of the pasture is also important. The best butteris produced from cows fed in rich natural meado ; and some plants which grow in poor and marshy soils impart a disagreeable flavour to the butter, as also do turnips and other roots, and most cut grasses. This may be in some measure obvi ated by adding a little water and saltpetre to the milk, or, it is said, by giving salt to the cows with their food. The best winter butter is made where the cows are fed with good meadow hay, or aftermath hay, which contains few seedstalks. The colour varies much from different cows, and from the same at different times. Arnotto or the juice of carrots is some times mixed with the cream to impart a deeper yellow.
Upon an average, four gallons of milk pro duce sixteen ounces of butter ; and, to be pro fitable, a good dairy cow in England should produce six pounds of butter per week in summer, and three pounds in winter, allowing from six weeks to two months for her being dry before calving. This makes 120 lbs. in
twenty weeks after calving, and 80 lbs. in the remaining time, or 200 lbs. in the year.
Whey Butter is an inferior kind made in some cheese dairies from the oily portion of the milk skimmed from the whey ; it is sold chiefly to labourers, seldom comes to market, and is totally unfit for salting and keeping. Ghee, or fluid butter, forms one of the staple productions of many districts in India.
All the butter that is produced in England is consumed at home, and a large quantity is imported from Ireland, Holland, and other countries. The consumption of butter in London is estimated by McCulloch at 15,000 to 16,000 tons annually, of which 2000 tons are supplied to shipping. At 10t1. per lb. for 34,400,000 lb-., the value consumed of this article amounts to 1,433,2331. The consump tion per head in this estimate is assumed to be 5 oz. weekly, or 16 lbs. per annum. In 1835 the imports from Ireland were 827,008 cwts., valued at 3,316,306/. ; but since that date the imports of Irish butter do not appear in the Government tables.
Almost all the butter exported is derived from Ireland. In 1849 the exports of this commodity amounted in value to 210,6041., of which the largest quantities were sent to Bra zil, West Indies, and Portugal. The impor tations of foreign butter, in 1849, amounted to 282,101 cwts., of which two-thirds came from Holland.
A few interesting details concerning the Irish butter trade will be found under CORK.