PACKING BUTTER FOR EXPORT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1584, 1 April 1882, Page 7

PACKING BUTTER FOR EXPORT.

In packing butter for preservation three things are essential: first, to guard against foreign taste or taint imparted by the, material of the package it is put into ; second, to exclude it entirely from the air, and lastly ,'to prevent bad results from unfavourable temperature and damage by soakage. . : The kinds of< wood mostly usbd for these packages are white oak and white ash*, the former howevor being much preferred. In its natural stato wood is too porous to prevent access of the air to the butter packed in it, and it must be thoroughly seasoned and so treated as to remove all sap and gummy substances it contains. These are eliminated by superheated steam or boiling hot brine, and the latter is easily obtained. Soaking the package two or three days with strong brine, then turning, this out and filling with hot brino to the brim is the process found effectual for this purpose. A damp cellar is not a desirable place to keep butter m any case, though when the butter is brined there is less danger of deterioration. A cool, dry, woll ventilated room in tho host for keeping butter. Tho process of brining is thus given in Arnold's American Dairying ' : ' The praotioe of tho best dairymen in using firkins is to take out one of tho heads and cover tho other with salt half an inch to an inch deep. It is then packed nearly full and perfectly solid, so as to have no air spaces at tho side of the package, leaving room on the top of tho butter to put on a layer of salt equal to that on the bottom head. A circular piece of fino bleached mtialin, having a diameter half an inch greater' than the top of the butter, is wet with brine and laid ovor the butter, which should be very even and smooth. Then with a wooden tool shaped like a gouge with a thin edge and with a curvature corresponding to the side of the package, the edge of the muslin is neatly pressed down between the outside of the butter and the cask. The package is then filled ' with salt and headed, and taken to the cellar or place of keeping, and the end having the raws-

Llin on turned' down.^J.u,- the. Jiead,.wluch was before down, but is" now up, a five-eighth hole is bored :md a .saturated brine (A pure salt turned on l» tho bead till Iho bpaco under the head is filled .with brine and -the' top ox tie head well covered. A plug that will till the hole is f,et loosely in it so that if the brme Bhould soak away, that on top of the head will work down and keep the space full, the plug being chiefly useful to exclude light from the butter. When .butter which has been well made is thus packed, it will keep a long- time in a satisfactory condition. In a dry cellar that was moderately cool, 1 have known several instances m which butter has been kept through two summers and then put upon the market and sola the samo as goods recently made. Butter for long keeping must< be well made. If not well made, it will soon deteriorate, no matter, how good may be the packago that contains .it/ _ 'Tuba should be as carefully proparodas casks which admit of heading, and unless going into iminodiato consumption, should bo kopt covered to exclude light and the top of Itlie butter covered with brine. It is not necessary to havo much depth of brine. 1 havo ' noted the best results when tubs are to stand long, if a cloth.is laid over the buttor as described for firkins, and covered with salt an inch or so deep. Then just water enough turned on to make a thin coat of brine next to the butter, say one-quarter of an inch deep, leaving a good coat of dry salt above the brine, lhis afFords a better protection to the butter than when the brino covoru the salt.'— The' Prairie Farmer.