ike that of perspiration. In
addition to these acids, there is another simultaneously generated--the
caprylic, but it does not unpleasantly affect the olfactory nerve.
The casein also injuriously affects the fatty constituents of the
butter; under its influence they absorb oxygen from the air, and become
converted into strong-smelling compounds. The washing of butter is
intended to free it from the casein and unaltered cream, and the more
perfectly it is freed from those impurities the better will be its
flavor, and the longer it will remain without becoming rancid. Some
people believe that too much water injures the quality and lessens the
quantity of butter. It cannot do the former, because the essential
constituents of butter are totally insoluble in water; it may do the
latter, but, if it do, so much the better, because the loss of weight
represents the amount of impurities--milk, sugar of milk, &c.--removed.

I have already remarked that butter is so susceptible of taint that even
a perspiring hand is sufficient to spoil it; naturally cool hands should
alone be allowed to come in contact with this delicate commodity, and
the hands should be made thoroughly clean by repeated washings with warm
water and oatmeal--the use of soap in the lavatory of the dairymaid
being highly objectionable. Wooden spades are now being commonly made
use of in manipulating the butter, and there is no good reason why they
should not come into universal use.

The yield of butter per cow is subject to great variation. Some breeds
of the animal are remarkable as milkers; such, for instance, as the
Alderneys and Kerrys--indeed, I may say all the small varieties of the
bovine race. There are instances of cows yielding upwards of twenty
pounds of butter per week, but these are extraordinary cases. In Holland
a good cow will produce, during the summer months, more than 180 lbs.
of butter. In these countries I think the average annual yield of a
cow is not more than 170 lbs. It sometimes happens that cows yield
a large quantity of milk and a small amount of butter, but it far more
frequently occurs that the cow which gives most milk also yields most
butter.

An estimate of the amount of butter contained in milk may be made by
determining the amount of cream. This may be effected by means of an
instrument termed a _lactometer_, which is simply a glass tube about
five inches long, and graduated into a hundred parts. The specimen to be
examined i