h butter at one time commanded the highest price in the
home and foreign markets, but latterly it has fallen greatly in public
estimation; indeed, at the present moment the price of Irish butter at
London is nearly twenty shillings per cwt. under that of the Dutch
article. It is really painful to be obliged to admit that the Irish
farmer is solely to blame for this remarkable depreciation in the value
of one of our best agricultural staples. In a word, by the stupid (and
_recent_) practice of putting into butter four times the quantity of
salt necessary to its preservation, the Irish dairy farmers--or at least
the great majority of them--have completely ruined the reputation of
Irish butter in those very markets in which, at one time, the Cork
brand on a firkin was sufficient to dispose of its contents at the
very highest price. It is a great mistake to think that the greater the
quantity of salt which can be incorporated with the butter, the greater
will be the profit to the producer. No doubt, every pound of salt sold
as a constituent of butter realises a profit of two thousand per cent.;
but then the addition of every pound of that substance, after a certain
quantity, to the cwt. of butter depreciates the value of the latter to
such an extent as to far more than neutralise the gain on the sale of
salt at the price of butter. In the county of Carlow, less salt is used
in preserving butter than is the case in the county of Cork and the
adjacent counties; the price, therefore, which the Carlow commodity
commands in the London market is higher than that of the Cork butter:
but in every part of Ireland the proportion of salt added to the butter
is excessive.

The results of the analyses of butter supplied to the London market,
made by the _Lancet_ Analytical Commission, showed that the proportion
of salt varied from 0.30 to 8.24 per cent. The largest proportion of
salt found in fresh butter was 2.21 and the least 0.30. In salt butter
the highest proportion of salt was 8.24 and the lowest 1.53. The butter
which contained most salt was also generally largely adulterated with
water. Indeed, in several samples the amount of this constituent reached
so high as nearly 30 per cent. Nothing is easier than the incorporation
of water with salt butter. The butter is melted, and whilst cooling the
salt and water are added, and the mixture kept constantly stirred until
quite cold. In this way nearly 50 per cent. of water may be added t