Next, all the utensils--pails, strainers, pans, skimmers, churn, butter-bowl, and ladles--must be kept as sweet and clean as scalding water and a hot sun can make them. The cream, even in the coldest weather, must not be allowed to remain on the milk over thirty-six hours, and in warm weather even less. In hot days remove the cream as soon as the milk begins to sour: none will rise after the milk changes. Although it will, of course, become _thicker_ by souring, it does not follow that it will be any better; on the contrary, every moment the cream is left on sour milk takes from the sweetness, quality, and purity of the butter. In churning, the motion should be even, not too rapid, and, when gathered, the butter must be well worked over and salted, and set on the ice, or in a place so cool that it will soon harden and keep so; but be sure that no meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables are put in the milk-room or cellar,--nothing from which the milk or butter will contract any taste. It will require a second salting the next morning, to remove what buttermilk may be left from the first working. One of the great merits of the Blanchard churn is the facility with which the buttermilk can be freed from the butter, as the less manipulation the better for the butter, provided you secure entire freedom from buttermilk. Many put in a little saltpetre, to make the butter hard and firm,--a bad practice, we think, not only because it gives a slightly unpleasant taste to the butter, but also because it may prove injurious to the consumer. A butter-pail or pot, perfectly sweet, should be well rubbed with salt, and the butter be packed in it, and well pounded down so as to leave no air-holes; then cover the butter an inch deep with brine strong enough to bear up an egg, and put to the _brine_ two table-spoonfuls of pulverized saltpetre. This will help to keep the butter sweet and hard; and, used in the brine, will neither impart any acrid taste to the butter nor be in the least degree unhealthful. These rules strictly followed by our dairy-women, we are confident that there will be no complaints of _bad butter_, but the comfort and happiness of the consumers be greatly increased, and the labor of the butter makers in nowise augmented thereby.