concentrated state in water causes that fluid to produce an injurious effect on the butter placed in it. A saturated solution of salt contains very little air, and, so long as the curd is immersed therein, it undergoes no change. The salt, too, acts as a decided preservative; for although it was long considered to be capable of preserving animal matters, merely by virtue of its property of absorbing water from them (the presence of water being a condition in the decomposition of organic matter), it has lately been shown to possess very antiseptic properties. The mixing of the salt with the butter is effected in the following manner:--The butter, after being well washed, in order to free it from the butter-milk, is spread out in a tub, and the salt shaken over it; the butter is then turned over on the salt by the lower part of the palm of the hand, and rubbed down until a uniform mixture is attained. A good plan in salting is to mix in only one half of the quantity of salt, make up the butter in lumps, and set them aside until the following day; a quantity of milk is certain to exude, which is to be poured off, and then the rest of the salt may be incorporated with the butter. According to butter-makers, the quality of the article is greatly dependent on the quality of the salt used in preserving it. I think there is a good deal of truth in this belief, and I therefore recommend that only the very best and _driest_ salt should be used in the dairy. Common salt is essentially composed of the substance termed by chemists chloride of sodium, but it often contains other saline matters (chloride of magnesium, &c.), some of which have a tendency to absorb moisture from the air, and to dissolve in the water so obtained. These salts are termed _deliquescent_, from the Latin _deliquere_, to melt down. When, therefore, common salt becomes damp by mere exposure to the air, it is to be inferred that it contains impurities which, as they possess a very bitter taste, would, if mixed with butter, confer a bad flavor upon it. The impurities of salt may be almost completely removed by placing about a stone weight of it in any convenient vessel, pouring over it a quart of boiling water, and mixing thoroughly the fluid and solid. In an hour or two the whole is to be thrown upon a filter made of calico, when the water will pass through the filter, carrying with it all the impurities, and the purified salt, in fine crystals, will remain upon the filter. The solution need not be thrown away: boiled down to dryness it may be given as salt to cattle; or, if added in solution to the dung-heap, it will augment the fertilising power of that manure.