As butter made in winter is generally pale or white, and its richness,
at the same time, inferior to that which is made during the summer
months, the idea of excellence has been associated with the yellow
color. Means are therefore employed, by those who prepare and sell
butter, to impart to it the yellow color where that is naturally
wanting. The substances mostly employed in England and Scotland are the
root of the carrot and the flowers of the marigold. The juice of either
of these is expressed and passed through a linen cloth. A small quantity
of it (and the proportion of it necessary is soon learned by experience)
is diluted with a little cream, and this mixture is added to the rest of
the cream when it enters the churn. So little of this coloring matter
unites with the butter, that it never communicates to it any peculiar
taste.