DAIRY MEIETING. 205. 



to say that the cows ate those things in the field and the odor 

 was not in the atmosphere of the barn but you could get it in the 

 cow's breath. I think, although we cannot say authentically, 

 that the taste comes not only from the cow but from the food. 

 If the odor of the food is in the atmosphere of the barn or if the 

 cows have recently eaten this kind of food, the flavor will be per- 

 ceptible in the milk. Milk is very susceptible to odors and great 

 care should be used in regard to these things. There are some 

 other flavors which perhaps are not quite as pleasant as those 

 which come from the food,- — what we call barny flavors. These 

 get into the milk and cream and later into the butter. These are 

 of course the result of a piece of manure or a hair from the 

 cow. Sometimes it comes from the bedding. They are easily 

 recognized, and of course from the dairyman's standpoint in or- 

 der to keep the milk and cream and butter entirely free from 

 them it is necessary to use precaution. This flavor does not 

 necessarily come from the fact that the manure drops into the 

 milk. Frequently we get it from the fact that the barns are 

 poorly ventilated. The odor arising from the gutters gets into 

 the milk while it is being drawn from the cow. 



Again, we get sometimes a musty flavor in milk, cream and 

 butter ; more particularly in the butter, which comes, of course, 

 from storing it where the atmosphere is not clear, where the 

 ventilation is not good, or from churning the cream in a churn 

 that has not been used for some time ; or it may come from put- 

 ting the butter away in the refrigerator or in the pantry on a 

 shelf that has not been carefully scalded. In regard to the but- 

 ter, there are other factors which come in to give it an off flavor. 

 One which perhaps we have noticed more particularly this fall 

 than any other is what we might term old cream. We get in 

 scoring butter a considerable amount of this taste which is easily 

 recognized and which perhaps can be better designated by the 

 term stale than anything else. That simply comes about from 

 the way in which the cream is ripened. 



The texture of the butter is what you perhaps recognize as the 

 grain. Butter to be at its best should be such that when a piece 

 is broken off it shows a rough surface similar to broken steel. 

 When the butter as we look at it seems to be waxy and firm, we 

 would speak of it as having a good texture, a good body. That 

 is, it should be free from all salviness and conditions of that 

 kind. 



