358 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



flavor of butter every day right straight along, hut who is ushig 

 a starter. The market requires a uniform butter all the time; 

 it can't be good one day and bad the next. When you put the 

 properly prepared starter into the cream, under good conditions, 

 it means that you will have good butter every day. 



By a Member. — Do creameries generally use the Babcock test? 



Answer. — Most of the creameries in New York State pay for 

 milk on the basis of the Babcock test; not all of them, but a very 

 large proportion. 



By a Member. — How often would a new powder have to be 

 introduced in a starter in making 700 pounds of butter a day? 



Answer. — You can carry a starter three or four months, if 

 you are careful; I have carried it five months at the station, hav- 

 ing made my conditions perfect. 



By a Member. — I have an ordinary creamery, and have a great 

 deal of milk and cream that is brought, many days, in an all but 

 sour condition. In such a case as that, is a starter of any use 

 whatever ? 



Answer. — Why, of course, if you have so much acid in the 

 cream when it comes that will bo a starter, and you don't need 

 any more; but I don't believe it possible to make a high-grade 

 butter under these conditions. 



By a Member. — To use a starter in that case, would the failure 

 in quality of the butter come from the starter or from the original 

 milk ? 



Answer. — In such a case the fermentation produced by the 

 germs already there, having gone so far, it is impossible to counter- 

 act the influences they have produced. 



By a Member. — Isn't it necessary to have a few bacteria in 

 the milk? 



Answer. — Certainly; have got to have them, but we don't want 

 the wrong kind. Let me illustrate : I go into your barn, throw down 

 some hay, stir it around and get the hay dust all over your barn; 

 then take a gelatine plate and wave it around, I will catch some 

 of these plants; the chances are I will catch a germ that is 

 called the hay bacilli. These germs will make the milk putrid in 

 a short time. Don't you see, if you have these conditions in 

 your barn, it is almost impossible to make fine butter. When 

 cows used to be kept in the pasture and milked in the yard, 

 never putting them in the barn, then they had better, very much 

 better, conditions. The stables should be kept clean. In cer- 

 tain sections of IsTew York they compel the farmers to keep 

 their barns swept down and the stables whitewashed thoroughly. 



