466 BOARD OF AGKICULTUEE. 



handled. In going through the country I saw at one place, as near as I 

 could count from the car window, about a hundred head of these cows. 

 They were all tethered in a field by ropes, and as they grazed they ate 

 along one line of browsing, when they were moved forward to eat over 

 another place clean, and so they did not tramp down the grass except 

 where they were grazing. 



We will hold Mr. Commons' paper over, as he is not here. The Secre- 

 tary will read the report of the judging and scoring of the butter, and 

 later Professor Erf will have something to say about the butter exhibits. 



Scores read. See page 118. 



President: The next thing which we will have upon our program will 

 be the discussion of the exhibits, method of scoring it, etc. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: It is with great pleasure that I introduce Pro- 

 fessor Declier, of the Ohio State University, in charge of the dairy work 

 at that institution. 



Prof. J. W. Decker: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen— I am glad 

 to be with you today and get acquainted with the dairy people of the 

 State of Indiana. Professor Erf and I have been judging the butter and 

 cheese which are on exhibition in another room in this building, and we 

 propose to bring some of these samples into the hall to demonstrate some 

 points. 



Butter and cheese are sold on the market according to certain points 

 in the quality. The consumers want certain things, and the dealers have 

 to cater to the requirements of the market. Now, in either butter or 

 cheese, Uie most important thing in the quality of the article is its flavor, 

 so we place flavor as the highest percentage of the purity of the article, 

 or the quality of the article, counting 100 points as perfect. In butter, 

 for instance, we want a rich butter flavor, and in some cases the butter 

 lacked flavor. It does not have any disagreeable flavor; it lacks flavor, 

 and it consequently has to be marked off on the score. The score card 

 we used this morning gives fifty points for perfection in flavor, the 

 quality of butter, then, is based on its flavor. Then there is the mat- 

 ter of grain— the grain or body of butter. Grain and body are not nec- 

 essarily the same, but are based on the ratio of twenty-five points, 

 or 25 per cent, in the 100. When butter is broken, it ought to pre- 

 sent a grain that is like broken cast iron. That shows the grain. If it 

 has been too soft or has been worked too much, the butter will be pasty. 

 When you consider body, you want the butter to be fairly solid, and not 

 too much water, or be too slushy, and I want to say there is a pendency 

 to leave too much water in the butter. 



The color should be a light straw color. The tendency in some places to 

 be quite light and other places a deeper color. The markets, as we go 

 south, require a deeper color, but more important is the evenness of color. 



