STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 621 



the J require food and moisture lil^e bifrhor forms of plant life, they are 

 prevented from growing by cold; are killed by moist heat, most of them 

 by a temperature of boiling water. They may remain inactive for a long 

 time, then grow rapidlj^ when conditions again become favorable. They 

 grow or multiply usually by divisions, which may happen every twenty 

 minutes or may require several hours. In the process of their growth, 

 they cause some change in the material in which they are growing. It 

 may be a useful or a harmful one; the character of the change will be 

 largely determined by the kind of bacteria present. 



The bacteriologist finds that there are several forms of lactic acid pro- 

 ducing bacteria; also that some forms of bacteria pi-oduce acid without 

 thickening or curdling; others produce the reverse. Again, some produce 

 gas; while slimy or ropy, red (or what is sometimes called bloody) milk 

 is produced by bacterial growth in milk. 



An understanding of these principles should materially assist in the 

 ripening of cream and getting a good quality of butter. 



The texture of the butter is very largely influenced by the changes of 

 temperature that are brought about during the ripening process. It 

 seems to be essential to the production of a firm, solid texture in the 

 butter that the cream, at some time during the ripening process, should 

 be subjected to a constant low temperature for several hours. Another 

 point which influences the texture of the butter depends upon the 

 rapidity with which various changes of temperature are made and the 

 extremes of temperature that are used. That butter will have the best 

 texture which has seen the fewest possible changes of temperature be- 

 tween the time the milk is drawn from the cow and the time it is churned, 

 and in which also all the necessary changes of temperature have been 

 made most gradually. Not only will such butter have the best texture 

 at low temperature, but it will stand the effects of high temperature 

 better. 



In separating the cream I think we should not have any higher tem- 

 perature than is necessary to do good skimming and have the cream in 

 the proper shape to handle to the best advantage. In the winter we may 

 have to have the milk at a little higher temperature than is practically 

 necessary to do good skimming, in order to get it in the proper shape 

 to ripen, while at other times of the season we may have to skim a 

 little cooler than is necessary, for by doing so we could save a lot of time 

 and work, for time and labor are quite an object in a creamery where 

 one has from four to six churnings a day to make, and only two men to 

 do the work. I find that it is as easy to get the temperature at the 

 separator as it is after the cream is in the vat. Of course, we can not 

 always do this, but as a general rule we can. What temperature should 

 the cream be to ripen? That depends on the condition of the cream and 

 the weather and surrounding influences, but we should get it high enough 

 to start with so we can go down graduallj' to where we want to hold it 



