STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATIOlSr, '?21 



make too much low grade butter. You will find that groceries in Lafay- 

 ette paying 18 cents for butter that they sell to the renovating factory 

 for eleven cents. They lose on the butter, but the farmers buy their 

 groceries of them, possibly $10 or $12 worth, and in that way they get 

 even. Of course the groceries cover the loss on the butter. This is 

 where the farmers are losing money all the time. If you can not make 

 butter right, only make enough for your own table, your own use. The 

 market wants good butter. Elgin butter is quoted at 29i^ cents today, 

 and there Is not enough of the best on the market to supply the demand. 



Mr. Miller: I should like to hear about butter from the time you 

 take the milk from the cows until the butter is ready to be sold. 



President Johnson: Yesterday was devoted to handling milk and 

 butter, and our time is passing rapidly. 



Mr. Miller: I have not heard anything of that yet. 



Mr. Scott: I want to know something about a starter. What is it, 

 and can butter be made without it? 



Mr. Keiffer: Certainly it can be made without it. A starter is used 

 in order to hasten the ripening; it inoculates the cream and hastens the 

 ripening. If you can not churn every day you can keep your cream 

 in a good, sweet condition, until you have enough for a churning, and 

 then raise the temperature to 65 or 68 degrees until the cream sours 

 and you will have good butter unless it has been exposed to some unfavor- 

 able bacteria. , 



Mr. Scott: How do you get the starter? 



Mr. Keiffer: There are several kinds of commercial starters on the 

 market now. You can make a starter by taking good fresh milk and 

 setting it away at a temperature of 75 degrees. Hold that sample at 

 75 degrees and it will become thick in twenty-four hours, or possibly 

 thirty-six or forty hours before it becomes thick. If it is in a Mason 

 jar, after it becomes thick you can look at it, and see whether or not 

 it is full of pin holes. You can tell from the smell whether or not 

 it has a, nice, pleasant sour flavor— no foreign flavor— and if so, you can 

 rest assured that you have a good starter right there, and take a spoon- 

 ful of that and add it to a quart of pasteurized milk. After you pasteurize 

 your milk, do not take chances of contamination by exposure. Of course 

 it must be cold. By pasteurizing I mean to heat the milk to 180 or 

 200, and hold it there for about twenty minutes, and cool it down by 

 placing it in ice water or cold water, and when it gets to about 90 

 degrees add one tablespoonful of the starter you have prepared and 

 that cream will change in about 18 hours, so that it will be thick. 



46— Agri. 



