No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 239 



the washing, and of that boiled cabbage dinner that we sometimes 

 have, and the result is unfortunate in the butter. I do not believe, 

 though, that it is necessary to speak more of these things to you 

 people who attend Institutes. 



Then, there is the relation of the bacteria to the quaiity of the 

 butter. I sometimes think we hear too much on this subject of 

 bacteria, or, perhaps, not so much hear too much as hear it with lack 

 of sufficient understanding. Bacteria have a great deal to do with 

 the quality of the butter. They are minute forms of plant life; 

 they are subject to the laws of plant growth, such as food, moisture 

 and temperature, some other plants on the farm. Whether you 

 have wheat or corn or oats depends upon how you treat the soil 

 and what seed is allowed to grow. These bacteria are everywhere, 

 and whether they are good or bad depends upon whether we control 

 them or not. It depends on ourself whether wheat or weeds pre- 

 dominate in our fields. 



Some of these bacteria produce the acid of sour cream; some 

 produce alcohol in the wine, acid in the cider to make vinegar, and 

 some produce the butter flavor. These things we thoroughly under- 

 stand, but I find we do not appreciate the importance of preventing 

 the action of undesirable forms. One of the most undesirable 

 forms is the one I referred to a few minutes ago, associated with 

 the manure. 



The understanding of this bacteria problem has given us in our 

 dairy work the use of "starters," so called. To the small dairyman 

 who is making butter from five, six or eight cows, this is probably 

 of little interest, but to the farmer who is aiming to do business 

 with a dozen or perhaps thirty or forty cows, and making a business 

 of supplying a high grade butter to a critical trade, it means 

 something. To these people it is a question of supplying the kind 

 of flavor they want in the butter. These "starters" are prepared 

 in a laboratory, and there are firms that make a business of supply- 

 ing them. Some of them include two or three different species of 

 bacteria, others only one. In judging, we often find a piece of butter 

 that has a very pleasant aroma to the nose, or, as the butter judge 

 says, a nice nose flavor. But when you come to taste it on the 

 palate, it has very little flavor. And then the reverse is true; 

 when you try for the aroma it has none, but it has a very pleasant 

 taste. Some of our makers of cultures have tried to combine the 

 two species with very good results. 



I believe that to the farmer making a considerable amount of 

 butter, the "starters" may be useful if he is having difficulty in 

 securing uniform results, though ordinarily he will not find them 

 justifying the extra labor required to properly propagate them. 

 We cant lay down any rule, because the man who lays down an 

 iron-clad rule generally runs against a snag, but I would say that 

 a judicious use of "starters" when necessary is a good thing. 



The first principle in our butter-making is to have a clean, raw 

 product and control the changes during the ripening of the cream 

 so as to get the desired results. The market has changed in the last 

 few years, and today it wants a milder-flavored butter than formerly. 

 When we say "milder," we mean one in which fermentation during 

 ripening of the cream has not gone so far. First, the cream becomes 



