Vermont Dairymen's Association. 99 



We find in the West and Central West that the whole sys- 

 tem of butter making has been practically changed in the last 

 four or five years. A few individuals have been seized with the 

 desire to control the great dairy industry of the country. The 

 result is that the quality of butter has deteriorated so much that 

 it is seriously afi^ecting the consumption of butter. There never 

 has been a time when good finished products could be made out 

 of poor, decomposed, raw materials. This is just as true in but- 

 ter making as in any line of business. The sooner milk or, 

 cream is manufactured into butter or cheese, the better will be 

 the quality of the finished product every time. The old saying 

 "cleanliness is next to godliness" is as true and applicable to 

 dairying as anything that I know of. 



What gives butter its selling value? It is not the body or 

 always the appearance, but it is flavor. This quality causes but- 

 ter to sell higher than lard, tallow or any of the other fats. 



Where cleanliness and care are observed, the Lord Almighty 

 seems to have placed in milk all the necessary ingredients that 

 go tO' make up good flavor in butter. Where cream is kept in 

 an unsanitary place from three to six days as is sometimes done 

 by farmers who ship to central plants, the flavor of the butter 

 is seriously injured and cannot be fully reclaimed by any method. 

 A great deal has been written about pasteurization of such cream. 

 When scoring butter and observing it in different places, I have 

 come to the conclusion that pasteurization is of very little benefit, 

 if any, to old. stale, over-ripe cream. It is true that high heating 

 will drive ofi^ some undesirable, volatile gases, but at the same 

 time there is danger of producing other undesirable flavors in 

 such old cream. I have a tub of butter in my laboratory that 

 was sent in by one of our large central plants, to be inspected. 

 The sender stated that they had lost thousands of dollars during 

 the past summer owing to the peculiar metallic flavor the butter 

 possessed. The writer stated that they had never been troubled 

 with this kind of flavor until they begun pasteurizing old cream. 

 I have information from another reliable party, who operated a 

 central plant, confirming the above statement from his own 

 experience. Some people have an erroneous idea that pasteur- 

 ization is a panacea for all defects in cream. Pasteurization does 

 not destroy the flavor that is already present in decomposed 

 cream, but it does largely destroy the germs that produce this 

 flavor. This reminds me of the colored man talking with his 

 lawyer who was consulting him about the crime he had com- 

 mitted. The lawyer remarked : "Why they cannot put you in jail 

 for that," but the colored man said: "My Lord, man, they got 

 me; I am already in jail." When this flavor is already in the 

 cream, it cannot be removed by pasteurization. Every loss that 



