Vermont Dairymen's Association. lOl 



such an extreme that they have seriously injured the quahty of 

 their butter. The maker who gets 30 or 35 percent overrun is 

 perpetrating a fraud on the pubHc by selHng a surpkis of 

 moisture for butter or more water than the law permits. Now, on 

 the other hand, I do not advocate an extreme dry butter, as I be- 

 lieve that when it contains 14 or 15 percent water it will usually 

 possess more flavor and show better color than will butter that 

 contains but 7 or 8 percent. Butter is intended to spread on bread, 

 so it must necessarily be plastic. 



The Danish butter has been held up to the rest of the world 

 as a model. We find, for a number of years back, that they 

 have been constantly increasing the moisture content of their 

 butter, so much so that the English merchants have complained 

 lately about it. When I visited the English markets in 1901, 

 I heard no complaint against the Danish butter in this particular 

 point. In 1895 we find that the average water content of Danish 

 butter was 13.70; in 1896 we notice a slight decrease, 13.68; in 

 1897, the average was 13.79, a slight increase and in 1898, it 

 was 13.93. ^^ 1S99 we find it is 14.06 and in 1900 it was 14.09; 

 1902 it was 14.52. So we find that up to this date there has not 

 been any complaint against Danish butter for excessive moisture 

 content. All countries seem to have fixed about the same 16 

 percent standard for maximum water content. Now my advice 

 to makers would be to endeavor to incorporate 14 or 14}^ percent 

 water. A 14 percent water content would give you an overrun 

 of about 21 percent and allow you a little for waste. You can 

 add about one-fifth of the water content of salt, or in other 

 words, the water in butter will take up one-fifth of its bulk in a 

 saturated solution. Butter containing fifteen percent water will 

 stand 3 percent of salt in the finished product. Three percent 

 salt suits the average American market well. This much salt 

 can be incorporated without the butter being gritty or seeming 

 over-salted to the taste. A medium high salted butter is less 

 frequently attacked by mold, as salt is an antiseptic. It would 

 seem from investigations that are being pursued by the Dairy 

 Departments at Washington, D. C, and at the State College, at 

 Ames, Iowa, that the high salting of butter is not desirable for 

 storage purposes. Notwithstanding the fact that millions upon 

 milions of dollars are invested annually in storage butter, there is 

 practically no information available on the making of butter for 

 storage purposes or the best temperatures for keeping it in cold 

 storage. I believe from the work that we are pursuing, in con- 

 nection with the Department of Agriculture of Washington, D. 

 C, that we will be in a position to give out definite information 

 on this subject before the next storage season. We found, from 

 experiments carried on at Ames a few years ago, that butter 



