DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 341 



hold his trade, because when a tub of butter turns strong in a short time 

 or before being used up, it is next to impossible to sell the party who 

 purchased it, another tub of the same brand, even though it seems good 

 and you offer it to him at a reduced price. 



That exclusively winter product, bitter butter, is just as bad as the 

 summer product, rancid butter, and is its opposite in most all particulars, 

 the low temperature starting the bitter ferment, which only proper heat 

 and souring will counteract. This I ascertained after considerable in- 

 vestigation and expense many years ago and have published my results 

 at various times in the Rural World. 



BITTER :\IILK. 



(By C. H. Eckles, Professor of Dairy Husbandry, Columbia, Mo.) 



I have been asked to discuss bitter butter, its causes and prevention. 

 The statements which I shall make are based mostly upon experiments 

 which I have conducted along this line and are not a matter of theory. 

 I cannot take time to refer to the sources of my information or to dis- 

 cuss any experiments in detail. 



Bitter butter, as the butter men and consumers know it, is generally 

 found in the winter season and mostly in the products of dairies rather 

 than of creameries. Bitter taste may be found in any dairy product as 

 well as in butter and is often found in milk, cream and cheese. The 

 cause is the same, however, and what is said of it applies to the condi- 

 tions wherever found. 



Butter may be of good quality when made but develop a very bitter 

 taste later. Aidk may be perfectly normal when milked but become ex- 

 tremely bitter with age. This bitter condition has been credited by most 

 dairymen to stripper cows or faulty feeding. The dairyman has been 

 ever ready to blame the cow or the feed for every defect in butter or 

 cheese, while as a matter of fact the cow, as a rule, gives a pure prod- 

 uct and our common feeds seldom affect the quality of butter or cheese 

 seriously. Nine times out of ten a poor product is not to be blamed to 

 the cow but to the man. 



JNIilk from stripper cows very rarely will have a peculiar, somewhat 

 bitter taste but hardly sufficient to show in the butter under any cir- 

 cumstances. It is safe to say not one case in a hundred is due to this 

 cause. If feed is used with very bitter taste it may go into the milk in 

 suff'icient amounts to cause the same bitter taste, but our common feeds 

 are not bitter, and in fact it is as well to leave this cause out of con- 

 sideration altogether as it is of so little importance. 



