DAIRY FARMING— DAIRYING AGROTECHNY. 577 



Butter making' in Maryland, C. W. Melick (Maryhind ^fa. Bui. J3o, pi). 

 22o-28-'i, figs'. 3). — To <letorniino the cause of lack of uniforiuity iu Maryland 

 butter, letters of inquiry concerning methods employed were sent to creameries 

 throusihout the State. Some of the creameries were visited and the herds of 

 creamery pati'ons were also inspected. Investigations of the manufacture of 

 sweet-cream butter are also reported in this bulletin. 



Some of the causes of the poor quality of butter were found to be lack of 

 proper sanitation on many farms and a deficiency in technical training of butter 

 makers. As dairying is only a side issue among creamery patrons less attention 

 is paid to essential details in handling the milk and cream than where dairying 

 is made a specialty. Suggestions are given for making butter on the farm, for 

 better methods of handling milk by creamery patrons, and for operating an 

 average Maryland creamery. 



Churnings we're made of normal ripened cream, sweet cream with and with- 

 out starters, and cream pasteurized at different temperatures. In all cases 

 immediate cooling after pasteurizing cream reduced the germ content and 

 lowered the percentage of acidity. Butter made from the best unpasteurized 

 cream when a commercial starter was added scored on an average 92.8 per cent; 

 that of the same kind of cream without a starter 90.1 per cent ; while when a 

 poorer grade of cream w-as used the difference was still greater. The keeping 

 quality of butter was also much better when a starter was added. Natural 

 starters, although carefully selected, were very seldom equal to starters made 

 from commercial cultures, and butter made from cream ripened by them lacked 

 the aroma and keeping qualities of the commercial-starter butter. 



" Butter made from cream to which cream starter had been added scored 92 

 to 98 per cent and had a good but mild flavor. Skim and whole milk starters, 

 liowever, usually contained more of the characteristic sharp acid taste. . . . 

 Best results were obtained with starter which contained from 0.9 per cent to 1 

 per cent of acid and possessed the desired flavor in a pronounced state. . . . 



'• It was found tliat when starter was added to cream in the churn it failed 

 to impart sutficient flavor and aroma to the butter. Adding the starter imme- 

 diately after pasteurizing and allowing the cream to cool for at least 2 hours, 

 during which time it was frequently stirred, permitted the lactic-acid bacteria 

 to penetrate the fat globules and thus impart and continue to develop the 

 desired flavor to the resulting butter. Much better results were obtained by 

 the use of pasteurized than with unpasteurized cream by this method. . . .' 



"A few experiments w^ere also made by adding starter to the butter in the 

 churn and working it in. While practically as much improvement was pro- 

 duced in the flavor by this method as by the addition of lactic acid in a similar 

 manner, the butter was always milky and usually mottled. 



" The results , . . show a marlced difference in favor of sweet cream churning 

 over that of cream ripening. . . . 



" Normal sweet cream may be successfully churned at temperatures below 

 52° F. when from 20 to 30 per cent of good starter has been added. When 

 churned at higher temperatures or without starter the loss of fat was too great 

 to warrant the adoption of this method. 



"There was slightly less loss of fat in the buttermilk fnmi cream ripened 

 with good starter than from cream to which starter had been added only 2 

 hours previous to churning, but the score of the latter was 'enough higher to 

 more than counterbalance this difference. . . . 



" Thp use of commercial lactic acid as a substitute for starter proved advan- 

 tageous only when used in very rancid cream or on butter from such cream 

 after washing the butter thoroughly. 



