DAIRY FARMING DAIRYING. 1091 



Portions of the data are arranged to show the effect on water content, 

 if any, of the season of the year, breed of cows, feed, methods of butter 

 making, salting, keeping, and other factors; and based upon these con- 

 siderations the author makes some deductions as to the limits of the 

 allowable water content of different classes of butter. He concludes 

 that, from the data at hand, salted or unsalted butter which contains 

 more than 20 per cent of water has unquestionably been either very 

 carelessly made or purposely adulterated, and accordingly should be 

 excluded from public sale as not fulfilling the reasonable expectations 

 of the consumer. Since the data for the better class of butter (from 

 dairies and creameries) show that the averages for -different countries 

 do not exceed 14 per cent of water; that at present fully four-fifths of 

 all the butter contains less than 16 per cent of water; that butter 

 regarded as good only occasionally exceeds 15 per cent of water, and 

 that an unusually high water content can be corrected by proper feed- 

 ing or methods of making, the author concludes that commercial table 

 butter should not contain, as a rule, more than 16 per cent of water, and 

 that all butter which contains from 16 to 20 per cent of water should be 

 classed as more or less inferior, according to its fat content — i. e., as 

 cooking or baking butter. 



Finally, a suggestion is made for the legal regulation of the sale of 

 butter in Germany, defining butter and fixing the following limits: 

 Butter fat, at least 80 per cent in table butter and 76 per cent in cook- 

 ing or baking butter; nonfatty organic solids (casein, milk sugar, lactic 

 acid, etc.), not exceeding 2 per cent; water, under 16 per cent in table 

 butter and under 20 per cent in cooking or baking butter; salt, not 

 over 3 per cent in table butter or over 5 per cent in cooking or baking 

 butter. 



The causes of the rancidity of butter, C. Anthor (Ztschr. Analyt. 

 Client., 38 (1899), JSTo. 1, pp. 10-20).— The author made a study of total 

 acids, volatile acids, esters, etc., of sweet and sour cream butter when 

 new and at different stages of rancidity. He finds that both sour- 

 cream butter and rancid butter contain alcohol, and that all butters 

 contain volatile bodies saponifiable by potash. Eancid butter also con- 

 tains esters of the free volatile fatty acids, principally ethyl ester of 

 butyric acid. The principal reason why a butter becomes rancid is 

 said to be the intensive development of " bouquet," which soon renders 

 the butter unfit for use, although the taste remains normal and the 

 total acid is much below Stockmeier's maximum of 8. The rancid odor 

 is caused principally by a mixture of small amounts of volatile fatty 

 acids and ester. In distillation the butyric ester odor is at first very 

 intense. As butter becomes older the development of bouquet reaches 

 a maximum, after which it decreases nearly to zero. In this condition 

 the butter is tallowy. Sweet cream butter becomes rancid much more 

 slowly than sour-cream butter and does not equal it in the development 

 of bouquet. 



20776— No. 11 7 



