772 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



milking, the manner of setting tlie cream, the temperature, etc, 

 will all be important factors favoring one form of bacteria and 

 hindering others. If the battle results in favor of the beneficial 

 species, a good-flavored butter will result, while, if the injurious 

 species should get the upper hand, the butter will be bad. The 

 results are at present beyond the control, of the butter-maker. 

 By practice he has found the methods which will commonly re- 

 sult in a good product ; but even with his greatest precautions he 

 is occasionally unable to obtain the best butter. At certain sea- 

 sons of the year failure to obtain good butter is about as common 

 as success even in our best creameries. 



Now, bacteriologists would not pretend that the bacteria con- 

 tent of the ripening cream is the sole reason of the variations 

 in the quality of the butter product. Different conditions of the 

 cattle, different food, etc., will all affect the butter, but beyond 

 doubt bacteria have an important part to play. Now, uniformity 

 in the product of the dairy is the great desideratum of the butter- 

 maker. Usually he can make good butter, but sometimes he fails 

 from unexplained causes. The complexity of the ripening pro- 

 cess makes it impossible for him to be sure of uniformity in this 

 respect, even though other conditions are constant. But what is 

 to prevent the bacteriologist finding the right bacteria to produce 

 a proper aroma to the butter and furnishing them in quantity to 

 the butter-maker to use in time of trouble ? They may then be 

 planted in the cream, and thus a ripening always assured which 

 shall be of the best character. It seems to be entirely possible 

 thus to produce uniformity in this direction. Already in Ger- 

 many and Denmark and in this country experiments have been 

 started looking in this direction with much promise of success. 

 It is not unlikely, therefore, that before long the butter-maker 

 will have at his command a method of assuring success in the 

 aroma of his butter if he only exercises ordinary skill in the pro- 

 cess of its manufacture. If such an artificial ferment may be 

 obtained, uniformity in the ripening of cream will be easy. Per- 

 haps the result will be to bring the different creameries into 

 greater likeness to each other, enabling those which now are un- 

 able to obtain a first-class product to improve its flavor by using 

 the right species of bacteria for ripening in the place of the in- 

 ferior species which are afforded by some localities. This would 

 perhaps not improve the best qualities of butter, but would bring 

 the inferior qualities to a higher standard. 



Cheese. — If bacteria are an aid to the butter-maker, they are 

 absolutely indispensable to the cheese manufacturer. Some peo- 

 ple do enjoy the taste of sweet-cream butter, and there has been 

 for some time an evident tendency toward a desire for less strongly 

 tasting butter. But no one desires to eat fresh cheese. When 



