336 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. ]\Iiller: My reason for asking was that I had heard 

 so many say, one ought to have a fifty-gallon can. If a man is 

 making good butter with a thirty-gallon starter can he is doing all 

 right. I believe a number of buttermakers are making a mistake 

 in buying a fifty-gallon can to make twenty-five or thirty tubs of 

 butter. I think we have too much poor starter used. 



Mr. Keiffer: I would suggest from my past experience that 

 each buttermaker would use his head in the game and use it 

 on the starter that he thinks he ought to use. For instance in a 

 whole milk plant 12 or 15 per cent starter used in good milk or 

 cream will be sufficient to hasten the ripening of that cream in 

 due time so the man can get through with his work and cool it 

 down in the evening. If he is getting poor milk or cream and 

 is an able man who understands the use of starters, understands 

 the nature of bacteria, that man can use a good deal more starter; 

 he can use 25 per cent starter in order to ovei'come those 

 bad bacteria that are in the cream; but if he has good milk and 

 good cream it takes less to ripen that and put it in the right 

 condition than where he has poor material. So I think each 

 buttermaker should use his head in the game and study that 

 question. There is no particular gain that I can see for a butter- 

 maker to use 30 per cent starter in good cream or good cream that 

 is pasteurized. I do not see where his gain w'ould be. After he 

 inoculated that with good bacteria they will predominate and 

 grow. The only thing that could be gained by using 30 or 40 

 per cent starter, which I have often used, is to hasten the ripening 

 of the cream, ripen it in three hours because I wanted to keep 

 other bacteria from getting into the fat. That was the object in 

 that case, but for every-day work I do not think the buttermakers 

 will find it practical to carry along pretty near as much starter 

 in his creamery as he has cream. I think he would find it too 

 burdensome and it is not necessary in a good milk plant to do 

 that. Eighteen thousand pounds of milk, as was suggested by 

 ]\Ir. ]\Iiller, "would not need over a twenty-gallon can of starter to 

 ripen that cream properly. Of course I was speaking to the butter- 

 maker that has not got his head in the game. If he has his 

 head in the game he will not only have it on the starter, but will 

 have it on the quality of the cream he is getting. His head will 

 be in the game and he \W11 see that he gets good cream. When 

 you get cream that has gone beyond that stage, I do not think 



