432 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



HOW TO PREPARE STARTERS FOR CREAM RIPENING. 



W. B. JOHNSON, MONTICELLO, lA. 



Members of the Association, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is with great 

 pleasure that I have been iDermitted to meet with you at this, the 29th 

 Annual Convention of the Iowa and Dairymen's Association. A meet- 

 ing where the hearty clasp of the hand of buttermaker. dairymen, 

 supplymen and commissionmen denotes brotherly love and friendship, 

 a meeting of instruction and enjoyment to all and I am glad to be with 

 you. 



W^hen Mr. Kelffer, the man whom every buttermaker honors and is 

 delighted to sae enter their creamery, providing it is sweet and clean, 

 and they have a fine piece of butter for him to pass judgment upon, 

 asked me to take a place on the program at this meeting. I accepted 

 not because I felt equal to the fulfillment of his invitation but because 

 I could not refuse a man that has always stood ready to lend a help- 

 ing hand to the cause of dairying or aid a butter maker that was in need. 

 Consequently I promised to do whatever I could. 



The subject that he wished me to take up is the preparing and 

 handling of starters for cream ripening. This is a wide subject and 

 one that is in-exhaustable in itself and something that is indispensible 

 in the manufacturing of a fir.e uniform grade of butter. This has 

 been demonstrated not only by the best buttermakers of this state but 

 by the best buttermakers of the world. Being brought to light in 

 •Iowa by such men as Prof. McKay, developed by him and others and 

 pronounced the only way to successful buttermaking, whereby the but- 

 termaker who is furnished good milk or cream can produce butter of a 

 uniform grade. Not wishing to go on record as authority in the 

 starter question but believing that I understand the fundamental prin- 

 ciples of starters and knowing that I have accomplished more and 

 derived better results with their use then I could have obtained with- 

 out I will now give you an idea of how I should handle starters and 

 my experience along the line and their effects upon the finished pro- 

 duct. First how to prepare a starter: The first thing to be done when 

 preparing a starter is to select the best milk that can be found; milk 

 that is clean, milk that is rich in milk sugar, that has a bright appear- 

 ance, that was produced where the conditions were most favorable. 

 What I mean by favorable conditions is the locality as to drainage, feed, 

 and pure water; where everything is kept clean and sweet, such as 

 cans, pails, strainers, etc., where the barnyard is clean and dry and 

 the stables are kept sweet by an occasional coat of whitewash, and 

 where the man in charge takes pride in his part of the work as milking, 

 with dry hands thoughly aerating the milk after the milking is 



