FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART V. 315 



to hftv-two (lei^rces in summer. How much cliani^-c anouIcI we 

 make from that? 



Answer: In the spring, when }'ou have that difficuh time, 

 you all know we have churned down to forty-six, and we have 

 had to churn at forty-f(3ur degrees. Later we raised it to about 

 fifty degrees; in the fall we got to fifty-two to fifty- four degrees 

 and continue upon that temperature right along. That will 

 always give you best results. You can get your Imttermilk 

 clean to .05 per cent, and that is clean churning, and the butter 

 will always come solid. 



AIr. Slaughter : Do you think you can use the same churn- 

 ing temperature in all sections of the country? 



Answer : Of course not. There are many conditions we can- 

 not account for. There are different kinds of feeds and a num- 

 ber of conditions that I am not familiar with. 



Mr. SIvAughTER : In other words, you could not lay down 

 any specific rule for churning. 



Answer: I have never been able to do so. You can get 

 some cream from away up in Dakota and mav have to churn 

 that a little different from the central part of Iowa. There are 

 so many conditions that influence that part of it that it is pretty 

 hard to describe. 



STARTERS AND CREAM RIPENING. 



C. LARSOX, AMES. 



Members of the Iowa State Dairy Association, Ladies and Gentle- 

 men: Ordinarily speaking, all the different kinds of starters are included 

 under the names, "natural" and "commercial. ' The latter is pre- 

 palred from a supposed pure culture of bacteria obtained from the labor- 

 atory. The former, or natural, include a great many kinds of dairy 

 products, which are supposed to contain a preponderance of those germs 

 which are involved in the production of desirable flavors in butter. But- 

 termilk, sour cream, whey and sour whole or skim milk are classed 

 under this heading. While all of these may be termed natural starters, 

 and at certain times the use of any one of them may produce better re 

 suits than if no starter at all was used, it is not safe to rely upon these 

 to bring about better results than could be obtained without the use of 

 starters, because these products are likely to be contaminated in a large- 

 degree with undesirable germs. A good natural starter is usually ob- 



