FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV. 273 



QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD BUTTERMAKER. 



PROFESSOR MCKAY, AMES. 



Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen— \ can assure you it is a pleasure 

 for me to be present at this meeting. I am always pleased to meet with the 

 dairymen of Iowa, the traveling men and the commission men from adjoin- 

 ing states. During the past few days, as many of you know, I have spent 

 the greatest portion of my time judging butter, sampling butter, conse- 

 quently I am not in very good condition to talk this evening. The past week 

 I had the same experience in Canada, so I am pretty well buttered by this 

 time. 



Our friend Professor Smith, of Michigan, spoke this afternoon about how 

 generous the people of Michigan treated the dairymen of the State. In the 

 Province of Ontario, which has a population about the same as Iowa (two 

 and a half millions) they have three dairy schools; they give to the dairy- 

 men's association $5,000 annually; they have twenty instructors in the field, 

 we have two; so you can readily understand the condition of the dairy busi- 

 ness in the Province of Ontario. 



We have done, I think, excellent work, especially uring the past two 

 years. Professor Smith has mentioned the fact that we are the banner State 

 in corn. He should have mentioned the fact also that we are the banner 

 State in butter. We hear a lot about butter from the Esquimaus of the 

 frozen North, but when it comes down to butter making we produce more 

 butter than any State in the Union. 



In discussing the qualifications of buttermakers I would say that it is 

 well to have some understanding about what kind of maker is wanted. We 

 have the makers of dairy butter, and they are many in number. With 

 your permission I will review the various methods used in butter-making, 

 and the many changes that have taken place during the past twenty or 

 twenty-five years. First, we have the shallow pan system of creaming, 

 then the deep setting system. These both have their good features. Then 

 we have the whole milk system, which has resulted in producing better 

 butter than any other system ever originated in this or any other country. 

 Now, we have in many places the so-called hand separator system or the 

 central plant system. Most of these require special buttermakers or butter- 

 makers with special training in that direction. 



When I was a boy it was a common thing to hear the remark that Mrs. 

 or Miss So-and-So was the best buttermaker in the community. Now, if it 

 had been said that Mrs. or Miss So-and-So was the cleanest maker in the 

 community the statement would at once have been challenged. Neverthe- 

 less, there was considerable truth in the statement. 



We find in taking up butter that flavor counts for about half the total in 

 scoring. The kinds of bacteria that produce the desirable flavors thrive 

 best under the most perfect sanitary conditions, therefore a good butter- 

 maker must be a clean person, whether in the dairy or the creamery. That 

 old saying that ' 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness " is certainly true in but. 

 ter-making. Ordinarily, in dairy butter-making, where the maker has 

 entire control, if perfect sanitary methods are used the flavor will usually be 



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