330 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



should also be of a certain specific gravity. These things require skill. 

 The heating of milk for separation is not receiving the attention it should. 

 It was my privilege at the great national convention to try and ooint out 

 the defects in the butter exhibited. I found possibly from 30 to 40 per 

 cent of tbe flavor was injured more or less by the use of live steam for 

 heating milk. It was an easy matter in most cases to select the butter 

 where live steam had been used before reading the method of making, 

 many using the exhaust steam from the engine to heat the feed water for 

 boiler. Here we found the cylinder oil transmitted to the milk from the 

 boiler, this giving a decided oily flavor to the butter. The use of boiler 

 compounds showed injurious effects also. Why live steam should be used 

 for heating milk at the present time is a mystery to me. Many of the live 

 steam heaters not only injure the flavor by transmitting impurities from 

 the boiler, but the heating is not sufficient to give the best or desired 

 results. The heating of milk helps the fluidity of the fat globules. The 

 quick, flashy heating of milk has very little effect on the fat globules. 

 Therefore the separation of milk is not as perfect. Milk should be heated 

 for some time before the separation to get the best results. There is still 

 room on the market for a good heater. The centrifrugal separation of milk 

 is a wonderful process. Think of a separator bowl making from six thou- 

 sand to ten thousand revolutions per minute. Here we see sweet milk put 

 into the machine and skim-milk and cream immediately separated. Most 

 any machine will skim clean to a certain limit if the machine is run per- 

 fectly smooth and at the proper speed. A little vibration of the machine 

 causes a remixing of the cream, and no separator will skim thoroughly 

 clean that vibrates. This is where some makers in large creameries lose 

 possibly more than their wages. The next thing is cream ripening, which 

 is possibly the most important step in the whole process, as this is a fac- 

 tor that largely controls the flavor, and flavor is the quality that distin- 

 guishes butter from lard, tallow or any other fat. Flavor does not come 

 by chance. Take the national six-month contest just ended, and we find 

 that John Sollie of New Sweden, Minn., got an average score of 98.12. 

 This was not brought about by chance nor entirely by the good milk fur- 

 nished by the patrons. This maker informed me that he carried as many 

 as seven or eight starters during this contest. Here we find him select- 

 ing the kind of bacteria that produces the best flavor. 



A starter of any kind is only adding enormous quantity of a species of 

 bacteria that we expect to predominate in the final product. This takes 

 skill and hard work on the part of a maker. Starters of any kind are 

 quite difficult to carry forward, as every detail must be attended to punc- 

 tually. The maker must also have smell and taste well cultivated so that 

 he will be able to detect the slightest change or off-flavor. He must also 

 have some knowledge of the principles of bacteriology. A few years ago 

 it was largely chance-work for a maker to win two high scores in succes- 

 sion. Now we find makers who use pure cultures and have a knowledge 

 of the scientific principles of cream ripening, scoring high in most every 

 contest. It is asked, does all this care and trouble pay? I would say, 

 "Yes." As the value of the butter may be enhanced as much as 2 cents 



