142 : 
WHXPERIMENTS CONCERNING THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THIs 
MOISTURE CONTENT OF BUTTER. 
Accurate data concerning the moisture content of butter were meager, 
and it seemed obvious that this question could be satisfactorily settled 
only by means of careful experiments. So, about two years ago, the Dairy 
Department at Purdue University started investigations concerning the 
variations of the moisture content cf butter and the causes of these 
variations. 
Analyses of butter of the Purdue Creamery and of about 30 creameries 
in the State showed that in spring and early summer there was a rapid 
and decided increase in the per cent of water in butter. Analyses of the 
composition of the butter fats in the same butter showed a decided in- 
crease in the per cent of volatile and soft fats (fats of a low melting 
point) and a corresponding decrease in the per cent of hard fats in spring 
and early summer. 
These results suggested the possibility that the composition of the 
fats may, in a measure, control the per cent of moisture incorporated in 
butter. On the strength of this assumption the pure butter fat was ex- 
tracted from various lots of butter, and by means of fractional crystalliza- 
tion at different temperatures the soft and the hard fats were separated 
from one another as completely as was possible with this method. The 
two classes of fats were then churned separately and under identical con- 
ditions as to the moisture present and temperature. The analyses of these 
churnings showed that the butter made from the soft fats contained about 
50 per cent more water than the butter made from the hard fats. 
The uniformity of the results of repeated experiments justified the 
conclusion that, other conditions being equal, the relation of soft to hard 
fats controlled the moisture content of butter. 
EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING THE CAUSES OF VARIATIONS IN 
THE PER CENT OF VOLATILE, SOFT AND HARD FATS. 
The results just described naturally lead to the question, What are 
the causes underlying the variation in the proportion of soft and hard 
fats? 
It is an established fact that certain feeds, when fed in excess, have 
a tendency to produce an excess of soft or hard fats in butter. Thus. 
“ 
for instance, cotton-seed meal, bran, corn, overripe fodders, ete., tend to 
