194 
RELATION OF COMPOSITION OF BUTTER FAT TO COMPOSITION 
Ol’ BUTTER. 
During late spring and early summer, at a time when, as shown above, 
the Reichert-Meiss] number and the Iodine number are high and the melt- 
ing point is low, the butter-maker experiences usually considerable diffi- 
culty in manufacturing butter with a reasonably low moisture content. ‘This 
coincidence has suggested to the writers that there may be a more or less 
intimate relation betwen the melting point of the butter fats and their 
power to absorb water during the process of butter-making. A series of 
experiments was, therefore, conducted bearing on this point. The results 
are shown in Table XI. 
TABLE XL. 
Per Cent of Moisture Retained by Soft and Hard Fats Churned Separately. 
Per Cent 
Per Cent Water. 
du TS UP, ee eee Increase 
of Soft 
Soft Fats. Hard Fats Over Hard 
March:/butter.< . 2.10.22. Ce 43.84 24.76 77.02 
MSU DUUGeE se ye Node ares. sens wana Be . ; 50.62 24.78 104.28 
Average... ; 47.23 24.77 90.65 
ter fat (butter fat with a low and a high melting point) were separated 
from one another by fractional crystallization of the fats and by pressure. 
The soft and hard portions were churned separately under identical con- 
ditions, adding the same amount of water to each churning and churning 
at the same temperature. 
Twelve separate churnings were made each, the March butter and 
the May butter. In the March butter the per cent increase of the mois- 
ture of the soft fats over that of the hard fats was 77.02. In the May but- 
ter the per cent increase of the moisture of the soft fats over that of the 
hard fats was 104.28. These figures unmistakably show that the soft fats 
are capable of taking up a great deal more moisture than the hard fats. 
They, therefore, can leave little doubt that the material increase in the 
