BACTERIA IN BUTTER-MAKING. 225 



3. By far the most important purpose in cream-ripening is 

 the production in the butter of a desirable flavor and aroma. 

 It has been demonstrated over and over that butter made from 

 unripened cream lacks the peculiar flavor and aroma which are 

 characteristic of high-grade butter, and that these characters 

 appear as the result of the ripening. If the ripening is not 

 satisfactory, the flavor and aroma of the butter are sure to be 

 inferior. This is the chief reason why cream-ripening is so 

 universal. 



The importance of this factor in butter-making for our 

 creameries is very great indeed, more so than is commonly 

 appreciated by the butter-makers themselves. When we re- 

 member that the market price of butter depends largely upon 

 the flavor, we can easily appreciate how much the butter- 

 maker is dependent upon this process of cream-ripening. 

 Butter without flavor, or with bad flavor, brings a price in the 

 market which hardly pays for the making, while a product 

 with a good flavor and aroma will sell for at least three or four 

 cents more a pound, and the exceptionally fine-flavored prod- 

 uct of special creameries brings a fancy price two or three 

 times that of poor butter. The flavor will add at least two or 

 three cents, and sometimes one-third or one-half to the price 

 which could be obtained for poorly flavored butter or for butter 

 without flavor. In ordinary dairying, then, the success or 

 failure of a creamery business depends, in large measure, upon 

 this factor. A creamery which fails to ripen its cream properly 

 fails to obtain a desirable flavor in its butter. It inevitably 

 procures a lower price for its butter and may hardly meet ex- 

 penses ; while a neighboring creamery, that is more successful 

 in its cream-ripening, obtains a good-flavored product, and, 

 consequently, a price for its butter which makes the business 

 a financial success. This matter is of more significance to-day 

 than in earlier years, because our butter-making is coming to 

 be concentrated in large creameries. 



