410 Bacteria in Relation to Country Life 



from satisfactory. Under the older system of delivering 

 whole milk, the farmer found procrastination less prac- 

 ticable. This state of affairs is not only unjust to the 

 farmer whose dairy is clean, and whose cream is of good 

 quality, but, also, complicates the work of the butter- 

 maker and, at times, reduces him to despair. He cannot 

 make good butter out of inferior cream, however care- 

 ful he may be in the preparation and use of his starters. 

 When confronted by this situation, his chances for turn- 

 ing out a fairly uniform product are improved by the use 

 of pure-culture starters and the pasteurization of his 

 cream. 



The best results from pure-culture starters are to 

 be expected, theoretically, when the latter are used with 

 pasteurized cream. The bacteria present in the fresh 

 cream are either destroyed or weakened by pasteuriza- 

 tion, and the organisms supplied in the starter are per- 

 mitted to develop unhindered. As already noted, a 

 uniform product is thus assured. When two or three 

 different species are furnished in the culture, the flavor, 

 as well as the keeping quality of the butter are, on the 

 whole, satisfactory. 



In some localities in Europe, and particularly in 

 Denmark, the pasteurization of cream and its ripening 

 by means of culture starters is the common practice. 

 In this country, a more strongly flavored butter is pre- 

 ferred, and unpasteurized cream is found, therefore, to 

 yield a more satisfactory product. Either artificial or nat- 

 ural starters are employed, and are added in proportions 

 sufficiently large (usually about 10 per cent) to assure a 

 preponderance of the desirable lactic-acid bacteria, 



