466 BUTTER SCORING 



have hindered him from putting this knowledge "across" in his 

 factory. 



Again, the basis upon which the butter is scored at most 

 of the scoring contests puts a premium on a very mistaken 

 standard of excellence, that not only has no real commercial val- 

 ue, but is a positive detriment to the success of the butter in- 

 dustry. 



The ideal used as the basis for scoring has been that of 

 butter with a highly developed butter flavor, and in their efforts 

 to successfully compete, the buttermakers so ripened their cream 

 and handled their butter as to cause it to possess as high a flavor 

 as possible on the day of the contest. 



Elsewhere in this volume it is conclusively shown that butter 

 so made has very poor keeping quality. It has reached the very 

 limit of changes it is capable of undergoing, without actually 

 deteriorating in flavor and any further changes, which it is bound 

 to suffer with age, will cause it to develop off-flavors. The 

 butter with high flavor which wins top scores and honors at 

 these contests, therefore, has the ear-marks of butter that does 

 not keep well and that, by the time it reaches the table of the 

 consumer, may be anything but "prize butter." 



Since the consumer is the final judge of the value of butter, 

 the butter must have such keeping property that it is able to 

 withstand agencies of deterioration until it is consumed, and 

 it is essential to the success of the butter industry that the 

 buttermaker concentrate his knowledge and energy in this 

 direction, rather than to manufacture butter that is a prize win- 

 ner tomorrow and that "goes to pieces" thereafter. 



In some of the states the management of scoring contests, 

 appreciating the significance of these facts, is effectively cor- 

 recting this weakness, by either holding all contest butter for 

 several weeks before the contest, or by rescoring a second time 

 after an interval of several weeks. The results of scoring 

 contests following this practice are bound to be fruitful of 

 much real good, from the standpoint of assisting the butter- 

 maker in his efforts to improve the commercial value of his 

 butter. 



Finally, the conducting of educational butter scoring con- 

 tests has much educational value in an indirect way. It is an 



