l8o BACTERIA IN BUTTER. 



cases the amount of cream at the disposal of the butter-maker 

 has been too small to make it possible to churn daily. As a 

 result, the cream, after being separated from the milk, has 

 been kept for two to four days, usually in a cold place, until 

 enough has accumulated to make a conveniently sized churn- 

 ing. This keeping of the cream for several days, even 

 though it is kept cool, has of necessity resulted in ripening. 

 This is doubtless the origin of the process of ripening. 



But, although its origin was thus a necessity of the condi- 

 tions of churning in earlier years, the process has been kept 

 up and is adopted almost universally to-day, even though the 

 butter-making has been concentrated into large creameries 

 and the churning takes place daily. Cream ripening has 

 continued till the present time because of its utility; for it 

 produces certain changes in the character of the cream which 

 result in a considerable modification of the process of butter- 

 making and a noticeable change in the nature of the butter. 

 Indeed, the more the butter-making industry becomes con- 

 centrated the greater is the necessity, not only of the ripen- 

 ing of the cream, but of the more and more careful attention 

 given to this phase of butter-making. In earlier years butter 

 was made on the individual farm, a few pounds at a time, 

 and it made little difference whether the ripening was prop- 

 erly conducted or not. If the ripening was not satisfactory in 

 any churning it affected only a few pounds of butter, and 

 was a fact to which the farmer paid little attention. When, 

 however, a creamery makes hundreds or even thousands of 

 pounds of butter per day, and is subjected to the competition 

 of modern industry, it is much more important that every 

 detail in the butter-making should be carefully considered. 

 It has become more and more necessary, as the creameries 

 have become concentrated, that the ripening of the cream 

 should be placed under as strict control as possible. It is 

 only as the ripening is controlled that the concentration of 

 butter-making in large creameries is thoroughly successful. 



