2O4 BACTERIA IN BUTTER. 



tion products had been produced as to affect injuriously the 

 quality of the butter. The addition of the large quantity of 

 lactic organisms as a starter would check this growth more 

 quickly, and would thus prevent the development of too great 

 an abundance of unfavorable decomposition products. For 

 these reasons it is quite clear that the addition of a culture, 

 even to unpasteurized cream, may be useful in butter-making. 



THE VALUE OF ARTIFICIAL STARTERS. 



In determining the value of the methods of butter-making 

 above outlined, several distinct problems come up which may 

 be considered in turn. 



Pure Culture Starters Compared with Spontaneous Ripen- 

 ing. Experimental tests of the value of butter made with 

 and without pure cultures have shown that the best quality 

 of butter made with pure cultures is apparently not quite 

 equal to the best quality of butter made by spontaneous 

 ripening. In other words, under the best conditions a better 

 butter may be made from cream which ripened spontane- 

 ously than from cream which is ripened by the use of pure 

 cultures. But these exceptionally fine grades of butter are 

 not the ordinary yield, and the result of general experience 

 is that culture butter is, on the average, somewhat better 

 than butter that is made in the normal fashion. The expla- 

 nation of this is simple enough. When butter is made in 

 an experiment station or upon an individual farm special 

 care may be taken to produce cream in the best condition. 

 Under these circumstances a pure culture may be of no 

 advantage. In general dairying, and especially in cream- 

 eries, all sorts of cream, good and bad, must be accepted. 

 While cultures cannot correct these imperfections they are 

 of some use in counteracting the effect of the miscellaneous 

 organisms in the mixed cream. Under such conditions cul- 

 tures may produce an improvement, though individual tests 

 do not show the same advantage. 



