BUTTER-MAKING. 1 3 I 



south of Ireland an establishment where many farmers' butters 

 are blended on the Continental method, and the business was 

 rapidly increasing the last time I had a report of it. There are 

 also creameries or butter factories in that country, as well as in 

 Great Britain, and these produce butters sufficiently uniform to 

 command higher prices than the butters of France or Denmark. 



This ought to be proof enough that, if we will, we can sur- 

 pass all other countries ; it is our equable and yet variable 

 climate, which is given to frequent changes, though not to 

 greatest extremes, and is withal pretty constantly humid, that 

 gives us our advantage. 



And, again, some of the cheese factories of England turn out 

 cheese that is even more uniform than that of America, and is 

 therefore preferred by dealers and consumers alike. The want 

 of uniformity, indeed, which characterises a great deal of the 

 cheese and butter made in British farmhouses, quite apart from 

 the question of quality, is a great and chronic source of loss to 

 farmers in all parts of the country. 



The newest development in butter-making is the use of "pare 

 cultures " of bacteria to ripen the cream, and it is calculated to 

 accomplish a great and beneficent improvement in an industry 

 of vast importance. The merit of the process lies in cultivating 

 the sort or sorts of bacteria that are essential to the production 

 of fine butter, and in excluding those that do harm. It is un- 

 derstood that of the many kinds of ferments to which milk is 

 subject, only some three or four are of real service to the butter- 

 maker; these are now "cultivated," and the preparation is 

 already an article of commerce. A given quantity of this 

 "starter," as it is called in some districts, in a given number of 

 quarts of cream, some hours before churning, causes the cream 

 to ripen, and, as a sequel thereto, the flavour of the butter is 

 developed. In dairies where fine butter is, and has long been, 

 produced, it is a foregone conclusion that the atmosphere is 

 impregnated with the necessary bacteria ; and it is probably 

 true that in other dairies, where inferior butter is constantly 

 made, the wrong sorts of bacteria are present in numbers far 

 too great, to the exclusion of the beneficent sorts. 



