SPECKS IN BUTTER. 43 



My experience has not been very extensive in that line, but 

 what little I have had has been very much in favor of the 

 Ayrshires. 



Mr. . In connection with Mr. Ellsworth's state- 

 ment in regard to churning cream that was obtained by 

 a second skimming, I would like to give a little of my 

 experience. Last winter, it happened to be my choice to 

 make butter a few weeks from milk skimmed quite early, 

 before the cream had all risen. So much cream came up after 

 the skimming, that it seemed wasteful to throw it away, and 

 we collected it, but we did not churn it for perhaps two 

 weeks. At the expiration of that time, we churned it, in 

 cold weather, without scalding, — the circumstances all un- 

 favorable, — and made the poorest butter we ever made. 



Mr. Ellsworth. What produces the white specks that 

 are sometimes found in butter after churning ? 



Mr. Arnold. They come from different causes. There 

 are two causes which seem to produce that result. One is 

 the dried cream. But it is very seldom that dried cream pro- 

 duces the specks, for when cream is dry, when you churn it, 

 unless the butter comes very quickly, churning long enough 

 to bring the butter will dash those dried particles to pieces ; 

 they will become soft and mingle with the buttermilk, and 

 not be in lumps. But sometimes that may not occur ; they 

 may not be so mixed up but that you see particles of cream 

 stuck together. The usual cause is the coagulation of little 

 bits of milk by the action of germs in the milk. In the fall, 

 when the cows are being dried off, and the milk remains some 

 time in the bag, those specks are very likely to appear. If 

 you have a glass vessel, that you can look through, you will 

 often find them developing in the bottom of the vessel, and 

 they will curdle a little bit of the milk, and create a gas in it, 

 and by the fermentation which centres around that spot, it 

 will become light and work its way up through to the top, and 

 be found in the cream. At another time, it will develop in 

 the cream, and coagulate a little bit of milk, and remain 

 there, and when you come to churn, you will not break them 

 to pieces. If you will take such milk and scald it, and kill 

 the germs at the start, the white specks will not appear. 



Mr. Ellsworth. I am of the opinion that I can open my 



