280 N. H. AGR. EXPERIMENT STATION. [Bulletin 141 



5. A good deal of the farm butter made, altho often selling for a 

 high price, is of low grade, especially lacking in uniformity and keep- 

 ing quality The principal reasons being: 



a. Lack of equipment, especially in the way of suitable building 

 or specially equipped rooms. Only eight per cent, of the farms 

 visited had a special room or building used exclusively for the 

 dairy work. 



b. Lack of cleanliness in the stables and during milking. In a 

 number of cases people did not realize that the care and cleanli- 

 ness exercised in the stable and during milking is fully as essential 

 to the production of good butter as the care and cleanliness exer- 

 cised in the manufacture of the butter. 



c. Insufficient control of temperature. Only 33.3 per cent, of 

 the buttermakers made provision for ice, 4.1 per cent, had running 

 spring water, while the rest had no means of regulating the tem- 

 perature of the cream during storing and ripening, nor the tempera- 

 ture of the wash water. Altogether too little use was made of the 

 thermometer. 



d. Cream too old and too sour. Reports received from butter- 

 makers show that 25.8 churned once, 58.4 twice, 11.2 per cent, three 

 times, and 4.6 per cent, either four or six times a week. It is ex- 

 ceedingly difficult to make good butter when churning is done only 

 once a week, as the cream gets too old and often too sour before 

 churning. It is recommended to churn at least twice a week, and 

 even then it is necessary to be able to control the temperatures of 

 the cream either by using ice or cold spring water in order to 

 make good butter. 



e. Too high churning temperature. The churning temperature 

 being too high is often responsible for the dull appearance, poor 

 body and poor keeping quality of the butter, and also for an ex- 

 cessive loss in the buttermilk. Losses in buttermilk varied from 

 .05 to 1.5 per cent. 



f. Overchurning and overworking. By churning the butter into 

 large lumps, a great deal of buttermilk is incorporated, causing a 

 rapid deterioration of the butter. Overworking, altho not as com- 

 monly practiced, tends to give the butter a dead, worn appearance 

 and a poor body. In no case should the hands touch the butter 

 during working and packing. 



' 6. The overrun (pounds of finished butter in excess of pounds of 

 butterfat) varied from 4.7 per cent, to 19 per cent, with an average 

 of 13.4, which is 3 per cent, below the estimated amount of 16.4 per 

 cent, or 1 1-6 pounds of butter from each pound of butterfat. 



7. The most common defects in farm butter are (1) rancidity, due 

 to the cream's being too old or sour, too high ripening tempera- 

 ture, or the butter's not being sufficiently protected from heat and 

 • light and (2) poor flavors, absorbed by the cream, during storing and 

 ripening, and by the butter when kept near strong smelling food 

 stuffs, (3) mottles, as a result of too much buttermilk being incorpor- 

 ated, the action of the casein on the salt producing the uneven color. 



