TREATMENT OF CREAM PREVIOUS TO THE CHURNING. 219 



The use of a new starter is to be recommended when 

 the quality of the butter is deteriorating or is unsatis- 

 factory, and above all when milk varying in freshness, 

 purity, and general qualities is sent to the creamery. 



Where the quality of the butter is not satisfactory, and 

 where it also proves difficult or impossible to prepare good 

 new acid, it will be necessary to apply buttermilk from 

 another creamery. 



3. Buttermilk from Another Creamery as Starter. 

 This should of course be obtained only from a creamery 

 where the butter is good, and where the ripening is suc- 

 cessfully conducted at the time. The practice of using 

 buttermilk from another creamery is very old, and has 

 especially been used in places where proper churning has 

 been conducted under great difficulties, and where the 

 cream has not soured evenly, but has remained thin and 

 turned bitter and "off flavor." However simple this 

 remedy may seem it has not often been resorted to doubt- 

 less because butter-makers have considered it a reflection 

 on their ability not to get out of the difficulty by their 

 own efforts. The practice seems, however, now to be more 

 generally followed as the great importance of the ripening 

 of the cream for the quality of the butter is better under- 

 stood. With the experience of late years we may say that 

 in some cases it is a sign of ability and care on part of the 

 butter-maker rather than the other way, if he tries to ob- 

 tain a good starter from another source when his own has 

 for a long time proved unsatisfactory. 



It has happened in some cases that a butter-maker has 

 succeeded in getting the ripening process in proper order 

 by a single application of good buttermilk from another 

 creamery good results having later been obtained by ap- 



