CHAPTER III. 

 DISEASES OF BUTTER. 



IT has been and still is a general opinion among dairy- 

 men that a great many of the various diseases of butter are 

 attributable to a faulty feeding of the cows. But it has 

 been proved by bacteriological investigations that many 

 diseases are due to an infection of the milk, cream, or but- 

 ter with one or more forms of bacteria producing abnormal 

 fermentations in the same. The feeding of the cows cer- 

 tainly influences the quality of the butter, as has been 

 shown in a large number of older experiments. Other 

 conditions are also of importance in this regard. Several 

 butter faults, like white-specked butter (arising from an 

 excess of buttermilk remaining in the butter), or striped 

 butter (the salt being unevenly divided), or butter showing 

 an uneven color in the tub, etc., arise as a result of faulty 

 processes of manufacture. A smoky smell or taste, which 

 is sometimes found, especially in butter from small, poorly- 

 conducted dairies, is caused by keeping the milk or cream 

 in impure air. Wood taste in the butter arises when but- 

 ter is kept in tubs either made from an unfit kind of wood 

 or not properly cleaned, etc. 



On the other hand, more recent investigations, espe- 

 cially by the Danes Storch and Jensen, show that a great 

 many of the most common butter diseases have their 

 origin in an infection of the milk or cream by all kinds of 

 bacteria. 



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