The Essential Things in Making Good Butter 17 



making that warrants a chapter on these subjects. 

 You may discover in Chapter IV some facts about sep- 

 arating that you do not know or may have overlooked 

 or forgotten. 



It's a good thing to know the percentage of butter- 

 fat in your milk or cream. Such knowledge will give 

 you a basis for figuring the comparative value of the 

 different feeds and rations you give your cows, show- 

 ing which produce the richest milk. You will also 

 be able to ascertain, how much, if any, butterfat you 

 are losing in the churning, and why. The Babcock 

 test, the recognized standard test for finding the per 

 cent of butterfat in cream or milk, is fully explained 

 in Chapter V. 



Almost as important as the improved processes of 

 churning and working butter are the modern scientific 

 methods of preparing the cream for the churning 

 "ripening" or souring, "starting," getting the right de- 

 gree of acidity, finding the best temperature at which 

 to churn, etc. These things determine how much or 

 how little butterfat you lose in the churning and to 

 some considerable extent influence the grain and 

 flavor of the butter. The most successful scientific 

 methods of "ripening," testing, "starting," etc., are 

 fully and clearly described in Chapters VI, VII, and 

 VIII. 



Butter color has much to do with butter prices. It 

 is dealt with in Chapter IX. 



In the churning process of buttermaking there is 

 also another chance to lose a large chunk of your but- 

 terfat and your profit if you use old time, unscien- 

 tific, laborious methods. Science has shown how to 

 prevent this loss, as well as how to do away with most 



