DAIRYING 25 



It has become customary to express one's opinion of differ- 

 ent butter samples by fractions of points, such as 41, 41^4, or 

 41 1/> on flavor. Many tubs of butter are scored about the same 

 figure, there often being no greater variation than one-half point 

 between them. 



559. In scoring a large number of different lots of butter, 

 the judges usually go through the entire lot first and then give 

 careful attention to a few of the best tubs that they have picked 

 out as superior in quality. There is so little difference in these 

 best lots that they are carefully studied in order to detect some 

 difference in them. The final test may be narrowed down to two 

 tubs between which the judges often find considerable difficulty 

 in deciding which is the better one; the final decision placing 

 only a difference of a small fraction of a point between the two 

 lots of butter. 



The finer points of butter scoring are difficult to explain 

 and errors of juudgment may frequently be made. These can, 

 however, be largely eliminated by having three or more judges 

 work independently, each one recording his opinion of each lot 

 of butter and then submitting the different judges' reports to 

 either the buttermaker or to another judge, who may further in- 

 spect such samples as show a wide variation in the scores sub- 

 mitted by the different judges. 



560. The best judges of butter as a rule are men who are 

 constantly buying and selling butter. They may know very 

 little about butter making, but they have become familiar with 

 the demands of the market and can quickly distinguish between 

 salable and unsalable butter from the market standpoint. The 

 constant training which butter buyers get fits them for detecting 

 the fine points that wsuld not be noticed by a person less familiar 

 with the great variety of butter that conies under their notice. 

 Anyone having a sensitive nose and tongue can by training dis- 

 tinguish slight differences in the quality of various packages of 

 butter. If the butter judge has an ideal standard in mind, he 

 can easily determine how near this standard each package of 

 butter approaches, and give his reasons for such an opinion in 

 each case. 



