Judging Butter. 161 



in the process of working the individual particles 

 are made to move upon one another at too high a 

 temperature. The mere warming of the butter to a 

 point approaching the melting point destroys the 

 grain upon subsequent cooling, even though the mass 

 of butter may have been undisturbed. 



The color of the butter should be a clear, bright, 

 golden yellow, such as is naturally yielded by the 

 cow when feeding upon fresh pasture grasses. The 

 natural color of the butter is affected very largely by 

 the race of the cow, by the character of the food, 

 and by the period of lactation. Scarcely any breed 

 of cows will yield a butter of ideal color upon dry 

 food late in their period of lactation. On the other 

 hand, one or two races upon fresh pasture will 

 yield a butter of too high a color to suit the most 

 critical trade. The great mass of butter made is 

 artificiall}' colored. For this purpose a large va- 

 riety of substances has been used, but the color- 

 ing matter most commonly employed is a prep- 

 aration of annatto (a coloring matter in the seed 

 pulp of Bixa orellana) in some neutral oil. This 

 coloring matter is prepared of such strength that only 

 minute quantities are necessary to be added to the 

 cream to produce butter of tlie proper shade. Ani- 

 line colors are also quite largely used in the prep- 

 aration of butter colors. They are cheaper and do 

 not so easily fade as annatto, and some of them 

 are harmless ; but because of the liability of their 

 containing injurious or poisonous substances their 

 use is not to be recommended. Butter artificially 



