312 COMPOSITION OF BUTTER 



the limit set by the Internal Revenue Department, creameries 

 were assessed 10 cents a pound tax on the butter, $50.00 a 

 month license, or $600.00 a year, and an additional 50 per cent 

 for not taking out a license. In some of these cases a few pounds 

 of butter were seized from a churning. Many creameries have 

 paid these assessments to avoid the notoriety of going into the 

 courts and defending their rights. Not only did the creamery 

 pay the above tax, but the dealer in butter was assessed $480.00 

 for a year's license for handling so-called adulterated butter. 

 Creameries cannot sue the government for the refund of this 

 money. The only way they can get into the courts is to sue the 

 local agent. In many* cases that have come up in the courts, 

 expert butter-makers have appeared as witnesses, st>me in 

 behalf of the government and some in behalf of the creameries. 

 Some butter experts have made affidavits that the composition 

 of butter can be controlled and others have made affidavits that 

 it cannot be controlled. This diversity of opinion among so- 

 called experts no doubt has been due to lack of experience on 

 the part of some of the men testifying. No doubt all wit- 

 nesses appearing were honest in the testimony given. 



Control of Moisture in Butter. After spending over thirty 

 years in the butter business in various capacities and conducting 

 a vast amount of experimental work in an endeavor to control 

 the composition of butter the authors are convinced that the 

 moisture-content of butter cannot be completely controlled at 

 all times. Extensive investigational work was carried on at the 

 Iowa Experiment Station on this subject from 1901 to 1903. 

 The object of this work was not to incorporate water in butter 

 but to get butter to run uniform in composition throughout the 

 year. Prior to this investigational work the senior author had a 

 number of analyses made of the butter produced in some of the 

 best creameries during the entire year. In this investigation 

 the fat-content, the moisture-content and the salt-content were 

 found to vary greatly. In the winter months the moisture- 

 content might be as low as 10 per cent, and in the summer 

 months as high as 17 per cent. These creameries were not 

 making any effort to control the composition of their butter. 



