SOME OF THE CAUSES AND THEIR PREVENTION 333 



flavor. Mr. Gray, in commenting upon this butter, makes the 

 following statement: 



" Comparing the average scores of butter in full cans anoMn~ 

 partially full cans it will be noted that there were differences of 

 i to 5 points in favor of the full cans. It does not seem necessary 

 to take up these differences in detail. This deterioration was 

 without doubt due to air in the partially full cans. Since in 

 packing butter in cans there is no necessity for having the cans 

 only partially full, neither is this economical, the writer does not 

 hesitate to state that where the sealing is done at atmospheric 

 pressure the cans should be entirely filled, leaving as little air 

 space as possible. This principle may be applied to packing 

 butter in other packages. The butter should be packed solidly, 

 leaving as few air spaces as possible. Air having a deteriorating 

 effect on the keeping of storage butter, it would be expected that 

 butter stored in small open packages, as pound prints, would 

 not keep so well as butter in large packages. This is a belief 

 that has already been accepted by many." 



High-scoring butter that has been bored a number of times at 

 conventions or butter contests, has a tendency to deteriorate in 

 quality and show a slight tallowy flavor. One of the authors 

 has had the opportunity of judging butter at various times in 

 almost every dairy state in this country, and in some of the foreign 

 countries, thus being afforded a wide range of opportunity for 

 examining prize-winning tubs or packages of butter. 



The impression prevails with some that high-scoring butter 

 lacks keeping quality. The only way whereby this statement 

 could be verified would be to place a tub of the same butter in 

 storage and leave it there at storage temperature for six or seven 

 months. When we take into consideration that some of the 

 best butter at a contest is bored a great many times and thus 

 exposed to the air. it would be difficult to determine whether the 

 defect in the butter were caused by high ripening or by excessive 

 boring. An instance of excessive boring was brought to the 

 attention of the authors in a national contest that was held at 

 Milwaukee some years ago, where both authors were present 

 acting in the capacity of experts, one pointing out the defects in 



