Judging Butter. 155 
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. Searvely 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 
eritical trade. The great mass of butter made is 
artificially colored. For this purpose a large va- 
riety of substances has been uxed, but practically 
the only coloring matter now employed is a prepara- 
tion 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 mi- 
nute quantities are necessary to he added to the 
cream to produce butter of the proper shade. Butter 
artificially colored should be uniform, of a bright 
golden vellow color, free from any reddish tinge. 
The demand of different markets varies considerably 
in regard to the shade of color desired. 
In regard to salt, the quality of the butter is 
not necessarily affected by the amount of salt, that 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
