STARTERS 137 
found comparatively sweet unless a good deal of atten- 
tion was given to keeping the temperature where it would 
sour in the proper length of time. This method of 
starter making is rapidly falling into disuse. 
The most satisfactory natural starters are selected and 
prepared in the following manner: Secure, say, one quart 
of milk from each of half a dozen healthy cows not far 
advanced in lactation, and fed on good feed. Before 
drawing the milk, brush the flanks and udders of the 
cows and then moisten them with water or, preferably, 
coat thinly with vasaline to prevent dislodgement of dust. 
Then, after rejecting the first few streams, draw the milk 
into sterilized quart jars provided with narrow necks. 
Now allow the milk to sour, uncovered, in a clean, pure 
atmosphere at a temperature between 65° and go° F. 
When loppered pour off the top and introduce the sample 
with the best flavor into fifty pounds of sterilized skim- 
milk and ripen at a temperature at which it will sour in 
twenty-four hours (about 65° F.). 
A starter thus selected can be propagated for a month 
or more by daily inoculating newly sterilized or pasteur- 
ized milk with a small amount of the old or mother starter. 
Usually three or four pounds of the mother starter added 
‘to one hundred pounds of pasteurized skim-milk will sour 
it in twenty-four hours at a temperature of 65° F. Under 
certain conditions of weather this amount may possibly 
have to be modified a little, for it is well known that on 
hot sultry days milk will sour more quickly at a given 
temperature than on cooler days. The best rule to follow 
is to use enough of the mother starter to sour the milk 
in twenty-four hours at a temperature of 65° F. 
Buttermilk and Sour Cream. If the cream has a 
good flavor, a portion of this, or the buttermilk from it, 
