420 FARM ANIMALS 
pasture grass the color is ideal, but in winter when cows 
are fed dry provender coloring matter is often necessary. 
Salt is usually demanded, but 
not always. When marketed, eae ee eA 
a clean, neat package of attrac- LPUVT BETTER Y/§ 
tive appearance commands a kt —_—_7e«7}h//! 
price above ordinary grades. sae aa 
Curd L. 
3. Cream ripening.—Before 
milk or cream is churned it 
undergoes a treatment known as ripening. It must not 
only be sour, but so treated as to impart high flavor to 
the cream mass. The rapid production of lactic acid is 
desirable, and to this acid condition of cream is due to 
a great extent the quality of the butter subsequently 
made of it. In factories where large quantities of butter 
are made the cream is ripened by a “starter,” which gives 
to all the cream aneven ripeness. In making farm butter 
the usual custom is to add a bit of cream from the cream 
crock to the fresh cream which is to be ripened. 
COMPOSITION OF BUTTER 
4, Temperature.—If cream is 
held at a very low temperature, it 
will ripen or sour very slowly. 
The ripening germs would develop 
much more rapidly at a high tem- 
perature, but the effect would be 
less desirable on flavor and less 
favorable to the texture of the 
butter. It is recommended that 
cream be ripened at a temperature 
of from 60 to 70 degrees. In case 
only a small amount of starter is available in the begin- 
ning, a higher temperature is advisable; but once the 
inoculation is well under way, the development must be 
Box CHURN 
