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the best possible stage for churning to insure perfect 

 results in both quantity and quality of butter, in fact 

 by the ordinary methods employed that condition is 

 an unknown quantity, and I believe so long as those 

 methods are continued will ever remain so. Until 

 lately we have only guessed at it, even now the best 

 we can claim is to closely approximate it. How wild 

 our guesses have been, in fact are to-daj^, is now being 

 brought to light, so far as quantity is concerned, by 

 the use of Dr. Babcock's milk tester; this method is a 

 sure detective when applied to buttermilk; it shows the 

 losses in buttermilk owing to imperfect ripening to be 

 very much greater than anyone supposed, and this test 

 is revealing to us more than anything else the great 

 imperfection that has and does exist even in the 

 highest state of the art. The necessary change 

 required to ripen cream is a chemical reaction produced 

 by a lactive ferment, whice sets free the butter glob- 

 ules in the cream from the albumen and casein which 

 surround them, more or less perfect in its results 

 according to the conditions surrounding the entire opera- 

 tion from first to last. The ferment in cream is 

 analagous in operation to that produced in brewing 

 beer or making bread. Good brewers and expert 

 breadmakers who have experienced the uncertainty of 

 producing two batches of either exactly alike will 

 appreciate the difficulties in the way of the buttermaker 

 when they learn that cream ripening is a very much 

 more complex and delicate operation. 



There are two prime objects to be attained in ripen- 

 ing cream. First, to develop and preserve intact the 

 delicate aroma so much sought after in butter, and sec- 

 ond, to insure an exhaustive churning bv exhaustive 

 churning. I mean when the buttermilk tested by the 



