21i6 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Mrs. Beede: Have you ever used a buttermilk starter? 



Mr. Hostetter: I have, but not for a good many years. 

 If you use a buttermilk starter one time after another, your 

 starter will get old and if there is any defect in it, you keep 

 increasing the defect. If you make your starter fresh every 

 day your milk is practically the same. There is less variatiou 

 in the milk than there is in the buttermilk, a great deal, and 

 your chances are a great deal better for a uniform quality by 

 having a fresh starter. 



The Chairman: I think that is a good point and I want 

 to emphasize it. If there is anything wrong in your starter 

 and you transmit it from day to day it is going from bad to 

 worse. It is safer to make your starter from material that 

 you know is all right each day than it is to follow this transmis- 

 sion from day to day. 



Mr. Brown: I know by experience that a great many 

 people are making butter at a temperature of 65 to 70 degrees, 

 while by churning at 55, it would probably make one-fifth dif- 

 ference in the amount of butter. Why do you churn at 65, 

 when it is necessary, in order to get the full amount of butter, 

 to churn at 55? 



Mr. Hostetter: When you skim milk off the shallow pan 

 the cream will be very thick ; especially when it is allowed 

 to stand, your cream will be very rich in butter fat. Mv 

 cream is very thin in butter fat; there is lots of milk in it 

 and it would be very difficult, indeed, to churn it at a low tem- 

 perature; it would take an immense amount of churning. I 

 have Jersey cows and it would be very difficult to gather the 

 butter, even after the granules have formed. 



Mr. Brown: Is it possible to get a distribution of salt 

 through butter working it immediately into a jar, as possible 

 as it would be if you would let it stand until that salt has 

 dissolved and then work it again? 



Mr. Hostetter: You would have to use more salt if you 

 worked it the second time. I at one time used to work my 

 butter twice, slightly when it came out of the churn and then 

 stand it in the refrigerator and work in a few hours again. 

 But you are apt to work out more salt in that way, and the first 

 working should be only just enough so as to get the salt in; 

 you would generally have to add a little more at the second 



