i9o6.] Butter Competitions in Ireland. 



423 



Department on the morning of the day on which the exhibits 

 must be forwarded. The competitors are unaware of the dates 

 on which the telegrams are to be despatched. They may 

 receive a telegram on any date during the season. The constant 

 daily attention which a competitor must accordingly give to his 

 work is one of the principal advantages which accrue from the 

 system of surprise competitions. In view of the system of 

 notifying creameries by telegram no special preparation can be 

 made and the butter exhibited represents what is shipped to the 

 British market, and not a parcel of butter specially prepared 

 from selected milk or from cream ripened and churned under 

 special conditions. It is, therefore, the commercial butter that 

 is judged, not what is so often called " Show Butter." 



In order that the butter may be tested on a strictly commercial 

 basis it is stored, on its receipt in Dublin, under ordinary condi- 

 tions for a period of six to ten days. At the expiration of this 

 period the butter is examined and judged. Any faults latent in 

 the butter, due to defects in the methods of manufacture or the 

 acceptance of bad raw material, will have generally developed 

 during the waiting period, and the judges see the butter as it 

 would reach the consumer, not as it leaves the creamery. 



Judging.— method of judging hitherto adopted is as 

 follows : — Four judges, of whom one is always an Irish buyer 

 resident in Ireland, first examine and score the butter for flavour, 

 texture and colour. There is no discussion between the judges 

 during this scoring, so that the unbiassed opinion of each 

 individual judge is obtained. The butter is then turned out of 

 the packages and the judges jointly score the samples for pack- 

 ing and finish. 



As the greater part of Irish butter is sold in Great Britain, 

 three of the judges are chosen from important butter distributing 

 centres, being selected to repi'esent the buyers whom it should 

 be the object of the proprietors and managers of creameries to 

 please. The judges represent different districts, so that the 

 butter is not scored from a local point of view. Colour being 

 one of the characteristics of butter which may render it suitable 

 or unsuitable for a particular market, the judges are requested 

 to eliminate the question of depth of colour. They deduct points 

 only when the colour is dull, muddy, mottled, or streaky, so that 



