Farm Butter Making. 9 
Cream that has been gathered by the gravity methods, instead 
of the hand separator will need but very little ripening, and will 
usually not need a starter as it will be sour enough by the time a 
churning has been collected. It must be frequently stirred, how¬ 
ever, during the gathering period to insure its ripening uniformly 
throughout. 
Separator cream, properly collected and cared for will in most 
cases be practically sweet at the time when enough has been gath¬ 
ered for a churning. 
Under creamery conditions, in order to quickly ripen cream 
and to be sure that the right kind of bacteria are in it, what is 
known as a starter is added. This starter is nothing more than 
milk which has been properly soured and kept in good condition and 
is added to the sweet cream in small quantity. This not only adds 
the right kind of bacteria for souring the cream but also gives the 
butter maker control of the fermentation process and he is able to 
make a uniform grade of butter out of several batches of cream. 
Under farm conditions, where the milk is under the control 
of the butter maker from the beginning, starters are seldom nec¬ 
essary. In fact, to keep a good starter under farm conditions of 
churning two and three times a week, is a difficult proposition. For 
farm conditions, the starter cannot be generally recommended, 
although there may be times when they are necessary. For ex¬ 
ample, it may be necessary in winter months to add a starter in 
order to hurry up the ripening process, or to head off the action of 
numerous undesirable bacteria. 
The starter may be good skim milk or whole milk which has 
been soured under favorable conditions, or it may be ripened cream 
or butter milk from the previous churning. The starter must be 
kept in a cool place after it has been properly soured, until used. 
It should not be allowed to get old or stale, or it will be worse 
than none. One quart of starter thoroughly mixed with six or 
eight gallons of cream which has been warmed to from 65° to 
75 0 F. should cause it to properly ripen in 12 hours. 
As soon as the cream has become properly ripened, it should 
be cooled to the churning temperature. The farm butter maker 
must judge the degree of ripeness by the taste, aroma and appear¬ 
ance. Too sour cream makes a strong flavored butter with poor 
keeping qualities, in fact, it produces a poorer butter than cream 
that is not sour enough. 
THE CHURNING PROCESS. 
The Churn .—One of the best types of farm churns is that with 
no inside fixtures, such as the barrel churn. Those churns with 
inside fixtures, agitate the cream in a different way and have more 
