New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 981 
tion of salt and the resulting control of mottles can be accom- 
plished by churning’ between 52° and 55° F. to granules the size 
of wheat grains, drawing off buttermilk, washing once with water 
below 50° F., draining, salting and allowing to stand two to four 
hours before working. 
11. What is your theory in regard to the mottling of butter, 
that is, the causes producing it and the manner in which they 
produce it? 
All answers agree in assigning as the main cause of mottles in 
butter the uneven distribution of salt or brine as the result of 
insufficient ior inefficient working. The manner of production is 
generally explained by the statement that salt or brine intensifies 
or deepens and so changes the color of butter, the light parts 
containing less salt or brine than the darker portions. One holds 
the belief that there is more moisture in those portions of butter 
containing more salt and this produces change of color. 
12. Are butter-makers in your section troubled with mottling, 
so far as your observation goes? 
There is more or less trouble but less than formerly, owing to 
the better education of buttermakers. 
The general teaching of to-day about the mottling of butter is 
well summarized by Mr. H. Hayward in Circular No. 56 of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, 
entitled “Facts concerning the history, commerce, and manu- 
facture of butter; ” and we quote from this circular, pp. 185-6 :— 
“One of the serious defects often found in butter is lack of 
uniformity of color, or what is commonly known as ‘ mottles.’ 
This defect is seen in white streaks, spots or blotches, which are 
most pronounced when a lump of butter is cut so as to show a 
broad, smooth surface. If this cut’ surfdce is held at a proper 
angle to the light, any lack of uniformity in color will be plainly 
noticed. So serious is this defect considered that butter other- 
wise perfect, but moitled, is graded as second class in the large 
markets. The causes to which this fault can be attributed are, 
first, particles of curd, differing in size, incorporated in the but- 
ter, and, second, an uneven distribution of salt. Mottles in 
- creamery butter are seldom caused by specks of curd, but in the 
poorer classes of dairy butter this kind of mottles is not infre- 
quently seen. They are most likely to occur when the cream 
