New Yorx AqricutturaAL Experiment Station. 129 
This mixture of germs, when received from a laboratory, is 
introduced into milk that has been first heated to near the boiling 
point for 2 hours to kill other bacteria and then cooled below blood 
heat. This starter is propagated from day to day with so much 
care that at the end of four to six weeks, when it is finally rejected 
for a new one, the usual fault with it is merely a too sharp flavor 
of acid. | 
The preparation of the cream begins with cleanliness in the 
barn. Fither the whole milk or the cream after separation is 
heated to free it of objectionable forms before receiving the 
starter. This heating is only momentary and various temperatures 
are advocated — those from 70° C. (158° F.) to 95° C. (208° F.) 
having been used. After heating, the cream is quickly and thor- 
oughly cooled. Formerly cream was heated after separation, both 
for economy and because of less opportunity for after-contami- 
nation. 
A knowledge of the increase in feeding value produced by pro- 
longing the period of sweetness, and, later, a desire to prevent 
the spread of tuberculosis among their calves, caused the skim 
milk to be heated above 85° C. (185° F.). Since it has been 
found that the capacity of the separator is increased by skimming 
at high temperatures and that whole milk can be heated to 90° C. 
(194° F'.) without injury to the flavor of the butter, there is a 
tendency toward a single heating of the whole milk. 
The points of excellence claimed for the Danish product are 
uniformly good quality and the property of holding its flavor for 
long periods. | 
THE AMERICAN SITUATION. 
Butter is now selling at from 14 to 28 cents per pound, with | 
less than 15 per ct. of the product bringing the latter price. The 
quality of the best butter is above reproach, but the lamentable 
thing is the lack of quantity of such butter. So great is this lack 
9 
