16 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
were made from the same lot of cream, before and after ripen- 
ing, and they could, therefore, within the necessary limits of 
such experiments, be directly compared with each other. | 
After a little experimenting it was found that results identi- 
cal with these could be obtained if a small amount of the un- 
ripened cream, about a pint, was brought to the laboratory and 
allowed to ripen there at a temperature similar to or slightly 
higher than that at which the cream ripened in the creamery. 
A sufficient number of comparative experiments were made to 
show that the results of the ripening in the two cases were 
practically identical; therefore in the later experiments the 
ripening was always performed in the laboratory rather than 
in the creamery. 
The culture medium used was a gelatin nutrient solution 
to which had been added three per cent. of milk sugar, inas- 
much as it is found that the milk bacteria grow much better 
in a milk sugar medium. While the materials were being 
boiled in preparing the solution there was added about three 
per cent. dry litmus to the mixture, which gave a moderately — 
blue color to the gelatin solution when finally completed. 
Occasionally plates were made of ordinary gelatin without 
milk sugar or litmus, for comparison, in order to determine 
whether any larger number of bacteria developed in the milk 
sugar gelatin than in ordinary gelatin. There was found to 
be very little difference between the numbers on the two sets 
of plates, although the cultures were larger and more robust 
in the milk sugar gelatin. | 
GROWTH OF BACTERIA DURING CREAM RIPENING. 
The first point to be noticed was the actual number of bac- 
teria found in the unripened and the ripened cream. In the 
following tables are given the results of such experiments with 
cream from three different sources. 
Cream from private dairy.—Cream of three or four days’ 
gathering was placed in a cellar each day as collected. About 
twenty-four hours before churning it was brought from the 
cellar and placed in a room near a stove, where it gradually 
warmed to about 70° F. No definite temperature of ripening. 
First samples were taken of cream when brought out to ripen, 
and second samples when just ready to churn. 
