

BACTERIA IN THE DAIRY. as 
from four to eight lots of butter are made from the same lot of 
cream, when one of these lots is a control experiment made 
from cream without inoculation, it is possible to make very 
accurate comparisons between the different samples as they are 
examined one after the other. Under these circumstances, 
where marked differences appear in the flavors or the aromas, 
there can be no question that they are due to the action of the 
organism in question. In spite, therefore, of the objection 
that the butter made in,these cases was seldom made under 
conditions which would give rise to the best quality of product, 
it is thought that the comparisons that have been made between 
them are more strictly accurate and more valuable than could 
have been made in any other way. 
In regard to the records, I have been very much at loss to 
find any satisfactory way of recording results. The flavors. 
have been very varied, but our descriptive terms are so crude 
as yet as to make it impossible to describe these flavors in such 
a way as to enable another person to recognize them. Few of 
the flavors which have been recognized are such as are com- 
monly found in butter, and yet many of them have been so 
pleasant and so akin to butter flavors that I have been con- 
vinced that the butter flavor of ordinary butter may be made 
up of the combination of a number of the different flavors pro- 
duced by the different species of bacteria. Still greater is this 
difficulty in regard to the records upon the aroma of the butter. 
There is practically no way of describing the aroma so that it 
can be distinguished by another person unless it chances to 
have a distinct similarity to some well-known odor. I have, 
therefore, been obliged in these experiments simply to speak 
of the flavors and aromas as pleasant or unpleasant, as typical 
or not of the typical character, and as, therefore, contributing 
in my own judgment to the good or the bad qualities of butter. 
I recognize algo that different individuals would describe these 
results in a different way. In most cases Mr. Esten as well as 
inyself made an examination of the butter, but our descriptoons 
of the flavors and aromas seldom agreed, although we did agree 
in all cases as to whether a given aroma and flavor was pleas- 
ant, and, therefore, favorable to butter-making, or unpleasant, 
and, therefore, unfavorable to butter-making. In spite of 
this unsatisfactory condition of the records upon the action of 
