194 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Szpr., 1898. 
TEMPERATURE FOR CHURNING. 
Recenr dairying experiments published by the manager of the Government 
dairy school at Ontario, in Canada, show the advisability of churning sweet 
cream at a very low temperature (45 degrees or below) in order to obtain all 
the butter. Churning sweet cream at ordinary temperatures, it is found, 
means a great loss of fat in the buttermilk. Sweet cream butter is found not 
to possess such good “ keeping quality” as ripened cream butter, as it quickly 
goes off in flavour and does not improve or take on the flavour of ripened 
cream butter as claimed by some. The temperature of the cream usually rises 
10 degrees in the process of churning, indicating that the low temperature 
(yet necessary io start in) is not suitable for bringing the butter in order to 
gather all the particles of fat. The most difficult part of the butter-maker’s 
task found in these experiments, and the one requiring most skill and good 
judgment, is the proper ripening of the cream. A number of different 
“starters” were used, and of all the “ pure cultures” tried there appeared to 
be none that produced so marked an effect on the flavour of the cream and 
butter as Conn’s bacillus No. 41. A similar flavour was produced in the cream 
and butter by using a starter made in the ordinary way—namely, by heating 
some skim milk to 90 degrees, and allowing it to sour. As a starter for 
ordinary creamery work he recommends pasteurising the skim milk (heating 
to 170 degrees for twenty minutes), cooling it to 85 degrees, and then adding 
about 5 per cent. of good flavoured buttermilk in order to maintain a uniformly 
good flavoured cream and butter. From day to day he adds from 5 to LO per 
cent. of this starter to the cream, and it results ina more even flavoured butter 
during the year. 
CANADIAN BUTTER AND BACON. 
Tue Commissioner of Agriculture and Dairying at Ottawa, Canada (Mr. 
Jas. W. Robertson), writes to the Times :— 
In reports which have appeared in the Press regarding the agitation in 
the county of Glamorganshire against the use of preservatives in butter, 
allusions have been made implying that some preservative, made up chiefly of 
boric acid or boracic acid, is used in colonial butter. 
Whatever may be the case in regard to butters from Australasia, which 
are generally known in the market as colonial butters, the only preserving 
substance used in butter made in Canada is pure salt. Borax, boric acid, 
boracic acid, and such preserving substances, are not used by Canadian dairy- 
men or shippers. 
Borax and similar substances are not used in the curing of bacon and 
hams in Canada. A slight dusting of borax is put on the outside of the pieces 
when they are packed in boxes, to prevent them from having an undesirable 
appearance when the boxes are opened. That dusting of borax is removed from 
the sides and hams when they are unpacked. 
Canadian food stuffs are pure and wholesome, and have all the excellence 
and superior nourishing properties that belong to products from farms ina 
cool climate managed by a highly civilised people, who are particulary cleanly 
in their methods of work. 
TUBEROULOSIS IN CATTLE. 
For several weeks past breeders and others interested in the raising of live 
stock have been looking forward anxiously to the result of the tuberculin 
test, as applied to a stud bull imported from England by Mr. John Lee, of 
Bathurst. The animal, which was purchased at an extravagant price, was a 
beautiful specimen of the original Shorthorn type, being perfect in symmetry 
and colour. He was landed here and placed in quarantine, according to the 
