What Taints the Rutter.
TO THE EDITOE. Sib, — I feel sorry to «ho3k the (eader feuing* of not a few who fcave to use butter not quite to their tastes, but I think it a duty to myself and the public in general to u>ake public wh&t I have recently proved, andi which may be a fertile source of bad butter One paddock on my farm m bounded on one side by what was a fo r midable swamp in former day?, but. was ditched some time ago. The swamp contained an amount of bones of swamped horoe, cattle, and sheep, and it was gtszsd along with the paddock 1 speak of. For years, whenever we turned the cows into this paddock, the butter got bad and rancid, and would not keep over four or five days at most, Suspecting some deleterious plant or weed in tiie pasture I cropped the paddock, sowiDg it down in grass and turnips which were eaten off last year by sheep. This year I turned 'he cows on it again, and to my surprise the butter at onca b^csrae bad. An artiftle I read somewhere, and which stated that bones eaten by cows tainted the milk, came to memory, and when I examined the swamp I found that the cows were miking a perfect onslaught on the half rotten bones which were coaricg to the surface though the vegetable matter rotting and subsiding by being dried. The bom a were carrfully gathered, put into bags, *nd tied, but not carted away. la a few dajfg the butter was all .light, but in about a week the abominable taste rr-appeared again, and on examining the pla<w I found that the cows had horned one of the bags, and eaten nearly a fourth of the bones it contained. This secured, the butter came all right again, and this qaite convinced me that the bones were the cause. And now for the disgusting p*rt of it — If the bones were tho<e of. b^altby slaughtered cattle it would not be 80 very tud, bat in former tiai*-s all diseased auicaals were turned out to the " 0f.e0,"o f .eo," ai it was eallei, wicu cancer, Banes, aaJ ail sorts of diseases, «to die, and tbeir banes to bleach and rot, and" theu to be jflten by cpwa acd maauiactureci Jiato nuJk.
and batter and used|as articlei of diet.— [ Ugh I I cannot think of it. The Legislature would do well to interfere and put a ' •top to the sale of such produce as there is no saying what it may engender. Seeds ot every description perninftte after passing through cattle, and wi'.l not the germs of disease do the same. But I leave that to the scientist and the results to those who care to use it. As to the taste I don't think I can describe i*, although I bave been in charge of dairy farming siuce .1861 and supplying some of the best shops in Edinburgh, where the faintest taint was instant stoppage of supplier. We soon became familiar with articles of diet that caused taint and how to counteract it— such as turnips, potatoes, oilcake, mangold, or through carelessness iD dairying,, such as milking with dirty hands, dirty teats, badly washed milk dfrhes, adding waim milk to milk already soured, &c. All these an expert can detect and tell the cause of, but the bone taste is different. It somewhat resembles turnip taste if the turnips are rotten, or a wooden dish badly washed, with tfce animal matter becoming putrid around the teams at the bottom. But I forget I am wilting for many who never felt these odours. Well, everyone has passed through, or gone alongside of a swamp in a calm, dear night in autumn — inclining to frost— and felt the disagreeable sa,ell of the - .decomposed rubbish and condensed misjma. £nc> is the nearest the hnhler tainfc 1 can think of, hut any one must t&ste it to know _ what it is like. At the same time 1 believe * I have tasted it in nine cases out of ten in / tainted butter in the colony.— l am,&c, Jas. Hamilton. Bochiel, l?ih Nov.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 9383, 24 November 1886, Page 2
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698What Taints the Rutter. Southland Times, Issue 9383, 24 November 1886, Page 2
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