WHAT TAINTS THE BUTTER?

Temuka Leader, Issue 1531, 30 December 1886, Page 1

WHAT TAINTS THE BUTTER?

Under this beading Mr J. Hamilton writes a suggestive letter to the Southland Times, in the course of which he 6ays :—" I feel sorry to shock the tender feelings of not a few who have to use batter not quite' to their tastes, but I think it is a duty to tnyself and the public in general to make public what I have recently proved, and which may be fertile source of bad butter. One paddock'ftn my farm is bounded on one side by what naj a formidable swamp in former days, but was ditched some time ago. The swamp contained any amount of bones of swamped horses, cattle, and sheep, and it was grazed along with the paddock I speak of. For years, whenever we turned the cows into this piddock, the butter got bad and rancid, and would not keep over four or five days at, most. Suspecting some deleterious plant or weed in the pasture I cropped the paddock, sowing it down in grass and turnips, which were eaten off'last year by sheep. This year I turned the cows on it again, and to my surprise the butter at once became bad. An article I read some' where, which stated that bones eaten by cows tainted the milk, came to my memory, and when I examined the swamp I found that the cows wore making a perfect onslaught on the halfrotten bones which were coming to the surface through the >vegetable matter rotting and pubsiding by being dried. The bones were carefully gathered, put into bags, and tied, but not carried away. In a few days the butter was all right, but in about, a week the abominable taste reappeared again, and on examining the placo I found that the cows, bad hornpd one of the bags and eaten nearly a fourth of the bones it contained. This .secured, the butter came all right again, and this quite convinced me that the-bones were the cause." '*■