190 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



for butter making. One hundred pounds of butter-fat will make 

 117 or 118 pounds of butter and the increase in weight will pay 

 the expense, and more. So it cannot be denied that the fat in 

 the richer milk is at the present time worth 48 cents more than 

 the fat in the 100 pounds of 3.4 per cent milk. And it is well 

 known that the solids, not fat, are in greater abundance in 

 milk high in fat than in milk of low test, although other solids 

 do not increase in equal ratio with the fat. But there is one 

 constituent that prevails to a greater extent in thin milk than 

 in rich milk. It is good stufif, too, and if used more abundantly, 

 to the exclusion of certain substitutes, there are people who 

 would be better off. I am speaking of water. Perhaps some 

 humane motive of this sort actuates the Massachusetts and 

 New York dealers to pay the same for water, per quart, that 

 they pay for butter- fat and other milk solids. They may be 

 ministering angels — in disguise, instead of the crafty dollar 

 seekers they are popularly represented to be. Viewed as a 

 thirst quencher, rather than as a food product, the thin milk 

 certainly has merit. I will confess I never thought of the mat- 

 ter in this light before, so I am getting some good out of this 

 paper, if nobody else does. When the Commissioner assigned 

 me this job there was a sort of tacit understanding that the 

 only emolument would be my expenses — to be paid by myself. 

 And that was right, too. 



Cream. 



I think there are two ways in this state of buying cream. 



1. Paying a price per pound of fat, with no allowance for 

 the skim. 



2. Paying a price per ]>ound for fat and a price per cwt. — 

 same as in buying milk. In this case some dealers cast out the 

 fat before computing the per cwt. ; others do not. but pay fof 

 the fat by the cwt., in addition to paying for it by the pound. 



Now, in all these methods of buying, there is one and only 

 one that is equally applicable to the purchase of milk and 

 cream ; and the same method is admirably adapted for the 

 dealer's use in making an equitable price-list for the sale of 

 skim-milk, whole milk, or cream, of any grade, to the con- 

 sumers. No one would think of buying cream upon a plan of 



