522 Bulletin 281. 



make the creamery owner who is trying conscientiously to~produce a 

 good product liable to prosecution. 



3. The test should be easy to operate. Many persons who would 

 need to use a butter moisture-test have not had enough laboratory 

 training to operate an intricate or delicate piece of apparatus. An 

 apparatus hard to manipulate would discourage the use of the test 

 and increase the likelihood of wrong results. 



4. It should be durable. Because of the excessive moisture, a creamery 

 is a difficult place in which to keep machinery or apparatus. The tester 

 should therefore be constructed as far as possible of non-corrosive 

 material. It should also have as little glass as possible. 



While it is important that each part of a moisture apparatus should 

 be accurate, special attention should be paid to the balances. In an 

 endeavor to make the moisture-test outfit as cheap as possible, some 

 companies are selling a cheap balance. This is a mistake. A cheap 

 balance cannot be relied upon for accuracy, and if the sample is not 

 weighed correctly the result will be wrong. In no case should a balance 

 be used that will not weigh correctly to at least one-tenth of a gram. 

 A good balance can be secured from almost any dairy supply house 

 for $6.00 to $15.00. This may seem a high price for this part of the 

 apparatus, but when durability and accuracy are taken into account 

 this initial cost is not so great as would at first appear. The cheaper 

 balances wear out with a year or two of service, besides being more 

 or less inaccurate. A balance costing $6.00 to $15,00 will be fairly accu- 

 rate, and with reasonable care will last for years. One can also utilize 

 this balance for other purposes than the moisture-test, such as weighing 

 cream and butter for the Babcock test. 



A number of styles of apparatus and methods of testing intended 

 to meet these requirements have been devised and are discussed below. 

 Before considering them, we shall discuss the taking and preparation 

 of the sample, which is more or less the same for all. 



Taking the sample 



It is necessary that a representative sample be taken for a moisture- 

 test. If the butter is sold in tubs, the sample should be taken from 

 the tub with a butter trier, after the butter has been packed. It is 

 best to take three drawings — one from near the edge, one from the 

 middle, and one half way between the edge and the middle. Some 

 butter-makers test the butter as soon as it is worked. This is a 

 mistake, since considerable moisture is lost in the process of printing 

 and packing. 



