84: THE CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL 



variations in yield and quality of milk due to individual differ- 

 ences in cows. For example, the Guernseys have been isolated 

 more completely and bred under more uniform conditions perhaps,^ 

 than almost any other class of cattle. Yet the milk of Ceres in 

 the table here given, differs as widely from that of the other 

 Guernseys in percentage amount of fat as the average Guernsey 

 milk differs from the Ayrshire in the foregoing compauison. 



Analyses of the Mixed Milk of Herds. 



During the last year over 200 partial analyses of this kind 

 have been made for creameries in this State. The object has- 

 been partly to detect any adulteration but more particularly to 

 furnish some guide for fixing the price to be paid by the cream- 

 eries to their different patrons for milk. As was to be expected, 

 the managers of creameries everywhere find very great differences 

 in the butter-producing quality of milk from different herds, and 

 both abroad and in this country an effort is being made to scale the 

 prices paid according to the quality of the milk. Two methods are 

 iu use for testing the butter yield of milk, namely : — 1. churning 

 trials on a small scale, and 2. determinations of the fat by chem- 

 ical examination. Churning tests require considerable time of 

 the workmen in the creamery, and are not absolutely reliable, 

 because it is not easy to work all samples exactly alike and some 

 of the butters may contain more water and butter-milk than 

 others, which would make the apparent yield larger. 



The objections to chemical examination are that it requires 

 a special skill not always at command, and that its results 

 are not perfectly conclusive because the butter yield does not 

 depend alone on the amount of fat in the milk, but also on the 

 size of the fat globules, the quality of the milk serum, and per- 

 haps on still other factors. Creamometer tests and optical tests 

 are quite unreliable, and are not taken into account here. 



It was objected by some of the creamery patrons that in their 

 own dairies they got a larger butter yield from their milk than 

 was got in the churning tests at tlie creamery, and it was this 

 objection partly which led to the carrying out of the milk analy- 

 ses at the Station. It then appeared thut in some cases dairymen 

 got a good deal more butter from their milk than there was of 

 actual fat in it, which clearly indicates that their home-made but- 

 ter contained considerable water or buttermilk, and probably 



