Vermont Dairymen's Association. 35 



know that cream which has a large quantity of milk in it cannot 

 safely get sour as can thick heavy cream. 



Mr. Eddy : — We have started in gathering cream in rather a 

 small way. I selected a large dairy supplying mostly cream 

 throughout the year. We pay an extra price, several cents more 

 a pound for butter fat than we could pay everyone, because of 

 the improved quality of the product, kept cool, delivered sweet, 

 and cream testing 40 percent fat. We get a better product be- 

 cause there is less of the milk serum left in the cream. It is the 

 milk sugar it contains which sours. The thicker the cream the 

 less the sugar and the slower the souring. We put a starter into 

 this thick cream and control the fermentation. It churns more 

 readily and at a lower temperature, the grain of the butter is 

 better and the buttermilk is low in fat. So we gain all around in 

 handling thick cream. 



Prof. Decker : — Some western plants class their cream in 

 three grades. Number one is cream that tests 30 or more percent 

 fat and carries 0.20 percent or less acidity. If it tests less than 30 

 percent, though sweet, or if it carries more than 0.20 percent acid, 

 though carrying 30 percent fat, it grades second class. Cream of 

 bad flavor, of 0.20 percent or more acidity and with less than 30 

 percent fat goes into the third class. 



A Member: — What is the standard percent of gain at the 

 churn ? 



Mr. Smith: — Ordinarily about 18 percent on cream, varying 

 a little one way or the other. I have seen it as low as fifteen per- 

 cent, and one month this fall, — I don't know why — it ran as high 

 as 22 percent. 



A Member : — What method do you use in drawing samples 

 of cream for testing? 



Mr. Smith : — I weigh the samples of cream. 

 Prof. Decker : — How do you get your sample from the farm- 

 er's can of cream ? 



Mr. Smith : — I use a small tube of about half an inch in 

 diameter which I drop into the can. 



Prof. Decker : — Prof. McKay of the Iowa State College sent 

 me a cream sampling tube last summer which is the best and only 

 thing that I have come across that is really satisfactory. It con- 

 sists of two tubes, one inside of the other, each with the slot down 

 the side. It is lowered into the cream with the slots closed. A 

 turn of the wrist brings them together and open. A core of 

 cream is thus taken. Another turn of the wrist the slots close 

 and the sample may be withdrawn. Some cream is so thick that 

 it will not run up into a tube, but the sample enters this tube 

 through the slots on the side and then, the handle being turned, 



