Vermont Dairymen's Association. Ill 



milk serum in which undesirable fermentations may occur which 

 the buttermaker has to overcome by the use of a heavy starter, 

 thus dikiting a cream already too dilute; a larger loss occurs in 

 the buttermilk and there is less skimmilk to keep on the farm. 

 If, on the contrary, you send a 40 percent cream, the butter- 

 maker has less serum to handle, fewer obstacles to overcome, 

 meets with less fat losses in the buttermilk, and the farmer has 

 more skimmilk to feed. 



A Member: — Can a separator skim a 40 percent cream and 

 do clean work? 



Prof. Decker: — Yes, if it is a good one. I doubt whether 

 some of the cheap makes will do so. You cannot set your 

 machine so that it will take just the same percent of fat con- 

 tinuously. Four factors affect the density of the cream, the in- 

 flow, the temperature, the speed and the test of the milk. If you 

 do not keep the can full and the pressure drops down a little, 

 you will have a little different regulation between the amount of 

 cream and skimmilk. The temperature, the speed of the machine 

 and the test of the milk will affect the cream. Perhaps some of 

 you have been having milk tested long enough to know that 

 it varies in fat from one milking to another, and from one day to 

 another, — and these variations are reflected in the quality of the 

 cream. 



A Member : — Would you recommend 50 or 60 percent 

 cream ? 



Prof. Decker : — I would rather keep it between 40 and 50 

 percent. 



A Member :— Do not farmers often lose because of faulty 

 methods of testing heavy, thick cream? 



Prof. Decker: — Undoubtedly. It is harder to sample cream 

 than to sample milk. The fat globules are closer together and it 

 is harder to distribute them evenly. Now, in gathering their 

 samples in the West they do it in this way, — they pour the 

 cream from one vessel to the other so as to mix it evenly and then 

 use a sampling tube like the McKay tube (showing it) and run 

 the sample into an ounce or two-ounce bottle, filling it full lest it 

 churn on the road. The little butter granules in a churned 

 sample are hard to work back into the cream. The sample comes 

 into the factory and is warmed up so it will flow easier; and is 

 tested by zueighing into the test bottle. Instead of using com- 

 posite samples, they test it every day now, — it gives better satis- 

 faction. There is no reason why a composite sample should not 

 give accurate results if proper care is taken, but it seems to prove 

 more satisfactory to have the samples tested daily. A factory in 

 which our instructor in buttermaking has worked made 7,000 



