TESTING 257 



6. Weigh the dried butter. If the scales are graduated 

 to read the results directly in percentage, it is easy to 

 obtain the final reading. If the scales are not so 

 graduated, computation must be made. 



7. Record the results. 



SALT TEST OF BUTTER 



The salt test is not used in many creameries. How- 

 ever, in the largest and best organized ones it is con- 

 stantly employed, for the butter-maker wishes to obtain a 

 uniform salt-content from churning to churning and also 

 desires to make the over-run as large as possible. 



231. Sampling. The same precaution should be 

 observed in sampling for the salt test as in the fat or the 

 moisture test. The variation of salt within a single 

 package of butter is greater than many persons realize. 

 According to Lee, Hepburn, and Barnhart, 1 in the two 

 churnings referred to above, when there were ten samples 

 taken in churn A, the variation in salt was 1.56 to 2.06 

 per cent, and in churn B, 1.97 to 2.68 per cent. Guthrie 

 and Ross 2 report that in 36.2 per cent of the fifty-one 

 packages examined there was a difference of .2 per cent 

 salt in adjacent samples, and 46.8 per cent of the packages 

 contained a difference of .2 per cent salt between the 

 lowest and the highest tests. When moisture tests are 

 made, the same sample may be used for the salt deter- 

 mination. If a moisture test has not been made, the 

 sample should be taken as described under " sampling 

 butter," par. 227. 



1 Lee, Carl E., Hepburn, N. W., and Barnhart, Jesse M., 

 Univ. of 111. Agri. Exp. Sta., Bui. 137, p. 322, 1909. 



2 Guthrie, E. S., and Ross, H. E., Distribution of Moisture 

 and Salt in Butter, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta., Bui. 336, p. 21, 

 1913. 



