400 REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



milk or cream into oil and measnring the amount of oil obtained 

 from a given amount of milk. In nearly all the fat is first separated 

 by churning and then converted to oil by heating in warm water, 

 though in a method lately devised by Professor Short, of the Wis- 

 consin Agricultural Experiment Station, the fat is separated by boil-- 

 ing the cream first with strong alkali and then with acid. There 

 are several of these methods that gi^e results so nearly accurate that 

 nearly all the creameries have adopted some one of them, and pay 

 for their cream on the basis of its richness in butter fat, as shown by 

 the "test." 



The cream having been brought to the creamery, all collected in one 

 day, is poured together in a large vat and ripened, after which it is 

 churned and worked by power, all the details being conducted with 

 the greatest attention to cleanliness, temperature, and all other con- 

 ditions 'that may affect the quality of the butter. 



The "whole-milk" creameries only differ from the "gathered- 

 cream " in that the milk is brought to the creamery by the patron 

 and the cream separated there, either by deep setting in cold water, or 

 by the centrifugal. The latter is the more common practice in these 

 creameries. These creameries have an advantage over the ' ' gathered- 

 cream " system in being able to secure more uniform and better con- 

 ditions before the cream is separated, but the latter have the advant- 

 age in that the skimmed milk is left on the farm, where it is an im- 

 portant article of food for swine and young stock. 



Creameries are either co-operative or proprietary. In the former 

 case the patrons own the plant, hire the butter made, attend to the 

 marketing, and divide the net proceeds among themselves in propor- 

 tion to the amount of cream furnished. In the latter case the cream- 

 ery is the property of an individual or stock company, and the cream 

 is bought outright from the patrons. . Both systems are in success- 

 ful operation, but there are probably more proprietary than co-opera- 

 tive creameries. 



It is perfectly possible to make the best of butter in private dairies, 

 and the very choicest butter made in the country is so made; but 

 there are only a very few such dairies. Most of the private dairies 

 are small^and the churnings are small; moreover, since it is impos- 

 sible to control the conditions, each churning makes a different quality 

 of butter, and each farmer makes a different quality of butter, 

 and when the whole is thrown on the market brings a low price, 

 fully as much from the diversity of its character as from lack of 

 quality. Another reason for the low price of dairy butter comes 

 from the fact that a large portion of it reaches the market through 

 the medium of the country storekeeper, and while it may be of good, 

 or at least fair, quality when it leaves the farm, it suffers so from 

 the rank odors of the various "groceries" that it comes in contact 

 with that it is sadly degenerated long before it reaches the consumer. 



There is a considerable quantity of butter of a fair quality made 

 in private dairies, especially in localities that are remote from mar- 

 kets and still specially adapted to dairying. In these places it is 

 still the custom to set the milk in shallow pans in the open air at a 

 temperature as nearly 60 F. as it is possible to obtain. It is also 

 customary to pack the butter and sell the whole product of the dairy 

 for the season at one time in the fall. These regions are the source 

 of the best private dairy butter in the market; but even here the 

 tendency is toward the adoption of the creamery system. 



The demand of the American market is for fresh butter. This 



