58 BUYING MILK AND 



it is often exposed to very unfavorable temperature conditions, 

 and where good cream is frequently mixed with cream of inferior 

 quality, is a strong factor in favor of direct-shipper cream. 



Again, the central creamery is better equipped with ade- 

 quate can washing, rinsing, sterilizing and drying facilities than 

 most of the cream stations. This insures clean cans for the 

 direct-shipper patron while the station patron often gets cans 

 that are in very unsanitary condition. The bad effect on the 

 quality of the cream of an unclean can in itself is serious, but 

 the moral effect such cans have on the patron is of even greater 

 significance. The patron who finds that his can which he takes 

 back from the station is unclean and has a foul odor, loses 

 interest in his own care of the cream. He realizes the hopeless- 

 ness of his efforts to furnish the station with good cream when 

 he has to store and haul that cream in contaminated cans. And 

 the station operator's gospel of sanitation under such conditions 

 falls on deaf ears. 



Concentration Points. Some creameries receiving their 

 cream by the direct-shipper system establish and operate so-called 

 concentration points, to which the farmers ship their cream and 

 from which it is shipped by the creamery company to the cen- 

 tral factory. ^ 



These concentration points usually are fully equipped and 

 efficiently manned plants for the grading, weighing, sampling, 

 testing and cooling of the cream, for the washing and sterilizing 

 of the shipping cans and for the soliciting of cream from the 

 farmers. They differ principally from the cream stations, in 

 that the concentration point pays direct-shipper prices for but- 

 terfat, and that most of its cream supply arrives by rail. 



The concentration point, similar to the cream station, has 

 for its purpose the extension of the cream supply territory, the 

 increase of volume. Its inevitable draw-back is that it tends to 

 jeopardize the quality of the cream. The cream arriving at the 

 Concentration point has already been exposed to the trials of 

 rail shipping once, and its delay at this point together with that 

 of reshipping prolongs its journey from farm to factory. The 

 effect of these delays is especially noticeable during hot weather, 

 often resulting in many yeasty and foamy cans. Unless suitable 



