Testing Cream at Creameries. 173 



emptied, and before a film of cream dries on them. 

 When washed and dried, these bottles are placed in the 

 cases, ready for the next collecting trip. There can be 

 no confusion of bottles since the corks and not the bottles 

 are marked with the numbers of the respective patrons. 



209. When cream is bought by this system of testing 

 composite samples, the patrons are paid for the number 

 of pounds of butter fat contained in their cream, in ex- 

 actly the same way as milk is paid for at separator 

 creameries. It makes no difference how thick or how 

 thin the cream may be, or how much skim milk is left in 

 the cream when brought to the factory. Eighty pounds 

 of cream containing 15 per cent, of fat is worth no more 

 or less than 48 pounds of cream testing 25 per cent. ; in 

 either case 12 pounds of pure butter fat is delivered. 

 This will make the same amount of butter in either case, 

 viz., toward 14 Ibs., and both patrons should therefore 

 receive the same amount of money. 



There is a small difference in the value of the two lots 

 of cream to the creamery owner or the butter maker, in 

 favor of the richer cream, both because its smaller bulk 

 makes the transportation and handling expenses lighter, 

 and because slightly less butter fat will be lost in the 

 butter milk, a smaller quantity of this being obtained 

 from the richer cream. But it is doubtful if the differences 

 thus occurring are of sufficient importance to be noticed 

 under ordinary creamery conditions; the example selected 

 presents an extreme case of variation in the fat content 

 of cream. A trial of this system at five Connecticut 

 creameries, supplied mostly with Cooley cream, by over 

 175 patrons, showed that the average composition of the 



