1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 159 



men's Association last year, stated that there was an un- 

 favorable temperature for raising cream ; that from fifty-five 

 or fifty-eight to sixty degrees seems to be especially un- 

 favorable ; while a lower range, among the forties, and again 

 as high as sixty-three or sixty-five, is favorable. 



Mr. Douglas. I thank Mr. Bass for calling my attention 

 to that. There is a point between cold setting and warm 

 setting where you cannot make cream raising a success ; that 

 is, from fifty-eight to sixty degrees, and less. Farmers 

 have been led to experiment for themselves, and have been 

 awfully taken in by attempting to raise their cream at that 

 temperature. If you heat ordinary Ayrshire, Durham or 

 Holstein milk to sixty degrees, you must not expect suc- 

 cess : but if you go up two or four degrees then you have 

 success. I am not theorizing about this, it is something I 

 have practiced for the last twenty years ; and I know that if 

 you will set your milk at from sixty-three to sixty-five 

 degrees, you will get a more perfect separation than at any 

 other temperature. You will get much less bulk of cream. 

 It takes about thirty-three or thirty-four pounds of warm set 

 cream to make a pound of butter, while by cold setting 

 it takes one-sixth more. That is a point which I thank 

 Mr. Bass for calling my attention to. 



Mr. Hurley. I would like to ask the speaker if he would 

 inbreed, and if so, to what extent? 



Mr. Douglas. Occasionally, but in ordinary practice I 

 do not. The danger is, that you are liable to reduce the 

 vigor by inbreeding. I know some of the best breeders do 

 it. They do it in breeding sheep, but I would not follow it 

 to any great extent. 



Question. How Jong would it be necessary to keep the 

 temperature at sixty-five degrees? 



Mr. Douglas. About thirty-six hours. 



Question. Do you have to use artificial heat during that 

 whole time ? 



Mr. Douglas. In the winter the milk room should be 

 kept at about the same temperature that you want the milk ; 

 but in the summer it will require a very little ice. The room 

 should be constructed with non-conducting walls, and you 

 can raise the windows in the evening, which will carry the 



