258 AMERICAN DAIRYING. 



is necessary to use to produce the pink color. A one-tenth 

 normal solution of an alkali is of a definite strength under- 

 stood by chemists. The alkali may be caustic soda, potash, 

 lime, or baryta. All these are efficient and results will be 

 comparable if a one-ten th normal solution of any one of them 

 is used. 



In the fall of 1889 this method of testing the acidity of 

 cream was used by Dr. Manns at the creamery of Gurler 

 Bros., De Kalb, 111., aad also in churnings of cream which 

 he made at this station. He found that when cream was 

 churned at a temperature of 58 to 62 deg. Fah. too much acid 

 in the cream injured the quality of the butter, and too sweet 

 cream churned at this temperature caused a loss of butter in 

 the buttermilk. The butter was not all churned out unless 

 the cream was sufficiently soured. The butter was of poor 

 quality if the cream was too sour. These trials indicated 

 that, so far as the acidity of the cream had an influence on 

 the flavor of the butter and on the thoroughness of the 

 churning at 58 to 62 deg., the best results were obtained 

 when the acidity of 50 c. c. of cream was neutralized by about 

 40 c. c. of one-tenth normal alkali. This work was published 

 in "Bulletin No. 9" of this station May, 1890. The "percent 

 of acidity" as given in that bulletin can be converted into c. 

 c. of one-tenth normal alkali by multiplying the "per cent of 

 acidity" by 5,000 and dividing by 87. 



In following up this line of work the writer has developed 

 a method of 



Cream testing with alk aline tablets. A 'formula has 

 been worked out by which a definite amount of solid alkali can 

 be made into a tablet containing both the alkali and the indi- 

 cator necessary for testing the acidity of cream or milk. 



Each tablet contains a definite amount of alkali which 

 will neutralize as much acid as 4.66 c. c. of a one- tenth nor- 

 mal alkaline liquid. A test of a number of the tablets showed 

 them to be very unifor m in the amount of alkali contained in 

 each tablet. The extreme difference amounted to three- 

 tenths of one c. c. of the one-tenth normal liquid. One thou- 

 sand tablets weigh about twelve ounces. Each tablet is 

 about three-eighths of an inch in diameter and one-eighth 



