96 MilJc and Its Products. 



Quality of cream. — The most unsatisfactory thing 

 about the sale of cream, commercially, is its varying 

 percentage of fat. Since cream is merely milk into 

 which a greater or less proportion of fat has been 

 gathered, it follows that cream may be anything 

 that the seller can induce the puehaser to accept 

 under that name, and maj^ contain anywhere from 6 

 or 8 up to 60 or 70 per cent of fat. Where cream 

 is raised by the gravity process it will contain from 

 18 to 22 per cent of fat ; but where it is separated 

 by centrifugal process the separator can be so 

 adjusted as to take cream of almost any fat con- 

 tent desired. Since cream is almost universally sold 

 without any guarantee as to fat content, the con- 

 sumer has constantly demanded a richer and richer 

 cream till, in some places, cream containing less than 

 40 per cent of fat can scarcely be sold, though a 

 moderately rich cream is quite as useful for table 

 and domestic purposes. The high price that must be 

 had for the extremely rich cream also operates to 

 check consumption. Evidently, then, it would be to 

 the advantage of both seller and consumer if cream 

 were always sold upon a guaranteed fat content, with 

 the price adjusted to varying percentages of fat; but 

 as yet little has been done in this direction, or even 

 in the way of establishing an artificial standard for 

 cream. In Iowa cream must contain at least 15 per 

 cent of fat and in Minnesota and the District of 

 Columbia it must contain 20 per cent. In all other 

 places cream may be anything that can be sold as 

 such. 



