324 



only be one way to buy cream safely, and that is by the 

 oil test — pay for the butter fats in it as demonstrated 

 by hot water. Then you are not paying for a thing you 

 do not get, nor is another man selling more butter fats 

 than he gets credit for. If there are twenty ounces of 

 butter fat in liis inch of cream, he gets paid for it, and 

 justice is done all around. And the cream buyer is safe 

 in this, that the estimates of the oil test are verified 

 by the final churn test. It makes the farmer ' squirm ' 

 who finds it takes thirty-fiye pounds of milk from his 

 dairy to make a pound of butter, and is credited with 

 this amount, and another farmer gets credit for a pound 

 for every twenty pounds of milk." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

 ICE-HOUSES. 



A LIBERAL supply of icc is indispensable for a dairy 

 which is operated in the summer. A winter dairy, on 

 the contrary, requires some expenditure for fuel. As 

 regards cost there is little difference. Even the family 

 dairy requires a supply of ice to iH'eserve the milk and 

 cream in good condition during the hottest weather, but 

 the business dairy and the creamery cannot be carried on 

 without it. With the ice-house is also required a cold 

 storage room, for keeping the butter. 



The requisites for a supply of ice are — first, a pond of 

 clean pure water ; second, a well-constructed house ; 

 and third, a sufficient quantity of dry clean sawdust or 

 other similar material for packing. A small ice-house 

 will be sufficient for a family dairy, and the supply may 

 be generally procured from some adjacent mill-pond or a 

 pond made by damming a stream for the purpose of rai$- 



