CREAM GRADING 341 



degrees compared with. 70 degrees is well shown in figure 115. It 

 is seen that as a rule the degeneration of cream is many times 

 more rapid at the temperature of 70 than at 50 degrees. Only 

 about twenty minutes under good conditions is required for one 

 germ to mature and split into two germs. To prevent rapid 

 growth the cream should be cooled immediately after separating 

 to a temperature of 50 degrees or below. Clean cream cooled at 

 once in ice water will keep sweet a week or ten days very readily. 

 Milk has been kept four weeks and cream five weeks without the 

 aid of anything except coldness. Under plain farm conditions 

 the cream may, by the use of cold well water, be kept three to four 

 days if it were produced in a cleanly manner. 



In practically all the northern states the deep well water has 

 a temperature of 45 to 52 degrees and serves very well in cooling 

 cream if arrangements be provided as in figures 113 and 114, 

 in which all the water pumped by windmill or gas engine for the 

 stock flows first around the cream cans and thence to the cattle 

 and horses. Where an arrangement of this sort is not prac- 

 ticable, ice should by all means be provided. Where the cream 

 only is cooled, one ton of ice will suffice for two cows for the sea- 

 son in the northern states. If the ice costs $2 per ton or $1 per 

 cow a season, the profit on the investment will amount to at least 

 $4 per cow after paying for the ice, and often to twice this 

 amount, through the increased value of the cream. 



Frequency of delivery has much to do with quality. While 

 it is a fact that cream may be produced so clean and kept so cold 

 as to remain sweet two weeks or more, it is also true that under 

 most American conditions, even in the recognized dairy sec- 

 tions, plans should be made for the delivery of the cream to the 

 creamery or its making up into butter at least three times a 

 week in summer and twice in winter. 



Cream grading and payment for and on quality has long 

 been advocated. It has been recognized for years that clean 

 sound cream is worth more than that which has undergone 

 partial breaking down of one or more of its constituents. But 

 for various reasons, chiefly business rivalry, grading has not yet 

 become general. It is being done, however, in various localities, 



