CREAMERIES AND CHEESERIES. 119 



which the milk or cream has received on the farm 

 and in delivery. 



2. The skill and honesty of the buttermaker, or of 

 the man who does the weighing and testing of the 

 milk. A skilful buttermaker can procure a greater 

 yield of butter from one hundred pounds of fat in 

 the milk than can an unskilful maker. A dishonest 

 person can obtain a large amount of overrun by 

 taking a few pounds of milk from each patron, and 

 by reading the tests lower than they should be read. 

 An overrun of twenty to thirty per cent, in a whole 

 milk creamery indicates something wrong. 



3. The amount of moisture, curd, salt, etc., which 

 is incorporated with the fat will influence the overrun. 

 Butter which contains more than sixteen per cent, 

 moisture is deemed adulterated. Some buttermakers 

 claim to be adept at incorporating an excess of 

 moisture in butter, but this may not be regarded as 

 an evidence of skilful buttermaking. 



4. Mechanical losses, which usually amount to from 

 three to five per cent, of the fat in the milk or cream, 

 also influence the overrun. These losses are made up of 

 spilt milk and cream, fat left in the milk and cream 

 remaining in the vats, cans, pails, dippers, etc., butter 

 left in the churn or on the worker, overweight of 

 butter in boxes and prints, loss by holding in cold- 

 storage, etc. These, in some cases, are quite a heavy 

 drain on the yield of butter. By lessening the 

 number of vessels which come in contact with the 

 milk, cream, and butter, and by carefulness in hand- 

 ling the milk and cream, these losses may be reduced. 



