MAEKETHvTG PEACTICES OP CREAMERIES. 



9 



receivers require that the beam of the scale touch the upper rest. 

 If it merely plays lightly on or above the center, practically a whole 

 pound is lost to the creamery, as the next lovs^er pound is taken as 

 the weight. After each tub has been weighed (gross), a few are 

 stripped — that is, the butter is removed and weighed. (See fig. 3.) 

 In this weighing all fractions are again disregarded and up-weights 

 usually are required. By this practice it is possible for a creamery 

 to lose practically a pound on certain tubs, and occasionally it may 



lose even 2 pounds 

 through a slight error 

 in both the gross and 

 net weights. This, 

 however, is not fre- 

 quent, for the results 

 obtained showed that 

 ordinarily the differ- 

 ence between the 

 weights made at the 

 creamery and the 

 weights obtained at 

 the market under the 

 prevailing market 

 practice of approxi- 

 mating the net weights 

 was from one-half to 

 three-fourths of a 

 pound per tub. A 

 portion of this differ- 

 ence is shown by the 

 weighings made by 

 the department's rep- 

 resentatives to be due 

 to an actual shrinkage 

 or loss in the net 



Fig. 3. — In making " test-weights " to determine the tare weight of the butter 

 weight of the tub, strong up-weights are usually required. , ., . , •, , 



while m transit to 

 market. With the increase in the market value of butter during 

 recent years, the financial loss to the creamery caused by the 

 present method of approximating the net weight is much larger 

 than it was formerly when the present market method of weighing 

 was established. 



Occasionally a weigher will " give and take " ; that is, recognize a 

 full pound even if the beam of the scales balances merely on the 

 center. In other words, " snug up-weights " are not required when 



