292 MARKET DAIRYING 
METHODS OF PAYING FOR MILK AND CREAM. 
While practically all creameries buy milk or cream ac- 
cording to the amount of fat contained in it, the method of 
paying for same varies with different creameries. With 
proprietary whole milk creameries, the usual custom has 
been to guarantee patrons a certain price for butter 
based upon some leading market quotation and charge a 
fixed price for making the butter, say 344 cents per 
pound. All of the butter made belongs to the patrons. 
Cooperative creameries, as a rule, pay for butter fat 
according to the net returns from the creamery; that is, 
they deduct from the total gross returns the actual cost 
of making the butter, plus a small sinking fund, and di- 
vide the balance on the basis of the amount of butter fat 
furnished by each. 
Many hand separator creameries, and most of the cen- 
tralizers, pay for butter fat according to market quota- 
tions on butter. The price paid averages, as a rule, from 
one to three cents below the average market price for 
butter, transportation charges being paid by the creamery. 
AVERAGING TESTS. 
In whole milk creameries, where the amount of milk 
delivered from day to day and the tests of the same vary 
but slightly, reasonably accurate results may be obtained 
by averaging two composite tests, each representing, say, 
one week’s milk. With cream the matter is different. 
Cream deliveries from the same patron vary considerably 
in quantity and quality and hence averaging cream tests 
is almost certain to lead to fallacious results, as may be 
seen from the following example: 
