CHAPTER VIII 



RECEIVING, SAMPLING, GRADING AND TESTING MILK 



AND CREAM 



Receiving and Grading of Milk and Cream. — The man who 



receives and samples milk at a creamery should be accurate and 

 quick at figures, have ability to grade and select milk, and to 

 stimulate interest in the production of good milk. He should 

 also be able to reconcile and satisfy patrons. The method 

 employed in some creameries of allowing a boy with immature 

 judgment to weigh and sample milk should not be tolerated. 

 The person who weighs and samples milk and cream comes in 

 direct contact with the patrons. Therefore, he is a strong factor 

 in serving the best interests of the creamery. In many of the 

 best butter and cheese factories in the country the head maker 

 or manager in charge is usually found at the weighing can. This 

 gives him the opportunity of studying the raw material from which 

 he is expected to make a high grade of butter or cheese. Some 

 of our large central plants pay the highest salary to the man who 

 has the abihty properly to grade the cream and prepare the 

 starters. This requires a fine sense of smell and taste, which is 

 not possessed by everyone. 



The first step in the receiving of milk is to ascertain the quahty 

 of the milk delivered by the patrons. It is now a recognized 

 fact that the best butter cannot be produced from defective or 

 abnormal milk or cream, no matter how many improved methods 

 are employed in the manufacture. In view of this fact, and of 

 the knowledge we now have of the transmission of undesirable 

 germs from one sample of milk to another, and also the probability 

 that some of the patrons will deliver poor milk, it is essential that 

 the milk or cream be graded when it is dcHvercd at the creamery. 



92 



