ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 155 



Q : — What do you consider the proper acidity for ripening 

 the cream? 



A : — It will depend on the richness of the cream in the first 

 place. 



Q : — You take o heavy cream, about .47 to .57 per cent. 



A : — The rule that has been laid down by certain writers 

 for the proper acidity is that if we should subtract the per cent 

 of fat in the cream from the total 100, will leave the milk serum. 

 Subtract 36 from 100. Dividing that by 2 and what we get will 

 be the number of c. c. solution of fat. That does not always hold 

 true. For example, get 25 per cent cream, I dont think it would 

 give the result as from handling 35 per cent cream. In cream con- 

 taining 30 per cent of butterfat, we should have in the neighbor- 

 hood of .55 per cent acidity. 



Q : — How^ much from the Farrington ? 



A: — 55 c. c. Some writers have put it a little higher than 

 that 60 to Q6. That is all right when butter is going direct to the 

 market. My observations have been that when it is so high you 

 can't get the butter on the market in good condition. There 

 are so many other little things than acidity, that that is not al- 

 ways W'hat produces the keeping qualities of the butter. Generally 

 speaking 30 per cent cream should have about .55 of acidity. 



The color of butter is another thing. We should color to 

 suit the trade. No matter what color we aim to produce on our 

 butter, we should have that color uniform as possible. We have 

 quite a little complaint, and nearly every one taking part in the 

 educational contest has more or less trouble with the wavy 

 color in butter. We have been able to overcome it in a measure, 

 but not entirely. We have given the general instructions how the 

 w^ork should be done in order to overcome that waviness or 

 mottled condition of the butter. I have not been able to find 

 any definite working plan that will give the absolute results 

 every time. We may follow a certain rule and we think we have 

 got a piece of butter that the color ought to be uniform, and we 

 don't have it. Why is it ? Because there are so many conditions 

 to be taken into consideration that we do not get things identi- 

 cally the same w^hen we think we have them the same. One of 



