326 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



Thickness of Cream. 



Having considered the more important factors as affecting 

 the quaHty of cream on the farm, that of cleanHness and tem- 

 perature, we have yet to consider the two lesser factors, namely : 

 the thickness of cream and the frequency of delivery. There are 

 several reasons why a farmer should separate reasonably heavy 

 cream, that is, cream testing 30 to 35 percent butter fat. The 

 dairyman who separates a thin cream works against his own 

 best interests and the good of the creamery for the following 

 reasons : 



1. Poor keeping quality of thin cream. 



2. Less skimmilk to keep at home for feed purposes. 



3. More cream to cool, take care of and haul to the cream- 

 ery. 



4. Requires more vat room at creamery and more ice and 

 water for cooling and ripening of cream. 



5. More butter milk and therefore more loss of butter fat. 



6. Difficulty of sampling and testing sour thin cream. 



7. Heavy cream an advantage to buttermaker in making 

 fine butter. 



8. Objection of loss of fat in separator bowl overcome by 

 separating at proper temperature. 



9. Fallacy of idea that a larger quantity of cream will re- 

 turn the dairyman more butterfat regardless of the test. 



Poor Keeping Quality of Thin Cream. Cream holds the 

 butterfat, in the form of very small round globules floating about 

 in the serum, which corresponds to the buttermilk after the but- 

 terfat has been churned out. When cream gets sour it is due 

 to lactic-acid producing bacteria changing to acid the milk sugar 

 in this serum part of the cream. Now the thinner the cream is 

 the larger the proportion of serum to butterfat is, and conse- 

 quently the more food there will be in the form of milk sugar 

 for the bacteria to live upon and to change to acid. That is the 

 reason why thin cream will not keep so well under the same con- 

 ditions as a heavy or rich cream, particularly when these condi- 

 tions are not favorable to the proper keeping of cream; there- 

 fore, if for no other reason, for the sake of having the cream 



