FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 335 



butter was churned. To illustrate, if the Babcock test showed 

 that there were ico pounds of pure butterfat in the cream churn- 

 ed and the finished butter weighed 120 pounds, the 20 pounds 

 increase, of the weight of the butter over the weight of the pure 

 butterfat is the overrun. It consists of water, salt and curd that 

 are taken up in process of churning, washing, salting and work- 

 ing the butter. The legal standard requires that butter contain- 

 ing 16 percent or more of water shall be considered as adulter- 

 ated butter and the maker thereof is liable to the payment of a 

 heavy fine for making adulterated butter, as well as a ten cent? 

 tax on every pound of such butter made. We will, therefore, 

 consider 14 percent as the limit of safety, allowing a leeway of 2 

 percent. If butter contains 14 percent of w^ater and 3 percent of 

 salt, there will be about i percent of curd. Thus 18 pounds out 

 of 100 have been added in making the butter, which leaves 8:2 

 pounds pure butterfat. This 18 pounds is the overrun from 82 

 pounds of butterfat and bringing it to a basis of 100 on which 

 percentage is based, 100 pounds of butterfat would give 122 

 pounds of butter or an overrun of 22 percent. Dividing 18 \by 

 82 gives 22, which would be the percent overrun, if there was no 

 loss of fat in churning or loss from shrinkage in marketing. 

 However we find that there is some loss of fat in the buttermilk 

 in churning, and other small losses, that should not be over one 

 percent where hand-separator cream only is received, so that the 

 actual overrun which the creamery making this butter would be 

 able to make and give a fair test would be 21 percent. 



Therefore, patrons of creameries that are getting a good 

 overrun of 20 to 23 percent should not find in the amount of 

 overrun a cause for suspicion but rather an indication that the 

 creamery is carefully managed and all the unnecessary leaks and 

 losses that so often occur in the operation of a creamery are be- 

 ing avoided and guarded against. The patron should have more 

 reason to place his confidence in such a creamery than if the 

 overrun were only 12 to 15 percent. He would in the latter case 

 have good reason to believe that there were unnecessary leaks 

 and losses somewhere in the operation of the creamery and that 

 therefore he was not getting so much out of his cream as he 

 should. 



