ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 63 



our experience is that the work comes out very close. It is nothing unusual for 

 a route of 150 gauges to come out with a variation of not more than a half a 

 pound, and when there is a greater variation, we know that either the man that 

 took the test did not mix the cream thoroughly or something is wrong. Our 

 gatherers know just what we are doing, and we do not have any trouble at all. 

 If you took from the top of the cream, you would get a percentage that would 

 beat you to death, and if you took from the bottom, you would get a percentage 

 that would beat your patron as bad. 



Mr. Gillis : There is one trouble about the test. Your patron gets to un- 

 derstand that the thicker he gets his cream the better it is for him, and he saves 

 his cream until it gets a little too thick and sour, and it hurts the quality of the 

 butter. 



Mr. Buell : I should regard it as unfortunate that the sentiments of this 

 convention should be construed as unfavorable to the test plan, as one of the 

 test plans — either the churn or the glass tube system — in my opinion, must be 

 adopted at the present time, in order to do anything like justice to the patrons 

 of the gathered cream creamery. 



Mr. Curtis : The probability is Mr. Gillis has a set of patrons who have 

 good cows, and know how to set their milk and all that. 



Mr. Andrews : We understand that the gatherers start in the morning and 

 gather cream all day. Mr. Gillis has stated that the time of setting and the 

 temperature regulated the butter value of the cream. Now, of course, it must 

 be a fact that the cream of some of your patrons has stood from ten to twelve 

 hours longer than others, so that the cream at one end of the route will yield 

 more butter than at the other end of the route. Is that right ? 



Mr. Gillis : Yes; that is the fact, and the skimmer has to be the judge of 

 that. 



Question. How would he remedy that ? 



Answer. By adding to and taking from. It depends on the skimmer; he is 

 a disinterested man. "We make a settlement with our patrons then and there. 

 If it is not satisfactory to our patrons we say "do not take it." 



Mr. Buell : How is a man going to learn the quality of cream, so he can 

 tell the comparative value of different samples of cream, without churning it ? 



Mr. Gillis : He can learn that from experience, so he can tell as well as 

 you can with your test plan. 



Mr. Buell : I submit he cannot know anything about it. He cannot come 

 within 20 per cent, of it. 



Mr. Boyd : There is less variation in Mr. Gillis' way of raising cream than 

 any other, and if the temperature of the water is alike with every portion, there 

 is no variation in the cream. 



Mr. Curtis : I suppose Mr. Boyd concedes the point that the time the milk 

 is set has a little to do with the density of the cream ? 



Mr. Boyd : By all means ; it has considerable to do with it. If you set 

 milk in Cooley cans, submerged twenty -four or thirty-six hours, it makes a 

 difference of one-fourth pound on every one hundred pounds of milk. 



Mr. Patrick : We would like to hear Mr. Buell explain his way of doing 

 this business. 



Mr. Buell : Mr. President, I shall, in a very few words, state the process 



