IDLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 173 



milk from which it has been obtained, as can be seen by ex- 

 amining the contents of a separator bowl after it has skimmed 

 a few thousand pounds of milk. 



The milk has also been quite thoroughly aerated by the 

 separator, and although this aeration and the sediment re- 

 moved from the milk by the separator helps to make the 

 cream purer than the milk from which it was obtained, many 

 of the taints and bad flavors of filthy milk are still retained 

 in the cream. 



The necessity of cooling the cream as soon as it is ob- 

 tained from the separator is so commonly known that it is 

 hardly necessary to mention this fact. The fat in cream 

 cools much more slowly than the serum; consequently, it is 

 necessary to keep the cream at a cooling temperature long 

 enough for the fat to solidify or crystalize. It is the common 

 practice at creameries to leave the cream in the ripening vat 

 about the same number of hours each day. The milk is all 

 separated at about the same time in the forenoon and the 

 cream is churned the next morning at about the same time 

 every day. This routine is followed regarless of the variation 

 in the ripeness of the milk or the condition of the cream on 

 different days. 



ACID TEST OF CREAM. 



Very few creameries use any test for ascertaining the 

 acidity- of the cream during its ripening, but it is put into the 

 ripening Tat and left there until the butter maker or his other 

 work, rather than the cream, is in the best condition for 

 churning. Since the milk from which the cream is obtained 

 is subjected to such a variety of treatment by the patrons, the 

 cream from this milk will necessarily possess the different 

 degrees of sweetness or sourness that the milk contained, and 

 if each lot of cream is ripened at about the same temperature 

 every day for the same number of hours it is hardly possible 

 to expect a uniformity in the ripeness of each lot of cream 

 when it is churned. Butter makers understand why this is 

 true. They know that cream from pure, sweet milk is not 

 nearly so ripe after standing twenty hours at a temperature 

 of 56 F- as cream from slightly tainted or sour milk will be if 

 it is kept at the same temperature for the same length of time. 

 Creameries have to deal with milk of many varieties between 



