BUTTER-FAT VS. SPACE SYSTEM. I5°. 
BUTTER-FAT METHOD OF PAYING FOR CREAM. 
This method is fully described in Bulletin No. 119 of the 
Connecticut Experiment Station, pages 5-15: and in the Annual 
Report of that Station for 1894, pages 217-231. It may be 
briefly summarized as follows: 
Apparatus needed.—A cream-gatherer’s pail, spring balance 
weighing to about 60 pounds, sampling tube, set of collecting 
bottles for the dairy sample (these are best made of metal), and 
a set of larger bottles for the composite sample are needed for 
each route. The analysis of the cream is best made by the Bab- 
cock ‘‘apparatys for determining fat in milk and in cream.’’* 
This is furnished complete in various sizes, for power or hand 
use, by all dealers in creamery supplies. The total cost of 
apparatus needed to change from the space system to the butter- 
fat method of paying for cream will be from $50 or $75, or 
upwards, in accordance with the number of patrons, number of 
routes, and other conditions of the creamery. 
Sampling and collecting the cream.—EKach patron should be 
designated by a number, which number should be used on the 
sample bottle and in the gatherer’s book. ‘The patrons should be 
requested to draw their cream before the gatherer arrives. Each 
patron’s cream should be thoroughly mixed by pouring at least 
twice from one vessel to another, or by the thorough use of 
an “agitator,” before the sample is drawn. After the cream 
is thoroughly mixed and poured into the gatherer’s pail, the 
stop-cock of the sampling tube is opened and the tube is 
slowly lowered into the pail of cream. It is then raised so 
as to allow the cream to run out and thus rinse the tube before 
taking the sample. ‘The tube is again slowly lowered into the 
cream, the stop-cock is closed, the tube raised carefully, allowed 
to drain for a few seconds, wiped with a cloth and held over 
the sample bottle, the stop-cock is opened and the cream 
sample allowed to run into the bottle. Care in sampling is of 
the utmost importance. After taking the sample the cream is 
weighed and its weight recorded in the same way that spaces are 
recorded in the space system. At the creamery the small sample 
is poured into the larger “composite bottle” which bears the 
patron’s number and to which a very little corrosive sublimatet 
or bi-chromate of potash has been added as a preservative. 

* For description of this apparatus, see Wisconsin Experiment Station Report, 1890, pages 
98-119, and the publications of the Connecticut Station above referred to. 
+ This is a very active poison and should be carefully kept and handled. For keeping 
cream not more than a week the bi-chromate of potash answers equally well and is not a 
dangerous poison. Its use is, therefore, to be preferred. 
