The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-12-26
Milk Testing In Iowa.

Food and Dairy Commissioner B. P.
Norton of Iowa, sends out the follow
ing circular of instruction:
The bearing of the law of this state
upon the subject of cream testing with
the Babcock test, does not seem to be
fully understood by the butter-makers
of the state. The law reads: Section
2523. Any person or corporation, or
the employe of such person or corpor-
alton, who operates a creamery or
cheese or condensed milk factory and
uses a chemical milk test to determine
the quantity of butter fat in milk pur-
chased, used or received, shall so use
only such tests as shall be clear oil,
free from any foreign substance and
produce correct Measurements of but
ter fat" Of course the word milk in
cludes the word cream.
In testing milk the ordinary 17.6
p1pette will deliver the same weight
OF. milk, Is grams, whatever its test
may be. But the same is not true of
cream, which varies greatly m weight
with the variations of its. quality;
hence. whether the piquette. be 17.6cc
or l8cc or 22cc, the results obtained
are all incorrect, because the weight
OF poor cream taken by any of these
plpettes is greater than the weight of
rich cream taken by the same pipette.
the proper" weight should be Is grams
or cream or milk, and the most accur-
ate cream testing can be done only
When the cream is weighed into the
bottles. But this is practicable Gully
In those creameries that can afford to
nave the proper balances for weighing
the cream in testing.
But the use of a 17.6 pipette and the
tables of corrections prepared at the
iowa Experiment station, will give
very accurate measurements of the
butter fat in cream, and is the only
method of measuring the cream for the
Baocock test that is held to be author
lied by the law.
A few creameries have been using a
~ p1pette in cream testing, and have
called the reading of the fat column
butter instead of butter fat. There are
three reasons why this system should
not be used. First, it is incorrect, be-
cause no pipette will measure out the
same weight of creams of different
degrees of richness. Second, the Bah
cock test is a test for butter fat and
not for butter, and the test shows but
ter fat in the bottle whatever the
amount of milk or cream used. and not
butter. Third, it is not authorized by
the law. The attorney general says on
this point, and referring to section 1923
previously quoted: Operators of
creameries, cheese or condensed milk
factories, whenever a test of the quail
ity of milk OF cream is made, are re-
CURED to use such appliances and tests
as shall produce correct measurements
of butter fat" Note the last two
words quoted.
The law makes no provision in re-
gard to the n of payment for
the milk OR cream furnished. The
creamery may pay for it by the hun
dred pounds or by the gallon, or for
the butter it will make, or the butter
fat it contains, but the law is very
clear that if the creamery uses a
chemical milk test, it must use such
a test as shall produce correct meas
urements Of butter fat. There is moth
ing in the law that will prevent a
creamery from paying it's patrons for
a rs per cen. or a so per cent overrun.
if the creamery desires to do SO; the
provision is that the milk or cream
must be correctly tested for butter fat.