Eva Stokes, age 7, of Phoenix, Arizona, for her question:

How is milk homogenized?

Fresh whole milk is strained and tested for purity. Then it goes to a homogenizing machine that breaks up its globules of creamy fat.. This is not easy because the fatty fragments were small to start with. It calls for great pressure of about two tons per square inch. This forces the milk through tiny holes. As the fat globules squeeze through they are broken into finer fragments. After the milk is homogenized, it is pasteurized. This process heats the milk to kill bacteria and other germs that may be unhealthy.

Not all our milk is homogenized. In milk that is not homogenized, the larger globules of creamy fat float to the surface. This is because the cream is lighter than the rest of the milk. When the cream rises to the top, the rest of the milk is less rich. Homogenizing divides the creamy richness equally in every drop. It also stops the tinier globules from floating to the top