INSPECTION OF BABCOCK MILK TEST 



BOTTLES* 



W. H. Jordan and G. A. Smith. 



When Dr. Babcock first announced the test which bears his 

 name its accuracy was questioned. So many methods for deter- 

 mining the amount of fat in a given sample of milk had been 

 found lacking in rapidity or in correctness that many who had a 

 knowledge of such work were inclined to doubt the certainity of 

 correct results in any method so simple and so rapid as the Bab- 

 cock test; but as its workings have become better understood 

 that feeling has been largely overcome and at the present time 

 very few question its reliability if properly handled by a careful 

 operator, who uses correctly calibrated glassware and acid of 

 proper strength. As the use of this method has become more 

 general as a means of apportioning the value of milk delivered 

 at the butter and cheese factories by the individual farmer, there 

 has come to be a quite general understanding that everything 

 must be properly done in order to give each produced his due 

 share. In some instances the use of the test has been discon- 

 tinued on account of a lack of faith in the methods practiced by 

 the operator. This lack of confidence has been increasing rather 

 than diminishing and it has been felt by those interested that 

 some plan should be devised whereby this feeling could be over- 

 come and a very general use of the Babcock test in butter and 

 cheese factories promoted. 



Last winter in an amendment to the agricultural law, Chapter 

 544, one of the provisions added was that: *' Whenever manu- 

 facturers of butter and cheese purchase milk upon the ba>sis of 



* Reprint of Bulletin No. 178. 



