VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 85 



mass of dairymen would only recognize this fact, it would 

 have a beneficial effect in the state of the pocket book. 



In a careful record in the yield of a herd of cows for several 

 years the following- facts were noted: 



They varied m quality of milk from one milking- to the next, 

 and from day to day, the quality rising and falling without 

 apparent cause. 



The changes were usually within 1 per cent of fat, but one 

 cow changed 2.68 per cent in two days. 



The average change during the period of lactation was 1.34 

 per cent and the greatest change, 2.78 per cent. 



The above herd was exceptionally well taken care of and 

 sheltered, and the changes in quality of milk were thus much 

 less than would be noticed in cases of animals kept under less 

 comfortable conditions. 



The dairymen should remember that exposure to cold, 

 drinking large quantities of cold water, exposure to cold rain, 

 fright, worry, heat, flies and dogs, walking several miles over 

 poor pasture for food, starvation, soothing the cow with kicks 

 or milking stool, will all remove fat from the milk and make 

 such treatment more expensive than good shelter and kind 

 treatment. 



When a patron's milk shows a low test, let him make a 

 careful examination of conditions at home before he lays the 

 blame on the butter-maker or the test." 



THE TEST SYSTEM. 



This brings me naturally to the consideration of a phase of 

 the question which I want to treat with the greatest care as 

 to the words I use and the impression I leave. 



I believe that among the serious factors in this matter of 

 milk test variation are the errois of the testing operation. Let 

 us discuss this possibility of error in the manipulation of the 

 test under the sundry subheads, sampling, apparatus, errors 

 of ignorance and errors of intent. 



SAMPLING. 



By no art of legerdemain can a milk analyst retnrn a cor- 

 rect result from an incorrect sample. I am inclined to think 

 that a considerable part of the variation between tests is due 

 to imperfect methods of sampling. 



Three methods of sampling are more commonly in vogue, 

 the dipper method, the core method and the automatic meth- 

 od. The first named is the most widely used of the three. 

 From the mass of milk more or less, (almost always less) thor- 

 oughly stirred (and, indeed, often not stirred at all) a gill of 

 milk is dipped for a sample. Such procedure may result in an 



