54 Vermont Agbiculturax Report. 



termine the value of each individual in the herd by her ability 

 to produce that constituent of milk which practically determines 

 its value, so far as cheese and butter making is concerned, butter 

 fat. This machine has been invented for our advantage if we 

 care to use it, yet how many neglect it, put it off. 



Before the advent of the test, the methods used by factories, 

 particularly where butter was made, of declaring dividends was 

 simply by the number of pounds of milk or the number of inches 

 or spaces of cream furnished regardless of the amount of butter 

 that it would make, the unfairness of this method was very 

 plain when we consider that lOO pounds of milk will make from 

 three to seven pounds of butter, and the patron furnishing milk 

 yielding the former was receiving more than twice what the 

 latter was getting for butter fat or butter which was the finished 

 product sold. 



The variation in cream is fully as great, requiring from 

 5 to 14 spaces to make a pound of butter, this method of paying 

 always put a premium on the poorer product and had a great 

 tendency to make any dishonest ones adulterate their milk with 

 water and their cream with skim milk, which was detrimental 

 not only to the factory itself but to the honest producer. 



With a Babcock tester in every factory, the amount of but- 

 ter fat is determined in each patron's lot of milk or cream and 

 he is paid for whatever he sells, not for the water or skim milk 

 Ijut for the butter fat, and by this means the careful patron who 

 takes pride in his work, gets pay for his entire product and 

 does not have to help out on an undeserved price of a slack or 

 dishonest neighbor. ' 



What is true of butter is equally true with cheese, for it is 

 now known that the value of milk for cheese is in proportion to 

 the amount of fat it contains, the milk with a larger fat content 

 produces a correspondingly large amount of cheese of better 

 quality and vice versa. 



Any and every method of pooling milk or cream always 

 puts a premium on the poorer quality but the method of testing 

 each and every lot places the value where it belongs and gives 

 each patron a much fairer settlement. It is necessary that all 

 testing be done in factories by competent, careful, experienced 

 and honest men for a small error on the little sample means a 

 large variation on the whole lot and it is not surprising that we 

 hear murmur ings of discontent among patrons, for many factory 

 testers do not measure the responsibility of their position, thev 

 are hired servants working for daily pay and their errors have 

 to be borne by somebody else with no loss to themselves, and 

 one of the problems to be overcome is the elimination of the 

 incapable men and the strengthening of the confidence in the 



