THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 17 



separator; third, the discovery of a simple test for fat in milk; and 

 fourth, better and more rapid methods of transportation, together 

 with the development of refrigeration. 



It is interesting to know that the first silo in Illinois, and indeed 

 in the United States, so far as we have records to show, was built by 

 Sidney Hatch, of Spring Grove, in 1873. The real development of 

 the silo, however, has occurred during the last quarter of a century. 

 We have now come to regard the silo and the use of silage as so 

 important in economical milk production that few dairymen indeed 

 would attempt to produce milk without them. DeLaval, when he 

 applied the principle of centrifugal force to the separation of fat from 

 the other constituents of milk, was truly a benefactor to the small 

 farmer who was then producing butter as a side line. Until the dis- 

 covery of the "Babcock test" for fat in milk, there never had been a 

 satisfactory basis for establishing the selling price of that product. 

 With the introduction and general use of this simple test it became 

 possible to differentiate between milk carrying different percentages of 

 fat. This gave a measure of value which had hitherto been impossible. 

 It tended to stabilize the market, and gave a confidence to the producer 

 which he had not felt before. Furthermore, it gave him an oppor- 

 tunity to measure the production of his cows and to get production 

 over to more nearly a business basis. The dairyman was keen to see 

 the advantage of knowing the production of each cow in his herd. 

 This in turn led to the development of cow-testing associations ; which 

 have shown a marked growth during the last ten or a dozen years. 

 In fact, from one cow-testing association in 1910 which tested about 

 three hundred cows, we have gone to twenty-six associations in 1922, 

 which have tested nearly eleven thousand cows. Undoubtedly the 

 fat test for milk has been a big factor in the development of production. 



Better and more rapid methods of transportation, together with 

 the use of refrigerator cars, have materially widened the zone of 

 whole-milk production. In fact it is now possible to deliver fluid milk 

 on the central market over a distance of three hundred miles in as 

 good condition as it would have been delivered in one-tenth that dis- 

 tance forty years ago. Indeed it is reported that during a recent milk 

 strike in the St. Louis region, milk was shipped in considerable quan- 

 tity from the state of Michigan and arrived in good condition. The 

 same development in transportation has aided the cream producer, and 

 has made possible the establishment of the large centralizers for the 

 manufacture of this cream into butter. 



