Calculating Dividends. 211 



than poor milk, and within the ordinary limits of nor- 

 mal factory milk the increased yields will be nearly, but 

 not entirely, proportional to the fat contents of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of milk. Since the quality of the cheese 

 produced from rich milk is better than that of cheese 

 made from thin milk and will demand a higher price, 

 it follows that no injustice is done by rating the value 

 of milk for cheese production by its fat content. This 

 subject was discussed frequently during the nineties in 

 experiment station publications and in the dairy press 

 (223). Among others, Babcock has shown that the price 

 of cheese stands in a direct relation to its fat content. 1 

 Prof. Eobertson, ex-Commissioner of Agriculture of Can- 

 ada, is authority for the statement that the quality of 

 the cheese made from milk containing 3.0 to 4.0 per 

 cent, of fat was increased in value by one-eighth of a 

 cent per pound for every two-tenths of a per cent, of 

 fat in the milk, 2 a figure which is fully corroborated by 

 Dr. Babcock 's results. The injustice of the "pooling 

 system/ 7 by which all kinds of milk receive the same 

 price, is evident from the preceding; if the milk of a 

 certain patron is richer than that of others, it will make 

 a higher grade of cheese, and more of it per hundred- 

 weight; hence a higher price should be paid for it. 



Payment on the basis of the fat content of milk is, 

 therefore, the most equitable method of valuing milk 

 for cheese making, and in case of patrons of cheese fac- 

 tories as with creamery patrons, dividends should be 

 calculated on the basis of the results obtained by test- 



1 Wisconsin exp. station, llth report, p. 134. 



2 Hoard's Dairyman, March 29, 1895. 



