1908.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 113 



3. Standard for Babcock Glassware. 



E. B. HOLLAND, M.S. 



The Massachusetts Legislature, in the spring of 1901, enacted 

 a measure entitled "An Act to provide for the protection of 

 dairymen," 1 which took effect the first of July of that year. 

 This dairy law, so called, required, among other things, that 

 Babcock glassware should be tested for accuracy, and made it 

 the duty of the director of the experiment station or his agent. 2 

 The statute designated no standards whatsoever, leaving the 

 matter entirely to the discretion of the experiment station. 

 After visiting several stations and consulting the official having 

 charge of such work, a standard, methods of testing and an 

 allowable limit of error, conforming in general to the require- 

 ments of other New England States, were adopted provision- 

 ally and published in the fourteenth and fifteenth annual reports 

 of this station. 3 



Up to the end of the last fiscal year (Dec. 1, 1907), 18,855 

 pieces of glassware had been tested, of which 1,770 pieces, or 

 9.39 per cent., were condemned. The yearly totals recorded 

 below show marked variations, but with a high average per- 

 centage of inaccuracy. 



1 Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts for 1901, chapter 202, sections 1-7, Revised Laws 

 of Massachusetts for 1902, chapter 56, sections 65-69. 

 - Sections 1, 2. 

 3 Hatch Experiment Station, annual reports for 1901 and 1902. 



