108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



are careless about the keeping of their cows in winter. 

 You look at their cows, and you see how filthy they are. 

 It is almost impossible to make good milk from them. They 

 will not stable their cows in a manner to keep them clean. 

 If that milk is kept in all that stable dirt and dust that gets 

 into it for twenty-four hours and soaks away in it, isn't it a 

 good deal worse than it would be if separated within an 

 hour or two after being milked? The night's milk stands 

 only from the time of milking until the next morning. 



Dr. Lindsey (of Amherst) . You stated that you settle 

 with the farmer according to the price of the Elgin butter, 

 less 4 cents per pound for making, etc. A patron furnishes 

 you, say, 100 pounds of butter fat in his milk. How many 

 pounds do you pay for ? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. We pay for all there is. He fur- 

 nishes the butter fat, and we furnish the water and salt ; and 

 we pay him for the water and salt, after having bought it 

 ourselves. We weigh the butter that is made every day. 



Dr. Lindsey. How do you apportion it? What is your 

 estimate of butter that 100 pounds of butter fat will make? 

 Ex-Governor Hoard. First reckon the pounds of butter 

 you have made, the pounds of butter fat you have received ; 

 divide the butter by the butter fat, and that gives every man 

 his ratio or representative unit, by which you can multiply ; 

 then multiply each man by that ratio, and you have it. 



Mr. M. I. Wheeler (of Great Barrington). The ques- 

 tion asked by Mr. Barton has been thoroughly and success- 

 fully answered right here in Berkshire County. The 

 Egrcmont Co-operative Creamery started six' or eight years 

 ago on the Cooley system, and paid the patrons by counting 

 the spaces until about a year ago, when they adopted the 

 Babcock test. It is a very simple and satisfactory opera- 

 tion to carry it on under that plan. The cream gatherer 

 comes around as usual and weighs the cream of each patron 

 and mixes it thoroughly, and then takes a sample. The 

 samples are kept in a case of small bottles which ho carries 

 with him in his pocket, and when he gets to the creamery 

 they are left with the butter maker and are tested, — not 

 every day, that is, not every patron's every day, but some 



