6 Testing Milk and Its Products. 



ered, as well as in the routine work in experiment sta- 

 tion laboratories, and among milk inspectors and pri- 

 vate dairymen. 



9. The Babcock test. The main cause why the 

 Babcock test has replaced all competitors is doubtless 

 to be sought in its simplicity and its cheapness. It has 

 but few manipulations, is easily learned, and is cheap, 

 both in first cost and as regards running expenses. 



The test is furthermore speedy, accurate, 1 and easily 

 applied under practical conditions, and may therefore 

 safely be considered the best milk test available at the 

 present time. 



The method is applicable not only to whole milk, but 

 to cream, skim milk, butter milk, whey, condensed milk, 

 and (if a small scale for weighing out the sample is 

 available) to cheese and butter. 2 



With all its advantages, the Babcock milk test is not 

 in every respect an ideal test. The handling of the 

 very corrosive sulfuric acid requires constant care and 

 attention; the speed of the tester, the strength of the 

 acid, the temperature of the milk to be tested, and other 

 points, require constant watching, lest the results ob- 

 tained be too low or otherwise unsatisfactory. In the 

 hands of careful operators the test can, however, al- 

 ways be relied upon to give most satisfactory results. 



10. Foreign methods. In European countries five 

 practical milk and cream tests, besides the Babcock test, 



J For a summary of comparative analyses made by the Babcock test 

 and gravimetric analysis up to 1892, see Hoard's Dairyman, Oct. 7, 1892, 

 p. 2560 ; also Schrott-Fiechtl, Milchzeitung, 1896, p. 183 et seq. 



8 The Babcock test, like the ether-extraction method gives, however, 

 somewhat too low results in the case of skim milk (97). 



