180 Testing Milk and Its Products. 



ing vessel, etc. 1 The same reasons which caused the 

 churn to be replaced by methods of determining the 

 total fat of the milk, in the testing of cows among dairy- 

 men and breeders, have gradually brought about the 

 abandonment of the oil test in creameries and the adop- 

 tion of the Babcock test in its place. It may be said, 

 on the other hand, in favor of the use of the oil test in 

 creameries that it is a considerably cheaper method 

 than any fat test, and takes less labor and time on the 

 part of the operators than do the latter methods. 



204. The Babcock test for cream. Both the space 

 system and the oil-test churn used for estimating the 

 quality of cream at creameries have now largely been 

 replaced by the Babcock test in the more progressive 

 creameries in this country, and composite samples of 

 cream are collected and tested in a similar manner as 

 is done with milk at separator creameries and cheese 

 factories. 



A very satisfactory method of arrangements for 

 working the Babcock test, in use in many eastern cream- 

 eries, is described by Winton and Ogden in the Con- 

 necticut report previously referred to. The cream 

 gatherer who collects the cream in large cream cans is 

 supplied with a spring balance (1, see fig. 58), a pail for 

 sampling and weighing the cream (2), sampling tube 

 (3), and collecting bottles (5). At each patron's farm 

 he takes from his wagon the sampling pail and tube, 

 the scales, and one small collecting bottle. He should 



1 It follows from this that there can be no definite relation between 

 the results obtained by the Babcock test and the oil-test readings ; 

 a reading of 100 in the oil-test is. however, on the average, equivalent 

 to about 28 per cent, of butter fat in the cream. 



