PAYING FOR MILK FOR CHEESE-MAKING 255 



fat under the average found their dividends re- 

 duced. Therefore, the owners of cows giving milk 

 low in fat were bitterly disappointed and exercised 

 their ingenuity in discovering reasons why the fat 

 basis was objectionable and unfair. This attitude 

 of the producer of poor milk is, of course, the 

 fundamental reason why the fat basis has been 

 abandoned in some cases where it had been intro- 

 duced. The other objections raised were subordinate 

 to this one, though some of them had, perhaps, some 

 real basis. 



(2) The reliability of the Babcock test was 

 attacked and the accuracy of its results called into 

 question. The points of objection raised on this 

 ground were, (a) that the Babcock method of 

 testing milk for fat is unreliable under all circum- 

 stances; (b) that, while the method, when properly 

 handled, is accurate, cheese-makers are careless 

 or inefficient in operating the test, and their results 

 are therefore inaccurate; (c) that the glassware 

 was not always accurately graduated and conse- 

 quently gave incorrect results; (d) that cheese- 

 makers deliberately gave some patrons higher 

 results than those indicated by the test. The gen- 

 eral charge of inaccuracy of the test itself was, 

 of course, prompted by ignorance or malice or both. 

 There was probably once some justification for the 

 charge of carelessness and inefficiency against 

 operators of the Babcock test; for it was un- 

 doubtedly true to some extent that cheese-makers 

 attempted to employ the method who had not been 

 properly instructed in its use nor acquired the 

 requisite accuracy of manipulation. There was at 



