THE LACTOMETER TEST. 85 



factory have noticed that we tested their milk, and if some of 

 us know that it does not tell the absolute truth, the generality 

 of people suppose that it does, and they know that we are 

 looking after them, any way. It has seemed to me that it 

 must indicate the truth, because, if you take pure milk, as I 

 have said, and dilute it, it indicates the per cent, of water 

 put in. 



Dr. Fisher, of Fitchburg. If you add one hundred per 

 cent, of water, you cannot tell it by this instrument. 



Mr. Lewis. That is so. 



Mr. Hubbard. I would like to hear from Mr. Eowell, of 

 Boston, who has been in the milk business for a long time. 



Mr. RowELL, of Boston. Ever since I have done any busi- 

 ness, I have been a milkman in Boston, and we there are 

 very much afraid of this instrument ; we think it is pretty cor- 

 rect in its statements, usually. I know I had a discussion 

 with a friend, at one time, some months ago, when he was at 

 my place, on the subject. At that time I was milking forty 

 cows, and I took forty samples of milk from forty different 

 cows, cooled them off as nearly alike as Water from the same 

 trough would cool them, and from those forty samples I did 

 not get half a degree difference. I have tried very inany 

 times samples of milk, and I never knew, in a single in- 

 stance, the lactometer to be half a degree out of the way. 

 Very many times, when I have suspected a dairy, I have 

 been to the place and got a sample of milk, tested it with this 

 instrument, and then taken it to a chemist and had it tested. 

 I tried one sample last week ; and I never had a case where 

 the chemist did not tell the same story that the lactometer 

 did. 



In regard to the taints and odors of milk, I will say that 

 I came here from Boston to learn something, and if I had 

 gone five hundred miles, I should have been satisfied. After 

 handling milk, and large amounts of it, for twenty years, I 

 have come to the conclusion now that I do not know anything 

 about it. I feel that I have learned more this afternoon than 

 I ever knew before ; that is, it has been presented in a more 

 tangible, sensible, straightforward way, so that every one can 

 easily see and comprehend just what is needed. 



The fact that milk requires such care and such close atten- 



