108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



X 10 = 1,200 weights of milk in tlie course of the A^car. 

 Separately to weigh and to record the weight of the milk of 

 each cow% if the scales are conveniently placed, can hardly 

 take at the outside more than half a minute's extra time per 

 cow. It takes us much less time than this. This totals 

 six hundred minutes, or one working day of ten hours for 

 one man ; and as a result of that day's work one gains a 

 close knowledge as to the eflSciency of his several cow 

 machines. Scales cost about $3, paper and pencil 3 cents. 

 Is not such information worth so slight an expenditure? 



Testing milk is more of a proposition than is weighing 

 milk. It involves the use of a Babcock tester. It implies 

 some little knowledge as to proper methods of sampling and 

 testing. Here, again, the time and eifort needed to this end 

 may be minimized to the last degree by making careful 

 choice as to the time of sampling and by co-operative test- 

 ing. A most thorough survey of the mountain of data 

 hitherto referred to, obtained with our station herd, which is 

 under constant observation ])oth as to the weis'ht of milk 

 and its test, enables me to say with entire assurance that, if 

 properly taken composite samples are analyzed twice a year, 

 essentially accurate results are attained. If a sample is taken 

 when the cow is one or two months along in lactation, and 

 another when she is five or seven months along in lactation 

 (the five-months period being safer for cows which go dry 

 early), the average results of the analyses of the two will 

 nine times in ten be quite close to those which are obtained 

 when samples are frequently taken. In other words, sam- 

 pling and analyzing twice a year, if samples are properly 

 taken at proper times, usually afford essentially accurate 

 results. 



Sampling the milk of a herd of 20 cows in this manner 

 may consume a total of four hours' time. The anal3'ses may 

 be made by the dairyman himself if he cares to, as the 

 process is neither expensive nor difficult, although careful 

 attention is needed ; or they may be made by the creamery 

 butter-maker for a small sum ; or some young man or 

 woman in the comnnmity may own a Babcock, and do this 

 work at a financial profit to himself or herself, and to the 



