No. 4.] BABCOCK MILK TESTER. 301 



week or so, but this would he an exceptional condition of 

 affairs. An intelligent and experienced milk producer, 

 having substantially the same cows month after month, will 

 very soon get such an ac(iuaintance with the quality of the 

 milk of his herd as will enable him to keep close track of 

 it with only occasional tests. 



Farmers shipping milk to Boston occasionally receive 

 notifications that their milk is Ik'Iow tlie required (juality. 

 When the farmer is testing the milk at intervals, and watcii- 

 ing the condition of his cows and their feed, he will know 

 what quality of milk he is furnishing as well as the con- 

 tractors, and when a complaint is received he will know 

 either that it is just, that some one has been tampering 

 with the milk or that there has been im[)roper sampling at 

 the other end of the line. 



It is now generally understood by those who have studied 

 the question of milk production the most exhaustively and 

 the most accurately, that quality in milk is due more to the 

 animal than tho feed (assuming of course that under all cir- 

 cumstances the animal has enough to eat). Hence, if milk 

 is deficient in total solids under ordinary conditions it is 

 because there are poor cows in the herd. These must be 

 found out and their places filled with l)etter ones, or else 

 enough better ones must be added to the herd to bring up 

 the average. Here is another use for the Babcock tester. 

 By testing the different cows in his herd, and by the use of 

 a few figures, the farmer can tell what to do to improve the 

 quality of the milk he sells, and, if necessary, to bring it 

 up to the standard. 



To illustrate : suppose a farmer who is producing ten cans 

 per day for the Boston market gets word that his milk is 

 down to 12 per cent. As we have said, there is usually no 

 great variation in the quality of the mixed milk of the same 

 herd, and if the man has been using the tester he knew even 

 before the contractors that he was shipping low-grade milk. 

 But having received this notice he starts at once to test the 

 different cows of the herd, and at the outset he finds that 

 one large cow, in the flush of new milk, is giving two cans 

 per day, which has only two per cent of fat. She contril)utes 

 one-fifth of the whole supply. Now if he should replace 



