QUALITY OF MILK. 



241 



the weight of milk given by each cow, each time she is milked. 

 Details of the method are given in the description of the milk register 

 on page 245. A spring balance (see fig. 51, p. 246), and a slate at the 

 cow-shed, and Barham's "Sandringham Dairy Record Sheet," will 

 enable anyone to obtain and preserve data which are of the greatest 

 value nay, indeed, are indispensable where a herd is being improved for 

 milk. In summer, when cattle roam over the pastures, where the food 

 is the same for all the cows alike, each cow's capacity for milk may be 

 exactly ascertained ; and, in w r inter, the test may be made more searching 

 still by noting the quantity of food consumed, as well as the quantity of 

 milk yielded, by each cow respectively. 



The test as to quality of milk, in reference to cream, is not so easy 

 and simple, but it may be taken with a sufficient approach to accuracy 

 by means of a set of graduated glass tubes, called "cream-gauges," 

 which show the cream volume of as many samples of milk as may 



Fig. 50. Dairy Supply Co.'s Gerber Butyrometer. 



be placed within them, in this way instituting a comparison between 

 the milks of different cows. There are also small instruments, adapta- 

 tions of the well-known cream-separators, in which several samples of 

 milk may be tested for cream, in a few minutes' time. These ingenious 

 machines are rapid in work, accurate in the results they obtain, and 

 very easily turned by hand ; they are, consequently, very well adapted 

 to the needs of cheese- and butter-factories, or of any other institutions 

 where it is desirable to test the quality of different milks received. 



It may be contended, however, that a cream-test, for volume of 

 cream, is not sufficient to denote the quality of milk, for cream varies 

 in quality. The "Butyrometer" has been designed to ascertain the 

 actual percentage of butter-fat in samples of milk, in order that milk 

 may be bought on a basis of quality at butter-factories and other large 



