COMMERCIAL TESTING OF MILK AND CREAM I75 



order to reach a satisfactory judgment of the qual- 

 ity of milk. 



In the past few years, attention has been concen- 

 trating upon the character of market milk, and there 

 has been a gradually growing sentiment that some 

 method of testing the commercial value of milk and 

 cream, similar to that used in judging butter and 

 cheese, ought to be developed. It is the purpose of 

 the writer to propose and discuss a method for judg- 

 ing and scoring milk and cream in the hope that it 

 may serve as a beginning, however tentative, which 

 will lead to the development of a practical and useful 

 system. 



Three factors determine most largely the commercial 

 value of market milk: (i) The composition of the 

 milk, (2) the length of time it will remain sweet and 

 palatable, (3) the flavor, or taste and odor, of the 

 milk, and, we may add, though of less importance, (4) 

 the color of the milk. 



Composition of milk in relation to commercial 

 testing and scoring. — The composition of milk, other 

 things being equal, determines its value as food, its 

 nutritive value ; and this should constitute a large fac- 

 tor in judging the value of market milk. The two 

 factors which can be used as a means of determining 

 the composition of market milk are fat and solids-not- 

 fat. These are easily determined (p. 53 and p. 129). 

 What amount of fat and solids-not-fat shall count 

 as perfect in market milk? The figures used should 

 represent as nearly as possible normal milk of average 

 composition, and, according to results of the writer's 

 study of many thousand analyses of American milks, 



