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THE PKACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE 

 BABCOCK TEST. 



H. B. GURLER, Dk Kalb, III. 

 I will talk to you a few minutes about the test plan 

 in paying for milk at creameries and the test as applied 

 to individual cows of the dairy. I will say first that 

 we commenced the first of April, 1890, to pay at one 

 of our creameries by the the test plan, paying for the 

 actual butter produced in 100 pounds of milk. This 

 was a new departure, and we were considerably inter- 

 ested and quite anxious in regard to the outcome of it, 

 how it would satisfy the patrons, etc., and we watched 

 it very closely for nine months at that creamery before 

 introducing it at any of our other creameries. We 

 have now five creameries paying on this oil test and it 

 has given general satisfaction. We have had very few 

 complaints, much less trouble in that way than we an- 

 ticipated. We had expected that the patrons who 

 were receiving more than the average would be satis- 

 fied, but we also expected that some of those that 

 were below the average would be dissatisfied, and per- 

 haps pull away and leave us. Well, we have had very 

 little of that ; the first creamery that we put the test 

 into, w T e did not lose any patronage at all. The second 

 creamery where we introduced it, we had sharp com- 

 petition. Some of our neighbors thought it was an 

 opportunity to get our business away from us, and 

 they went to work on that line. Our competitor was 

 going to start a wagon within half a mile of us and 

 run a route right by our creamery. Well, it roused us 

 considerably, and we went to work in our own defense 

 and the result was that we only lost two patrons. They 



