ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. g ^ 



pounds or can, justice was not being done. Those who watered their 

 milk, or who skimmed the cream off, or who had cows giving thin milk, 

 took advantage of those who delivered milk rich in butter fat. The 

 rogues were finding out daily how to practice fraud more and more suc- 

 cessfully, and the honest people with good milk were growing more and 

 more dissatisfied. Only by analyzing milk to determine its butter fat 

 and paying each patron for the fat delivered, could co-operative dairy- 

 ing successfully continue. I said to these gentlemen, "You speak of the 

 chemists- working out for you a milk tes't as though you were asking a 

 man to manufacture a pump — that all that was necessary was to get 

 out some pattern and make one. Do you realize that for seventy-five 

 years chemists have been endeavoring to discover or invent a quick, sim- 

 ple method of analyzing milk, and no one has yet succeeded?" I told 

 them of the Patrick test, invented at the Iowa Experiment Station; also 

 €f Short's Test, invented at the Wisconsin Station. Objections were 

 raised to both of these, and the conference ended as it had begun, with 

 an urgent request from these creamery operators that our scientists in 

 some way provide for them a quick way of measuring the fat in milk in 

 order that each patron of the creamery and cheese factory might receive 

 his just returns for fat delivered. 



On my return to Madison, I had a conference with out doctor, S. M. 

 Babcock, Chief Chemist of the Experiment Station, telling him of the 

 gravity of the situation. After some reflection he stated that he thought 

 it possible to modify the Soxhlet method of milk analysis so as to make it 

 applicable to creameries and cheese factories. The Doctor at once took 

 up the investigation and worked faithfully. After a time he thought he 

 had modified the Soxhlet method so as to make it applicable to creamer- 

 ies. Then troubles arose and he was forced to abandon the original plan 

 of procedure. Then a new line of study was undertaken, which ended in 

 using sulphuric acid to break up the milk and set the fat free and a nar- 

 rownecked bottle in which to measure the fat after it had been acted upon 

 by the acid. And so there was given to the world the Babcock Milk 

 Test, a quick and accurate metho d of measuring the fat in milk and 



