New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 277 
not an absolute guide in respect to the yield of cheese from milks 
containing different amounts of fat, it is a very much more accurate 
index than the mere weight of milk; and that, while, in case of milks 
containing higher percentages of fat, the yield of cheese is usually 
less for a pound of milk-fat than in the case of milk containing 
lower percentages of fat, the cheese made from the richer milk 
is of more excellent quality and has a higher commercial value. 
The fat basis began to be introduced into actual cheese-factory 
work about 1892, and its use spread quite rapidly during the next 
few years. This method was at first received with considerable en- 
thusiasm. After a few years a reaction gradually took place and 
the system was abandoned in many factories, which went back to 
the old method of paying for milk by weight only. There are sev- 
eral reasons why the fat basis in paying for milk for cheese-mak- 
ing has experienced its up and downs, like every other reform 
movement, and we will notice some of the most prominent of these. 
(1) Wherever the fat basis replaced the weight-of-milk method, 
the change affected the dividends of different patrons in different, 
ways. Those furnishing milk containing percentages of fat above 
the average received more money for their milk, while those fur- 
nishing milk containing percentages of fat under the average found 
their dividends reduced. Therefore, the owners of cows giving 
milk low in fat were bitterly disappointed and exercised their in- 
genuity in discovering reasons why the fat basis was objectionable 
and unfair. The attitude of the producer of poor milk is, of course, 
the fundamental reason why the fat basis has been abandoned in 
some cases where it had been introduced. The other objections 
raised were subordinate to this one, though some of them had, per- 
haps, some real basis, though only temporary and exceptional. 
(2) The reliability of the Babcock test was attacked and the ac- 
curacy of its results called into question.. The points of objection 
raised on this ground were: (a) That the Babcock method of test- 
ing milk for fat is unreliable under all circumstances; (b) that, 
while the method, when properly handled, is accurate, cheese-makers 
are careless or inefficient in operating the test, and their results are 
therefore inaccurate; (c) that the glassware was not always ac- 
curately graduated and consequently gave incorrect results; (ud) 
that cheese-makers deliberately gave some patrons higher results 
than those indicated by the test. The general charge of inaccuracy 
of the test itself was, of course, prompted by ignorance or malice 
or both. There was probably once some justification for the charge 
