INSPECTION OF BABCOCK MILK TEST 
BOTTLES.* 
W. H. JorpAN AND G. A, SMITH. 
When Dr. Babcock first announced the test which bears his 
name its accuracy was questioned. So many methods for deter- 
mining the amount of fat in a given sample of milk had been 
found lacking in rapidity or in correctness that many who had a 
knowledge of such work were inclined to doubt the certainity of 
correct results in any method so simple and so rapid as the Bab- 
cock test; but as its workings have become better understood 
that feeling has been largely overcome and at the present time 
very few question its reliability if properly handled by a careful 
operator, who uses correctly calibrated glassware and acid of 
proper strength. As the use of this method has become more 
general as a means of apportioning the value of milk delivered 
at the butter and cheese factories by the individual farmer, there 
has come to be a quite general understanding that everything 
must be properly done in order to give each produced his due 
share. In some instances the use of the test has been discon- 
tinued on account of a lack of faith in the methods practiced by 
the operator. This lack of confidence has been increasing rather 
than diminishing and it has been felt by those interested that 
some plan should be devised whereby this feeling could be over- 
come and a very general use of the Babcock test in butter and 
cheese factories promoted. 
Last winter in an amendment to the agricultural law, Chapter 
544, one of the provisions added was that: “ Whenever manu- 
facturers of butter and cheese purchase milk upon the basis of 
*Reprint of Bulletin No. 178, 
ee 
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