248 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Ocr., 1902. 
Dairying. 
A TRUE TESTING STORY. 
The Zasmanian Agricultural Gazette takes the following from the 
Farmers’ Review, U.S.A. :— 
Two dairymen each supplied a creamery with about. 500 lb. of milk 
daily from a herd of cows which each man was justly proud of: For some 
unknown reason the test of one patron’s milk was uniformly about 3 lb. 
higher than the other. This difference occasioned some good-natured dis- - 
cussion between the two men, but as they both had perfect confidence in the 
Babcock test, and were not suspicious of either the butter-maker who did the 
testing or the manager of the factory who did the figuring, the tests were 
accepted as showing the superiority of one herd over the other so far as the 
test of the milk was concerned. In the course of time it so happened that a 
student of the Wisconsin Agricultural College visited one of these farms, and 
tested some of the cows. While engaged in this work one morning he needed 
one more test to make the tester balance, and as the can of milk to be sent to 
the creamery was near he took a test out of that milk and ran it with the others 
from the single cows. The owner of the herd chanced to come around as the 
completed tests were being read, and he noticed that the test of the milk going 
to the creamery was about } per cent. higher than he had been in the 
habit of getting at that place; he therefore asked the student to test the can of 
herd milk each day just before it was sent to the creamery. This was done, 
and the farm test was always higher than had been received at the factory for 
several months. Neither the student nor the owner of the herd could explain 
the difference, so the matter was taken to the creamery for investigation. 
A search for an explanation was diligently and honestly made by all 
parties concerned, many arguments and experiments were proposed, but with- 
out going into details about them we will give the final result of the evidence 
obtained. It seems that the custom of this butter-maker was to test each 
patron’s milk in the same test bottle every week ; the creamery was so steady- 
going there were few changes in the number of patrons, and few test bottles 
were broken, so this practice could be easily carried out without any disturb- 
ance in the routine work. Such a system, however, proved to be the cause of 
the low test always coming on one man. The investigation showed that the 
test bottle which had been used constantly to test the milk coming from the 
farm where the student was testing was not correctly graduated, and the 
results it gave were always about 4} per cent. too low. The unusual 
practice of the butter-maker to test each patron’s milk in the same test bottle 
was therefore the cause of all the trouble; the defective bottle always cheated 
the same man. After making this discovery, the patron began to figure how 
much he had lost by this deal, as it was a clear case of failing to get pay for 
4 lb. of fat for every 100 lb. of milk which had been tested by that bottle. 
A few calculations were made, and the damage done by the defective bottle 
was settled tor 25:00 dollars by the owner of the creamery. 
This little experience shows three things—first, that all test bottles ought 
to be carefully examined and the graduations tested before the bottle is used; 
second, that, although tests may be incorrect, the maker of them is sometimes 
innocent of his error; and, third, that every man who sells milk ought to haye 
a Babcock tester, and he ought to use it.—H. H. Farrington, Wisconsin Dairy 
School. - 
