The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-07-18
The BabcOck Test.

The Creamery Journal, in an excel
lent article on the tendency of patrons
in a few creameries to abandon the
Babcock test after it has been adopted,
says:
Carelessness on the part of the oper-
ator, and dishonesty on the part of
few patrons, are the cause of this dis
satisfaction. 1t must be beyond cavil
that the test bottles are correct, and not
some job lot incorrectly calibrated.
Patrons are nQuisitive-some
of them are eXperimentally inclined.
When they are paid by the test they
hold, with reason, that it is perfectly
legitimate for them to test the tester,
and now and then skim or water to vary
the standard of their milk, that they
may see if the test shows the fact.
Instances are known where a patron
has done his,-added little water in
drouthy time, to partially make up for
the shrinkage, and 10! the milk tested
practically the same as it did the pre-
vious month, when his cows were feast
ing on rich pasture, and so he jumps
to conclusion, jumps blindly, for his
normal milk is less watery than it was
when the cows were on flush pasture.
Had he taken it untampered to the
creamery he would have found himself
credited with a higher test. Such a
patron needs small tester of his own;
1t would puncture many vain imagin-
ing and strange vagary.
We have personal knowledge of lust
such cases. One patron played sharp,
games and evidently " doctored" his
composite sample of milk in the sample
room and his test at the end of the
month literally astonished the ma
tives." He had also watered his milk
as the drouth diminished the quantity,
and found no such lowering of the test
as the water added led him to expect.
This made him suspicious and his neigh
bors became suspicious of him, fearing
he would continue his sharp tricks and
make money by them, and they actually
voted the test out Of the creamery, al
though acknowledging that paying by
weight is not fair way Right in line
with this are the following comments
taken from Hoord Dairyman:
Every patron should remember that
the test is for the patron, not the cream
cry. 1t is for the purpose of apportion-
ing the rlghtful dividend to each patron.
The creamery is benefited only incident
ally. Hence the patrons should look at
il in that light The Babcock test is a
change from the old, ignorant guess
work, haphazard practices OF the past to
an intelligent, accurate method OF the
present Like all intelligent opera
lions it requires an intelligent under
standing to handle it and appreciate its
worth. If patrons will Z" let it have free
course " it will do more to make of them
intelligent, prosperous dairymen than
any other agency. 1t will cause them
to discard poor cows, which eat up their
profits continually when they do not
know it; it will implant better ideas OF
feeding and caring for their cows, for
these things make difference in the
amount of butter fat, and the test tells
the story. 1t will set them to testing
their own COWS and their own methods
and comparing them with their neigh
bors In short, it will make them as
"gods, knowing good from evil" 1T Is
wrong (evi) notions and practices thai
keep a man poor. 1t makes no differ
ence whether he knows it or not. They
get in their work just the same. The
test brings knowledge-knowledge o
the right and wrong of dairy practice
Under such knowledge man will grow
bigger every day-more successful TO
the lack of it thousands have grow
smaller.