AFAYETtLIND:
Garden
VOL. LVL
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., NOVEMBER 30, 1901.
NO. 48
Men 'Who Have Helped the Farmer,
■ditora Indiana Farmer:
S. M. Babcock.
(Born October 22, 1843.)
The yearly cost of supporting the experiment stations of tbe United States is
about $1,160,000. This is a large sum
of money for the National and State
governments to put into experimental
work for agriculture. Does it pay?
Doubtless many an intelligent farmer has
been ready to question the wisdom of putting so much money in the hands of the
"theorists" who control the experiment stations. Doubtless many an intelligent merchant has characterized the appropriations
made in support of these stations as "a
sop to the farmers," a waste of public
funds. Are the experiment stations a
profitable investment? The question is pertinent.
Perhaps every experiment station is not
profitable as a purely financial venture,
that is, it is not probable that every one
of them can justify its existence by referring to specific savings or gains which
it has brought about. But the stations as
a whole are one of the most profitable of
our public investments. They have more
than paid interest on the money spent.
Indeed, they may be said to pay the principal back every year at the cost of the
interest. But the truth of this statement
is not so easily proved.
It has been estimated—no doubt with
substantial accuracy—that the Babcock
milk test effects a saving of five per cent
of the butter fat of all the milk and cream
handled by all the creameries. On the
creamery output of "Wisconsin alone this
rate of saving would amount to more than
half a million dollars a year. And the
president of the Elgin Creamery Company,
in* a statement made before a committee
of the Wisconsin- Legislature, estimated
that the Babcock test "saves to the creameries of Wisconsin $1,200,000 annually"—
a sum greater than the cost of maintaining all the experiment stations in the
United States. The Wisconsin station is
the  birthplace  of the  Babcock  test.
What is this Babcock test? Merely a
very simple, inexpensive, and almost absolutely accurate method of determining
the percentage of butter fat in milk or
cream. In effect, it is a chemical analysis which any intelligent boy of 12 years
can learn to make in three days, and he
can make the test in ten minutes, at a cost
of about two cents. Using the old methods of analysis, a chemist would have to
spend two days to reach the same result.
The test involves the use of a tester, which
is very easily operated and understood.
A sample (about two-thirds of an ounce)
of the milk to be tested is poured into a
test bottle large enough to hold two ounces
of milk. The neck of the bottle is graduated to a fraction of one per cent. Into
this bottle is next poured concentrated sulphuric acid about equal in* amount to the
milk. The two liquids are thoroughly
mixed, and the bottle is placed in the
tester—a centrifugal machine arranged to
hold from two to thirty-two bottles. This
machine is rapidly revolved for four minutes, after which, boiling water is poured
into the bottles, which are again whirled
for about a minute. When the machine
stops the butter fat is found in* the neck
of the bottle, nnd the exact percentage of
Cat can be  read  from the scale.
The test and the tester were devised by
Dr. S. M. Babcock, chemist of the Wisconsin Experiment Station. The method and
tho machine were paten-table, and the inventor might have become immensely rich
by securing patents and retaining control
of the process. He choose to give it to
the world without condition. The action
was characteristic of the man. He was
an investigator, a chemist employed
by the State to give his time and skill to
the study of the problems of agriculutre.
His tine sense of honor saved him from becoming wealthy at the cost of the high
professional standard he had set for himself. Shall the servant of the public
traffic in the discoveries which the State
has enabled him to make? Dr. Babcock's
action says no. It says in effect that the
man whose services are paid for by the
State has no private right in the discoveries which he makes while in such service.
Should he happen to work for years without positive results, will the station worker
refund the salary he has drawn? He will
not; for the condition of his employment is
that he shall devote his time and ability
to the service of the public, whether it is
immediately profitable or not. The wonder is that so few persons have seen the
true meaning of Dr. Babcock's action. He
did not merely throw away the opportunity
to acquire a princely fortune.. He saved
his high character as an unselfish servant
of his State and earned tiie profound respect of every man and women who can
appreciate so noble a spurning of so subtle  a  temptation.
Stephen Moulton Babcock, professor of
agricultural chemistry in the Agricultural
College and chief chemist of the Agricultural Experiment Station, University of
Wisconsin, is a native of Bridgewater,
New York. He received a liberal education, and afterwards was a student of
chemistry for three or four years in Cornell University; then taught chemistry a
year or two; and, finally, he finished his
preliminary training by continuing his
chemical studies at Goettingen, Germany,
taking his Th. D. degree in 1879. Again
he became instructor in Cornell, but in
1882 was made chemist of the New York
State Experiment Station at Geneva,
where he remained until 1888, when he
received a similar appointment in Wisconsin. His severe training was not wasted.
As a teacher and an investigator he had
paid his way before he devised the famous
Babcock tester.
One of Professor Babcock's early inventions was a viscometer. In 1883 he devised a gravimetric method of analyzing
milk; in 1885 a method of determining the
number ami size of the fat globules in
milk. Each of these methods is standard.
As early as 1875 he began investigations on
the ripening of cheese. The Babcock milk
test was perfected in 1890. In 1897 he
announced the discovery by Dr. H. I.
Russell and himself of galactase, a digestive ferment contained in milk, which
"breaks down" and makes digestible the
casein of cheese. It is hardly possible
to forsee the results of this discovery. It
means, no doubt, the adoption of new
methods in the curing and ripening of
cheese, resulting in a more wholesome,
more digestible, and more attractive product.
Fortunately, Dr. Babcock's work is appreciated by the people of his State. The
Wisconsin Legislature in 1899 made an
appropriation to provide a suitable medal
in honor of his work. On* March 27, 1901,
this magnificent bronze medal was presented to Professor Babcock at a joint
session of the Senate an*d Assembly presided over by Governor La Pollette. The
medal is inscribed to Professor Stephen
Jloulton Babcock in recognition of the
value of his discoveries and inventions and
his "unselfish dedication" of tt'ieni to the
public service.     Who shall say that that
bronze medal and the appreciation of his
services by the people of Wisconsin are
not worth more to the high-souled chemist
than all the millions he might have received for his inventions?
Denver, Colo. D. W. Working.
Making Cement Walks.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
Let me give your many readers a dis-
cription of a cement walk froni house to
barn that will be durable and cheap, without a failure. I am aware from my
travels through Central Indiana and Illinois that the soil is clay and heaves up
by the freezing, also that sand and gravel
is scarce in some parts and hard to get.
From this stand point I give my views
and knowledge, knowing there is much
need of some kind of a cheap walk from
house to the barn, that a person can
travel it with comparatively clean shoes.
My plan will take but little material,
which I think is the greatest hindrance
to the making of cement walks. My plan
is, in the first place to have all the ground
made as level as a board, or as a straight
edge will make it, that it may be made
of even thickness, and be as level at the
bottom as the top of walk. Then make
the walk two feet wide and cut in blocks,
making the blocks square. Get some 2x4
scantling and lay flat wise on this leveled
up ground, preparatory to placing on the
cement made thin. Stake the scantling
well on*the out side; then fill up between
with cement and sand. The composition
should be one of cement to three of sand.
Use no gravel; instead use good, clean,
sharp plastering sand screened through a
plastering screen, taking out all coarse
gravel. After the cement has been put
together mix while dry with a hoe or
shovel until thoroughly mixed, then add
water enough to make it like thick mortar; then fill up between strips; using a
packer, to the top of strips, and as fast
as you fill follow up with a straightedge,
and finish by lightly floating it smooth.
If too hard to float use a brush and a
little water. I am in favor of leaving the
walk as it is after the float. It is as
strong and not so slippery to walk on in
muddy and wet weather, and has more
the resemblance of cut stone, than if it
is made smoother. The object of making
this kind of a walk is that it requires but
a small amount of material to make it,
and it can be relaid at any time if found
desirable. It will last for several years
without repairs. If it should at any time
become uneven by freezing in winter it
can be relaid, with no damage to the walk,
and be as fine as when flrst put down.
Spring time is preferable for making
walks, as the farmer can during the winter haul his sand and have it ready for
use in the spring.
Pot wide walks you should excavate
uot less than* 8 inches and fill with coarse
gravel to where your cement starts from.
Coal cinders are good for bottom filling,
but in any case the foundation should be
made level and smooth, that the walk
may be of even thickness, and made from
bottom to top with material of the same
strength, and be finished all at the same
time, that you may have it one solid stone
clean through. No seamy stone is as
strong as one with no seams. If you prefer using a plastering trowel do so, but
a walk made of fine sand floated downun-
til perfectly even is fine enough for me.
I have had many years experience in using
cement, and all who will follow these directions will never have defective sidewalks. Use a small painting trowel for
cutting through the cement, making it into
blocks.    A four foot walk can be made on
the same plan that a two foot walk is,
only it should be one inch thicker. There
will be no danger of breaking the blocks
by freezing. The walk may be raised by
the frost, but it will settle back in the
spring and will continue smooth for several years; but if gravel is near it should
be used as above stated to make a permanent walk without relaying. I made a
two foot walk 22 years ago and it is as
good as when first put down. It was made
on top of ground with only the soil removed. Every walk should have a shoe
scraper fastened into the cement, so that
a person can clean the dirt from his shoes
before entering the house. A barn walk
should have one at each end. For a barn
walk scraper, get one made at the blacksmith shop; have it made of good width,
with legs seven inches long, set >•» the
edge of the walk.      Make  thi •£ 'wo
inches wider where you have *[   mi-
fastened. J. \ ft
Elkhart Co. ^
—After seeing some good  soR _.    t
walks made with a mixture of s   *
part Portland cement to ten of ^."^
can see no reason for using the pi \ £,
Mr. Beers gives, one to three.
WORKED LIKE A CHARM.
"Simplest thing in the world," declared
the man who has married his third wife
and lives in the second block from Woodward on a fine cross street. "It's this
way. Give a woman the last word, keep
still, look disappointed without looking defiant and she'll be merciful to you nine
times out of ten. Now you want me for
a little stag poker party?"
"Yes.     You'll just fill out the number."'
"Well, sir, just drop in this evening and
see how I get my wife's permission.
Works like a charm, I tell you. There'll
be more or less of a squall, but don't you
care. Just keep a close eye on me at the
finish."
The caller "dropped in" at 8. There
were 10 minutes devoted to the weather
and other current topics, when the caller
asked his host to attend the party mentioned.
"Let me see," rubbing his chin, "I guess
I can come all right enough. We have no
engagement that night, have we, my
dear?"
"We have," and the brows of "my dear"
were knotted.
"Why, I didn't recall it. Where were
we going?"
"We were going to remain at home;
right here where you belong at night. I'm
opposed to gambling and I'm opposed to
night-hawking. You have a very binding engagement and I won't thank anyone
for urging you to break it either," and th«*
caller felt like throwing his hands into the
air.
"Now, now, dear," from the husband, ut
soft bass tones, and after a long pause,
"never mind. You'll excuse me this time.
Jones. I couldn't think of leaving my
wife when she wants me here. Fin* I
some one else, old man."
"Well, of course," she laughed cheerfully, "I wouldn't like to spoil the party and
I do like to have John enjoy himself. He
works so hard, you know, Mr. Jones. But
you mustn't meet too often or play too
high. I insist on your going, John. I
was too selfish."
Then John insisted just as hard tbat he
wouldn't think of going against her will,
she ordered him to go, he walked down to
the corner with Jones, and when the
policeman passed them he judged from
their hilarity that they were not getting
home a minute too soon.—Detroit Free
Press.