Stephen Moulton Babcock

Stephen Moulton Babcock (22 October 1843 – 2 July 1931) was an American agricultural chemist. He is best known for developing the Babcock test, used to determine butterfat content in milk and cheese processing, and for the single-grain experiment that led to the development of nutritional science as a recognized discipline. Early life and career Babcock was born on a farm in Bridgewater, New York to Peleg and Cornelia Babcock. He earned a B.A. from Tufts College in 1866 and attended Cornell University from 1872 to 1875, where he earned a master's degree before studying organic chemistry at the University of Göttingen, Germany, from which he received a Ph.D. in 1879. Upon his return to the United States in 1881, Babcock took up the role of an agricultural chemist at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York, where his first assignment was to determine the proper feed ratios of carbohydrate, fat, and protein using chemical analysis of cow excrement. He determined that the excrement's chemical composition was similar to that of the feed, the only major exception being the ash content. These results were tested and retested, and his results were similar to German studies done earlier. This led Babcock to wonder what would happen if cattle were fed a single grain (barley, corn, or wheat), though that test would not be carried out for nearly twenty-five years. University of Wisconsin–Madison In 1888, Babcock accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Agricultural Experiment Station (UWAES) as chair of the agricultural chemistry department. He immediately petitioned Dean of Agriculture William Henry, then station director, to carry out the "single-grain experiment", but Henry refused. In 1890, he developed the Babcock test which determines the butterfat content of milk. He then worked with bacteriologist Harry Luman Russell in developing the cold-curing process for ripening cheese (1897). The Babcock test set the worldwide standard for butterfat determination of milk, while the cold-curing process enabled Wisconsin to become the leading cheese producer in the United States. "Single-grain experiment" Babcock continued pressing William Henry to perform the "single-grain experiment" and even unsuccessfully approached the UWAES animal husbandry chair J. A. Craig. Craig was replaced in 1897 by W. L. Carlyle, who was more receptive to Babcock's proposal.