172 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



For instance, good Holstein milk is at times not salable on account of its 

 total solids not coming within the limits of the law (Massachusetts State 

 Standard). The law demands during winter 3.70 per cent, fat and 13 per cent, 

 solids, while in the summer 3 per cent, fat and 12 per cent, solids. As we all 

 know, the Holstein milk, unless the cows are especially fed, falls below this 

 standard. Now, from a medical point of view the Holstein milk is exactly 

 what we find best for infant feeding and it is an extremely good milk for any 

 one to drink. 



The immense number of infants, however, who live entirely upon milk 

 should be taken into consideration in this question, and I believe that the 

 people should be allowed to buy this milk just as they should be allowed to 

 buy a milk modified to suit a special infant who is being taken care of. 



Too much can not be said or done to encourage the production and 

 consumption of a food product which possesses nutritive elements of 

 the right kind in the proper proportion, and nourishing qualities of 

 such high value — a product which is essential to the proper develop- 

 ment of the child, upon the future health of .which the state becomes 

 dependent for its prosperit}^ a product which has made healthy, con- 

 tented and prosperous the nation, which for two thousand years has 

 enjoyed its benefits. 



As we have seen, no cow can obey the mandate of a legislature, 

 no matter what liberty she may be allowed to exercise in the choice of 

 her food. Some protection against adulteration and other forms of 

 fraud in these selfish and greedy commercial days is necessary, but a 

 standard based upon the total fat and total solids not fat, in milk, 

 particularly when that fat percentage is placed so high that none of our 

 most useful and healthful breeds can produce her,d milk in compliance 

 with it, simply defeats the object for which it was designed. 



For example, the milk test at the St. Louis Exposition was probably 

 the most scientifically conducted and most illuminating in results ever 

 made in this or any other country. 



Among others the following groups competed in the tests: twenty- 

 five Jerseys, five Brown Swiss, fifteen Holsteins and twenty-five Short 

 Horns, not one of which produced milk up to the legal standard estab- 

 lished by some states, and yet these cattle had been selected and fitted 

 for an international exhibition, and were fed, groomed and tutored by 

 experts in the art of milk production. Some of the very animals, 

 valued perhaps at several thousand dollars, are producing milk in 

 several different commonwealths to-day, which if sampled by the state 

 inspector could put its owner in jail for violation of the law. More- 

 over, when we understand that the relative percentage of fat and solids 

 not fat, in milk, varies in each cow with the period of lactation, time 

 of day when the sample is taken, with the weather and seasons, the 

 physical condition, and many other contingencies, and when we realize 

 that two quarts from the same cow can differ; also two quarts from 



