Commissioner of Agriculture, 11 



tured into butter, cheese and condensed milk; of these there are 

 about 1,000 factories and several hundred creameries. 



There was a time in the history of the milk producing in this 

 State when it seemed that every inducement was to get cows that 

 would produce quantity at the expense of quality. A careful 

 study of the history of milk producing during the past ten years 

 reveals the fact that slowly but surely has this been changed, until 

 now the tendency is to produce quality at the expense of quan- 

 tity. This result has been produced, in my judgment, by experi- 

 ments which have been performed which tend to show, if they 

 do not absolutely prove, that the value of milk for both butter 

 and cheese making is directly as the quantity of fat contained in 

 the milk. This has come or is coming to be recognized as the 

 gauge of value, so that now a large number of creameries are 

 purchasing milk and paying for it in proportion to the amount of 

 fat. This I believe to be right, from a point of value as well as 

 from the fact that it has a tendency to encourage improvement in 

 stock and the quality of the commodity produced thereby. 



It is hardly necessary for me to call your attention to the large 

 amount of this commodity consumed annually, for you to appre- 

 ciate the importance it is to the consuming public to have the 

 quality good. In the city of New York, last year alone, the fig- 

 ures given in the report of the Assistant Commissioner having 

 charge of the work in that division indicate that the consumption 

 of milk reached the enormous figure of 9,000,000 forty-quart cans. 

 About one-third of the population of the State is in that city, so 

 it is fair to estimate that they consume a like proportion of 

 milk; this being so, the milk consumed in the State would reach 

 the enormous figure of 27,000,000 forty-quart cans, or about 

 1,080,000,000 quarts. It has been the constant aim of this Depart- 

 ment not only to do all in its power with the money and men at 

 hand to see that the milk produced and going to the consumer was 

 pure, that is, free from adulteration, but also through the work 

 of the institutes and instructors sent out among those who pro- 

 duced it, to at all times impress them strongly with the idea of 

 the necessities of properly feeding, housing and caring for the 



