88 THE CONNECTICUT AGEICULTURAL 



Morning Milking. Noon Milking. - Evening Milking. 



Min. Max. Av. Min. Max. Av. Min. Max. Av. 



Specific gravity .-. 29.2*34.0 32.0 29.1 34.0 31.2 29.9 34.5 31.9 



Solids. 11.31 11.85 11.77 



Fat 2.79 3.41 3.26 



* Read 1.0292—1.0340, etc. 



During one period of six months the average percentage of 

 solids was 11.19 in morning milk, in another period, noon milk 

 had 11.75, and in a third, evening milk had 11.75. 



Variations in Milk Solich. — An inspection of all the results above 

 given leads to the conclusion that in pure herd milk the solids 

 may in some cases and at certain seasons sink as low as 10.0 or 10.5 

 per cent, and the fat to 2.6 per cent. : and that very frequently, 

 (in 28 per cent, of the samples examined at this Station), the 

 solids are less than 12.0 per cent. 



In more than 6000 recorded obsei'vations on the mixed milk of 

 herds, Bouchardat and Quevenne found that it was always be- 

 tween 1.029 and 1.033. Miiller in Bern, from many hundred 

 observations in Switzerland, France, Belgium, England and other 

 places, found the same limits. Fleischmann, in 833 samples of 

 milk sold in Lindau, found only 4 per cent, which had a specific 

 gravity of less than 1.029, and all of these, as he proved, were 

 either from single cows or had been watered. In the reports of 

 examinations made by the police of European cities of herd milk 

 taken in the stables, it is ])Ossib]e to find specific gravities under 

 1;029, but in these cases there is no certainty or even probability 

 that the determinations were made with sufiicient care to avoid 

 sources of error. 



It is a matter of great importance to know, not simply what is 

 the average composition of herd-milk, but what composition it 

 may have ; what are the limits within which all pure herd-milk 

 comes ; and whether it is practicable to establish by law, or by 

 regulation among dealers in milk, a standard of composition 

 which shall distinguish pure milk from that which is watered or 

 skimmed, or at least which shall distinguish between that which 

 is marketable and that which is of too poor a quality to be offered 

 for sale. A consideration of the observations noticed above 

 brings us to the following conclusions with regard to the value 

 of total solids, and of specific gravity, as criteria for judging of 

 the quality of milk. 



We have seen that pure herd-milk shows very wide variations 



