EXPERIMENT STATION. 89 



in its content of solids and fat, and variations less striking in its 

 specific gravity. No instance appears to be on record where a 

 competent observer has found for the mixed milk of a number of 

 healthy cows a specific gravity less than 1.029, and we may con- 

 clude' with certainty, that milk which falls below that density has 

 been watered. 



As evidence of watering simply, specific gravity furnishes by 

 far the most satisfactory test, and if 1.029 is adopted as a mini- 

 mum, no pure milk will be condemned. In some cases moderately 

 watered milk may escape detection. 



If we will establish a minimum limit for the percentage of solids 

 and fat which shall in no case condemn pure milk in any locality, 

 we shall have to make it absurdly low, and thus ofier a premium 

 on watering milk of good quality. 



As between producers and creameries, or wholesale dealers, in 

 any given locality, it is, we believe, perfectly practicable and fair 

 to establish a standard of chemical composition and require that 

 no milk shall be sold which falls below it. In order to establish 

 such a standard, numerous analyses of herd-milk must be made at 

 different times through the year, the samples to be taken from a 

 considerable number of herds ; so as to have a clear idea of those 

 variations which are to be- expected in that locality, with the 

 changes of the seasons and the feeding. If fairness and accuracy 

 are aimed at, dependence cannot certainly be placed on the results 

 of analyses made in other places, where the popular breeds of 

 cows, the climate, food, and management of cattle are, or may be 

 all different. In such an arrangement it will be seen that " adul- 

 teration" will never have to be claimed or proved. The question 

 is simply one of chemical composition and is easily settled. 



Of late shimmed milk has come to be sold extensively in the 

 cities of this State, being bought at low rates, wholesale, from 

 the creameries by milk dealers, and is too often sold as " whole 

 milk " to the disadvantage of purchasers and the serious embar- 

 rassment of milk producers ; for it is impossible for an honest 

 milk-man to compete with a dishonest one as long as buyers 

 regard the price of milk as of more account than the quality. 

 This kind of fraud is readily detected by finding the specific 

 gravity and percentage of fat in the milk ; but when skimmed 

 milk instead of water has been added to whole milk, it is often 

 impossible to prove the fact by any kind of examination, because 

 the change of composition thus introduced may be less than the 

 7 



