igO BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., 



meaning of the word " good " as applied to milk is what is 

 acceptable to the consumer. Any milk that is cheap, unless it 

 has soured, is good milk in the eyes of some consumers, 

 perhaps of the average consumer. 



Now our city friends, of course, look down upon us as not 

 knowing very much, but we have so many evidences of it, 

 and so many things come within the experience of anybody 

 who is in the retail milk business, that it is sometimes quite dis- 

 couraging to one who attempts to raise the standard of 

 business. For instance, take an illustration that occurred in 

 my own experience. We had occasion to raise the price of 

 our milk because of the increase in the cost of labor, of feed, 

 and everything that the dairyman has to do with. We raised 

 it two cents a quart. We had among our customers a dentist. 

 Men who are dentists are accepted by the world at large as 

 belonging to that class of professional men that are really 

 intelligent. Well educated. Perhaps that is a wrong state- 

 ment, but nevertheless that is the ordinary interpretation of 

 the type of man that are dentists, and this man was no excep- 

 tion to that. He frankly stated that he would not pay the 

 extra price. Frankly said that he did not feel that he could 

 afford to do it. And that as he was not justified in doing that, 

 that he felt, at least temporarily, justified in withdrawing his 

 patronage. Anyway, he left us, and left a feeling on both 

 sides. He left us owing a balance of a few dollars, and in the 

 course of a month or two we asked our man to call at his 

 office for a payment. While he was sitting at his desk writing 

 out a check our man said to him, " Well, Doctor, how are 

 you getting along?" " Well," he said, " Ben, I am not getting 

 on just as well as I used to." "Well, what is the matter?" 

 " Why," he said, " when I first began to take milk of this 

 other man the milk was very good. It was not as good as 

 yours but it was satisfactory, and it cost less. In the course 

 of a little time it began to deteriorate and after he had 

 adulterated it for about a week or two, says I, " Smith, when 



