COMPOSITION OF MILK I\ CAPE COLONY, 



107 



is over 6%, be it due to deficiency of tat or addition of water. 

 Lastly, to allow the vendor every benefit of doubt, all facilities 

 are granted to dairymen whose milk has been condemned, to 

 have made an " appeal to the cow." 



It is, of course, well known that cases do occur in which, some- 

 times, the milk of individual cows, and more rarely, the mixed 

 milk from a small herd, falls below the limits given. But no 

 standard can be established to embrace all such abnormal samples. 

 It would mean that, as experience has shown, milks containing 

 little more than 1% of fat would have to be passed as genuine 

 simj^ly because at one time or another, a cow for particular reasons 

 has yielded such abnormally poor milk. 



Regarding seasonal variations in the milk as supplied to the 

 public by dairymen, the tables above given clearly show that such 

 variations are too small to render a change of limits for different 

 periods of the year necessary. 



Before leaving the question of milk standards it may be added, 

 that, in fixing official limits it is only reasonable to draw upon 

 the experience of several hundreds of analyses of samples of milk 

 taken from milk as actually supplied by dairymen, and that the 

 evidence obtained by the analysis of milk from a few cows or from 

 small herds of specialised breed, when it would indicate the con- 

 trary, should only be taken as " proving the rule." In the 

 majority of cases there is no doubt that some factor such as age 

 of cow, period in milk, condition of health, etc., has had an in- 

 fluence in causing the milk to be abnormally poor. 



With regard to the variation between the morning and evening 

 milk, reference to Table No. IV. will show that Richmond has 

 found, with regard to the samples analysed for the Aylesbury 

 Dairy Company, that the evening milk is slightly richer than that 

 of the morning supply. 



The writer has unfortunately^ not been able to conduct any 

 direct experiments to demonstrate the same occurrence in South 

 Africa, but no facts have come to his notice to lead him to believe 

 that as a rule, Richmond's experience is not repeated in this 

 country. No doubt the chief factor in causing the variation 

 is clue to the unequal intervals between the times of milking : 

 the intervals between the morning and evening milking being 

 usually shorter than those between the evening and morning. 



To record a few facts on the subject : 



A sample of the mixed milk of 11 cows was taken at Observatory 

 on the afternoon of 28th December, 1908, and yielded the results 

 shown under A (Table XII.) 



Table XII.. 



Specific gravity 



Totals olids 



Fat 



Solids not fat 



