THE MILK AND CREAM TRADE. 143 



Payment on a quality basis would be fair to everybody, if it 

 were only practicable. The difficulty exists, and it is a hard- 

 ship in many cases. A 'cute milkman can increase his profit 

 by watering down the genuine rich milk that farmers send to 

 him, keeping on the right side of the standard. It cannot be 

 denied that pure milk as it leaves the farm is generally two or 

 three per cent., or more, above the required standard in quality, 

 and this difference provides a margin which a dishonest dealer 

 can manipulate to his own profit and the farmer's loss. The 

 farmer, as a rule, is perfectly innocent of manipulation of this 

 kind. It will freely be admitted that the great majority of 

 dealers are perfectly honest ; it is the few in either case who 

 make the elaborate machinery of the law a necessary and a 

 permanent thing. 



Milk is constantly varying in quality, and will hardly be 

 exactly the same, even from the same cow, in any two conse- 

 cutive weeks, or even days, unless the food and the weather 

 remain uniform. Any dairy farmer may verify this for himself, 

 so far as the cream is concerned, if he possess himself of a set 

 of cream-gauge glasses, and use them intelligently. These 

 unavoidable fluctuations in quality do not, however, matter much 

 if only the average quality be right. But the farmer whose 

 milk is always of a high quality seldom receives the price he is 

 really entitled to. This, however, is in another way a benefit 

 to him viz., he is always sure of a customer. The dealers are 

 well aware whose milk of all they receive is the best, and this 

 is the milk they will cling to when some of the rest is cut down 

 or discarded. 



The farmer who, selling his milk retail in some town or other 

 near to which he resides, maintains a high standard of quality, 

 will keep his customers together and receive good prices, no 

 matter who comes against him. In a case like this the farmer 

 receives all the pay, and all the credit too; but when he sends 

 his milk to a dealer he loses this double advantage. This last 

 Is the penalty of location ; unless the farmer is within a moderate 

 distance of the consumers, he must needs commit the retailing 

 of his milk to a " middleman," 



