58 DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE 



as the highly- developed milk-yielder, but to have in reserve a 

 reliable source of profit in the form of a useful carcase. 



Another disadvantage of the thin-fleshed but rich milk- 

 yielding cow is the fact that the public is not educated up to 

 paying more for milk rich in cream than for poorer stuff. Once 

 the prevailing ignorance about agricultural produce has been 

 dispelled (and that will take time) improvement in this respect 

 will depend on whether the extra butter-fat is valuable. There 

 is no doubt that for very young infants who unhappily cannot 

 have their own mother's milk, it is simpler, and in every way 

 easier, to imitate the human food with very rich, rather than 

 with moderately rich, milk. Even assuming that people gener- 

 ally understood the first principles of feeding very little children, 

 and were willing and able to pay for the best material, the 

 demand for suitable milk would still be very limited ; the great 

 bulk of the cows' liquid produce is wanted for ordinary house- 

 hold consumption. As to the value of milk particularly rich in 

 fat for the feeding of growing children (after they are weaned) 

 and for human adult consumption, it is hard to speak with 

 certainty. There is no evidence establishing a great superiority 

 in feeding value of the 4-5 per cent, over the 3-5 per cent, 

 article except for feeding babies who are not fed at the breast. 

 Many mothers do not realize the vital importance of breast- 

 feeding and accurate knowledge about milk, generally, is very 

 meagre. It has, however, been my business during the past 

 twenty years to find out all I could about the management 

 of large herds of deep-milking cows kept for supplying 

 milk to human beings; and in this time I have enquired 

 into the experience of hundreds of farmers carrying on this 

 industry. Yet I have only found two cases where the milk from 

 A cows known to be very rich milk-producers was sold to a 

 retailer for a better price than that from cows known to give 

 very moderate quality. I have known many cases where the 

 herd contained about 10 per cent., or less, of animals such as 

 the Jersey whose milk was known to be very rich. This was 

 done to avoid a summons to appear before the magistrates. 

 It is a legal offence to sell milk which fails to show an analysis 

 of 3 per cent, of butter-fat, and the milk-seller is assumed to 



