292 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



of the farm. Now, to-day the milk which was forty cents a 

 can twenty years ago is from twenty to twenty-five cents, 

 and all this while you have been telling farmers how milk 

 could be made a great deal cheaper than they have been 

 making it ; but who has got the benefit of making that milk 

 cheaper? Is it business-like to tell a farmer how he can 

 make milk much cheaper and not say one word about the 

 disposal of it? It seems to me it would have been better if 

 you had adopted the sentiment that was expressed by the 

 lecturer yesterday afternoon, that the business side of farm- 

 ing covers both the production and the sale. 



As secretary of the Milk Producers' Union I have had 

 this subject under consideration for some time, and I will 

 tell you what has been the result of one business operation 

 of that sort. A few years ago some milk producers got 

 together and formed an association. They wanted to know 

 about this great milk question. Boston consumes between 

 four and five million dollars' worth of milk every year, and 

 has in the past six years increased its consumption fifty per 

 cent. I have it from Mr. Babcock within three days. But 

 during that time something has happened. The JNlilk Pro- 

 ducers' ^Association succeeded in getting a law passed to 

 prevent the adulteration of milk. Just before that law went 

 into operation in 1884, it was ascertained, as nearly as could 

 be, that about sixty per cent, of the milk that was sold in 

 Boston was more or less adulterated. In 1885, under the 

 operation of the law, the percentage of adulteration went 

 down to some thirty per cent. ; in 1886 it was only from 

 twenty to twenty-five per cent. ; and so far in 1887 it is 

 only about twelve per cent. These figures are from news- 

 paper reports and arc not, perhaps, exact, but they will be 

 accurately presented in the official report of the inspector in 

 the course of another month. 



Now we will come to business. In 1884 Boston was 

 paying one hundred thousand dollars, at least, a year for 

 water that was put into the milk which it consumed. During 

 the past year the probability is that the city has not paid 

 over twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars for water put into 

 milk. The milk association has saved that amount of money 

 to the city of Boston alone. 



