No. 4.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. xiii 



one year with another, in at least a partial return to general 

 farming conditions, raising more of the grain and roughage 

 which they use, and producing more of the stock which they 

 need to renew their herds. 



The Milk Standard. 

 The last session of the Legislature was marked by an earnest, 

 and at some times violent and ill-judged, effort to obtain a re- 

 duction in the standard of milk. This effort was first broached 

 in the Legislature after the annual meeting of the Board, and 

 without having previously been brought before the Board in 

 any way. Under these circumstances the Board had no oppor- 

 tunity to take a position in the matter, and your secretary 

 could not take other than an individual position on a matter 

 of so much importance, without definite instructions from 

 the Board. That any standard must be an artificial one 

 is of course admitted, and until we are able to do without a 

 standard at all, which time is not yet, any standard adopted 

 will be only an imperfect measure of the quality and purity of 

 the milk supply. That there is too wide a variation between 

 the summer and the winter standard is, I think, too plain for 

 argument. There is a certain amount of variation in the milk 

 solids and fat of summer and winter milk, but it has been shown 

 not to reach the extent of 1 per cent in the solids and h per cent 

 in the fat. This variation of the standard from the actual con- 

 ditions should unquestionably be done away with, so far as 

 possible. Probably the best means to this end would be the 

 reduction of the winter standard half of 1 per cent on the solids, 

 with a corresponding decrease in the fat content required. 

 Massachusetts has now the highest winter standard of any 

 State in the Union except New Hampshire, and Minnesota 

 and Michigan are the same; and it would seem as if no harm 

 could result from a lowering of the standard in respect to winter 

 milk to something approaching that for summer milk and that 

 prevailing in other States, and that at the same time a certain 

 amount of good would be accomplished by doing away with 

 what is in the main a purely arbitrary differentiation between 

 the standards for the different seasons. With such lowering 

 there would doubtless remain certain herds that would fall be- 



