x BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



deal in the spirit of fairness, with an eve to the future and not to 

 mere temporary personal advantage. That this spirit has 

 never reached its proper development in the handling of the 

 milk supply of the Boston market must be admitted; both 

 parties blame the other for this lack of mutual confidence; and 

 they have stood in the past, and it is to be feared that they stand 

 to-day more than ever, in the position of warring and antago- 

 nistic bodies. This is to be deplored, and I trust that it may 

 be overcome to a greater extent in the future. 



With the differences between the milk producers and the 

 milk contractors this Board has nothing to do, in its official ca- 

 pacity. This is a business question, and can be settled only in 

 a business way by the contractors in conference with the farmers 

 or their representatives. All that the Board can do is to advise 

 and furnish moral support for any movement looking to secure 

 to the farmers any reasonable increase in price. The transpor- 

 tation of milk to market is also entirely outside the province of 

 the Board. The Dairy Bureau of the Board is charged in a 

 general way with the enforcement of the laws in relation to 

 milk standards and purity of milk, but its work has always been 

 mainly in relation to the enforcement of the laws against the 

 sale of imitation dairy products. In so far as the Bureau has 

 had to do with the enforcement of the milk laws, it has endeav- 

 ored to enforce them in a spirit of fairness, and not arbitrarily, 

 no prosecutions having been brought during the year except 

 where milk has been actually adulterated by the addition of 

 water or some preservative. All business should be honestly 

 conducted, and the farmer can claim no special dispensation 

 against prosecution for fraud. Milk is the one great universal 

 food of the world. The addition of any foreign substance is a 

 fraud on the consumer, and may also be a danger to health; 

 therefore, the laws against such adulteration demand the strict- 

 est enforcement, and will always receive it at the hands of this 

 Board and its agents. 



The season has not been an especially satisfactory one to 

 our horticulturists, most fruits having been rather light in yield, 

 though prices have generally been good. The apple crop was 

 predicted to be a very light one, but the harvesting season found 

 the farmers and fruit growers with an unexpected number of 



