No. 4.] KEPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 



407 



the majority of cows give milk of that quality. By mixing 

 the milk of different animals, herd milk will be found very 

 uniform in quality, and almost always up to or above the 

 standard. We believe that a 13 per cent statute is in the 

 interest of the consumer, and we also believe that it is in 

 the interest of the producer, for it helps business to the 

 extent that it keeps off" from the market all milk below the 

 standard. It seems to us against the interests of the great 

 majority of farmers, and of agriculture generally, that the 

 minority who own cows producing low-grade milk should 

 by their persistency succeed in engrafting their views upon 

 the statute book. 



During two weeks of the past year we undertook an in- 

 vestigation of the quality of milk sold for a week before and 

 after the statute standard changed, testing the milk for fat 

 only, by the Babcock tester. The agents of the Bureau 

 were instructed to take samples in Springfield, Somerville, 

 and Chelsea during the last week in September. The first 

 week in October, when the standard had changed to 13 per 

 cent, they were sent over the same territory, to take sam- 

 ples from the same milkmen, so far as was possible. Three 

 or more samples were taken the last week in September and 

 the first week of October from each of 28 milkmen. In 14 

 cases the milk averaged the same amount of fat in October 

 that it did in September; in 11 instances there was a 

 slightly increased quantity in October, the gain ranging from 

 .4 to .6 of fat. Three cases of adulterated milk were found 

 in October where the milk was all right in September, caus- 

 ing a decrease in the amount of fat. 



Stating the case in another way, we took in September, 

 under this experiment, samples as follows : — 



