No. 4.] MILK SUPPLY OF CITIES. 63 



Need of a Standard. 



Every, one will agree that the Legislature ought not to 

 meddle with an article whose quality can be readily and 

 conveniently determined. But, in case of an article of 

 which it is impossible or inconvenient for the public to 

 judge, the almost universal opinion is that a legal standard 

 should be fixed. There is a gas standard and an oil stand- 

 ard ; there are standards for drugs and for liquors ; a 

 standard age for veal is established. The impossibility of 

 ordinary people promptly judging of the value of jewelry 

 has led to the prohibition of peddling it. Milk is particu- 

 larly an article of which the consumer cannot readily judge. 

 It is left at his house often before he is up in the morning, 

 and must go into immediate use. He has no appliance or 

 opportunity for examining the quality, and usually cannot 

 take the time or trouble to look up the proper officers and 

 present a sample to them. In other cases where there is 

 such difficulty in determining quality, and where there is a 

 possible wide variation in it, the law steps in and establishes 

 an arbitrary standard. 



Milk of unquestioned purity was found at the Ohio State 

 fair with 8.41 per cent of solids, and it sometimes has as 

 high as 20 per cent. This means that a purchaser may 

 get anywhere from 8| to 20 pounds of food for every 100 

 pounds of milk that he buys ; and under existing conditions 

 it means that the farmer who makes superior or even aver- 

 age milk must sell some of his milk solids in competition 

 with water from his neighbor's cows. 



If some system of ready testing could be adopted, and 

 then if milk could be sold on its merits, at a price propor- 

 tionate to its food value, no law would be necessary. That 

 would l>e an ideal condition. I look forward to the time 

 when the Babcock or ofher similar test will become common, 

 and the people so intelligent that milk can be sold vA vari- 

 ous prices according to the varying qualities. But that 

 time has not come as yet. Consequently, the circumstances 

 justify a Legislature in designating a point below which one 

 cannot go in selling milk. Courts have affirmed this prin- 



