66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



per cent, which is the same in Minnesota and New Hamp- 

 shire, too high? There is some opposition to this standard, 

 and hardly a winter goes by without an effort to have the 

 Legislature reduce it. This is my excuse for taking time 

 to consider an old question. 



I desire, at the outset, to consider parenthetically one 

 phase of the enforcement of the law. All laws should be 

 enforced with reason and common-sense. This is not the 

 opinion of a mere laymen, but it has the highest of legal 

 authority. In the case of a statute designating a date after 

 which it would be illegal to be found with certain game in 

 one's possession, no officer would think of arresting a man 

 because he had such game, as the tones of the clock striking 

 the hour of midnight died away in the distance, or even at 

 one, two or three o'clock in the morning ; but, should an 

 officer make an arrest for such a narrow violation of law, it 

 is doubtful whether any court would convict. Similarly, in 

 the case of a statute standard of .13 per cent of solids in 

 milk it would be impossible to secure a conviction on milk 

 which had 12.9, 12.8 or even 12.7 per cent of solids. 

 Those who ask for a reduction of the standard claim that 

 the law should be enforced to the last one-hundredth of 

 one per cent, hoping thus to make it unpopular ; and they 

 armie that the officers who fail to enforce the law in this 

 way fail to do their duty. But milk inspectors, the Board 

 of Health and the agents of the Dairy Bureau, acting on the 

 best of legal advice, would not enforce the law so literally 

 if they could. Furthermore, they could not if they would ; 

 for no case can be entered in court without the consent of 

 the judge, and to his judgment much latitude is allowed. 

 No judge will entertain a case of a technical, hair-splitting 

 violation of law, nor unless the evidence is sufficiently 

 strong to make guilt almost certain. Hence, milk must 

 be sufficiently below the standard to make conviction 

 reasonably sure, even if the defendant has the services 

 of some talented criminal lawyer, who works zealously 

 for his client, and who uses all his ability to throw sus- 

 picion on methods of analysis or accuracy of the sampling. 

 Consequently, in the enforcement of the milk law the en- 



