No. 4.] MILK SUPPLY OF CITIES. 73 



too, found that it had been watered.* Though the case 

 appealed to the sympathy and good-will of the defendant's 

 fellow townsmen on account of his general integrity and 

 good character, there could be no disputing the fact that 

 some one had fraudulently added water to the milk. 



As there is a well-established relation between the solids 

 not fat and the fat, and as it has been abundantly proved 

 that 13 per cent milk will have about 3.75 per cent of fat, 

 the cheapness, accuracy and convenience of the Babcock test 

 make it possible for every farmer to keep track of the quality 

 of what he is sending to market. 



Fourth. — "Enforcing the law occasions much trouble." 

 This we hear sometimes from Boston milk contractors when 

 they have been exceedingly annoyed by milk below standard, 

 after repeated warnings have been sent; but the trouble 

 of enforcing a law is no argument against it. If such a 



o Co 



claim were to have weight, nearly all of the criminal statutes 

 now in force would be repealed. 



Fifth. — "There is much difficulty in making standard 

 milk." If a majority of farmers can and do produce milk 

 of standard quality, the minority can do the same if they 

 will make the conditions the same. If the continued policy 

 of any milk producer is to get cows that will give the larg- 

 est product possible, with no thought of quality except 

 barely to save himself from legal prosecution, he has no 

 right to say that it is difficult to make standard milk. 



Sixth. — I find our law denounced in a New York dairy 

 paper as an attempt to " instruct the Lord," with the asser- 

 tion that " a law making it illegal to sell milk under 13 per 

 cent total solids might well be followed by one making it 

 illegal to sell an apple weighing less than four ounces or a 

 pig with a tail less than three inches in length." This 

 attempt to ridicule the law is no argument, but advertises 

 the ignorance of the person who makes it. The whole 

 theory of a statute standard is the protection of the inter- 

 ests of the consumer against a fraud, and, indirectly, the 

 protection of the interests of the best class of producers. 



* Fat, 4.0; solids not fat, 7.94; total, 11.94 per cent. 

 Fat, 3.3; solids not fat, 7.74; total, 11.04 per cent. 

 Fat, 3.6; solids not fat, 7. OS; total, 11 28 per cent. 



