74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Arguments for the Standard. 



Having thus considered the need of some standard, and 

 the fact that the present standard represents the average 

 quality of milk, and having also noticed the reasons com- 

 monly urged for a change, I have already indicated why I 

 favor the 13 per cent standard, in the interests of the 

 majority of milk producers as well as of consumers. Some 

 of the points which I wish to make, by way of recapitula- 

 tion, are as follows : — 



First. — A reduction of the standard would be an injus- 

 tice to the majority of farmers who produce standard milk, 

 in three ways, — by increasing competition through an en- 

 larged supply, by reducing the price on account of an 

 increased surplus and also by decreasing consumption. The 

 present law and its enforcement have done much to increase 

 popular confidence in the milk supply, and have thereby 

 increased the consumption, which might be injured by a 

 decrease in the average quality. The "London Lancet" 

 says that a statute standard ' ' has a tendency to raise and 

 maintain the quality of the milk supply." 



Second. — A reduction would be an injustice to the con- 

 sumers. The " British Medical Journal" says that the low 

 standard has done great injury to the consumer as well as 

 to the honest producer and vender. 



Third. — A reduction would be only a temporary remedy 

 for the troubles of the minority. With a continuation of the 

 process of breeding down, in a few years there would be a 

 respectable minority of cows whose product would be below 

 the lower standard, were it 12, 11 or even 10 per cent. I 

 have already spoken of the cow at the Ohio State fair which 

 produced 8.41 per cent milk in competition for a prize for 

 cows giving the greatest quantity. Producing quantity 

 without thought for quality is like continually driving as 

 near the edge of a precipice as possible ; one has only 

 himself to blame if some day he goes over. Moving the 

 precipice would give no relief, so long as the venturesome 

 proclivities remained. I do not mean that some farmers 

 deliberately try to get as near the line laid down by the 

 statute as they can without crossing it, but the drift of 

 events leads practically to that result. 



