88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



loading of the car in your vicinity. In many cases a car 

 that starts this morning would take the milk of last night 

 and yesterday morning. 



Mr. Ward. The car starts one hundred and twenty-six 

 miles from Boston in the morning, taking the morning's 

 milk and that of the night before. Some of our formers 

 have to get up and milk at from three to four o'clock in 

 the morning ; they get their milk into Boston on the same 

 day that it is milked, between twelve and one o'clock. It 

 is thus delivered in Boston the next day. 



Secretary Sessions. Is that same practice pursued in not 

 weather ? 



Mr. Ward. Yes, sir. 



Professor Brooks (of Amherst). I believe that I am 

 somewhat at a disadvantage in rising to speak on this sub- 

 ject, as I have not been* following the whole line of argu- 

 ment of the speaker ; but so far as I have been able to 

 follow him, he is in favor of a standard substantially as it 

 is at present, with the exception of the summer months, 

 when he would have it still higher. 



Mr. Whitaker. The exemption in favor of the summer 

 months was a compromise to get the law through, any way, 

 and is unscientific. It is just as easy to make 13 per cent 

 solids in June as in July or August. 



Professor Brooks. I think I should differ from Mr. 

 Whitaker somewhat, for this fact, which I think is thor- 

 oughly substantiated ; namely, that feed which stimulates a 

 large yield always somewhat decreases the percentage of 

 solids in milk. The exception of the summer months may 

 not be exactly scientific, but the succulent grass which so 

 large a portion of the cows get during the early part of the 

 summer will make the percentage of solids somewhat lower. 

 Something in the grass stimulates a much larger yield. I 

 am in favor of some standard, but it does seem to me that 

 the method of setting the standard or the principles of the 

 standard might be improved. I believe, personally, in a 

 standard expressed in two terms, — solids other than fat, 

 and fat. I believe that the milk of the Holstein or of the 

 Shorthorn is not simply as well suited but better suited as 



