No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 389 



able that the judge or jury will bo convinced beyond a rea- 

 sonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. Consequently, in 

 the prosecution of milk laws some latitude from the statute 

 standard must be allowed, and milk that comes within from 

 one-halt' to three-quarters of one per cent of the standard is 

 usually passed as being all right. Those who argue against 

 a 13 per cent standard as being too high should remember 

 that, for purposes of enforcing the law, milk of 12.5 per 

 cent solids will pass as standard milk, and that, were the 

 standard reduced to 12 per cent, it would let in milk of 11.5 

 per cent. Now, as the average milk of average cows when 

 mixed contains 13 per cent of total solids, is it for the in- 

 terest of the majority of producers to admit competition 

 with milk of a lower grade? We recognize the fact that a 

 minority of cows produce milk of 10 and 11 per cent solids ; 

 and we admit that there is a seeming hardship in saying that 

 the pure, wholesome product of a healthy animal should be 

 declared unmerchantable. But that is not the case. If own- 

 ers of cows producing low-grade milk came to the Legislat- 

 ure asking permission to sell such milk at a low price, it 

 would be difficult to find arguments against the proposition ; 

 but these people ordinarily ask that their low-grade milk 

 shall be considered as standard milk, and sold at the regular 

 price. Milk below the standard can now be sold if it is 

 labelled skim-milk. The can may, in addition, contain a 

 guarantee that the milk is the pure, natural product of a 

 healthy cow. But we cannot conceive of any reason why 

 the producer of such milk should be allowed to compete 

 with producers of better milk, or to sell 10 or 11 pounds of 

 food to producers who cannot protect themselves, and assume 

 that they are buying an average article, to wit, 13 pounds. 



We also desire to emphasize a point which we believe is 

 many times overlooked, — that the laws of Massachusetts 

 have made two entirely separate and distinct offences : one 

 is the selling of " adulterated milk," the other is the sale of 

 milk "not of standard quality." Though the fines are the 

 same for both offences, there is a certain amount of moral 

 turpitude and popular stigma attached to the selling of an 

 adulterated product, which does not necessarily attach to the 

 sale of a product which may be pure, but which is not of 



