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DAIRY PRODUCTS. 83 



As evidence of watering simply, specific gravity furnishes by far the most satisfac- 

 tory test, and if 1.029 isadopted as a minimum, no pure milk will be condemned. In 

 some cases moderately watered milk may escape detection. 



If we will establish a minimum limit for the percentage of solids and fat which 

 shall in no case condemn pure milk in any locality, we shall have to make it absurdly 

 lo\v, and thus offer a premium on watering milk of good quality. 



QUANTITY OF WATER OR DRY SOLIDS IN MILK. 



The law of Massachusetts fixes the legal maximum of water iu milk at 

 87 per cent. The quantity, however, varies within large limits, and it is 

 manifestly unjust to condemn a milk as adulterated when it has more 

 than 87 per cent, water. 



The chief factors which cause a healthy milk to vary in its percentage 

 of solids are length of time the cow has been in milk, the season of the 

 year, and consequently the character of the food of the animal. On this 

 point the Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health 1 makes 

 the following observations: 



The statutes prescribe a fixed and definite standard for commercial milk. Milk not 

 containing 13 per cent, of solids is deemed to be adulterated under the law. It is 

 often urged that, under such a standard, milk as obtained direct from the animal does 

 not always conform to the requirements of the law. While this is true, it is also 

 evident that a standard established at the minimum of quality, or that of the poorest 

 milk obtained under the worst conditions, would admit of the sale of a very large 

 quantity of adulterated milk. 



It is possible to produce from inferior animals, under unfavorable conditions, such 

 as impoverished diet, bad care, extreme age or youth, milk somewhat below the legal 

 requirement. This ought not to be an argument for the reduction of the standard to 

 include occasional cases of the lowest quality. 



Mixed milk contains a greater amount of solids than its minimum constituents. 

 Hence, the milk producer or dealer will find it a safe rule to sell mixed milk only, 

 especially when his herd contains one or more animals producing milk of a poor 

 quality. In the 40-quart cans of the Housatonic Valley, filled for the New York 

 market, the milk must necessarily be a mixture from several animals, but in the case 

 of the usual 2-gallon can, so largely in use throughout the larger part of this State, 

 the contents may be often that of two or three animals only, and it occasionally 

 may represent a single animal. 



Under the Massachusetts law a rigid inspection of the milk sold in all 

 the large cities is made, and the character of the milk is described in 

 thefollowiug summary of the report of Dr. Harrington, milk inspector 

 for Boston. 2 



During the year just ended I have received from thft inspectors of the board, and 

 from other sources, 1,759 samples of milk, which number includes samples from all 

 of the cities and many of the towns of Eastern Massachusetts. They have been ar- 

 ranged in classes, according to their respective sources, to wit : (a) Samples from 

 shops; (&) samples from wagons; (c) samples from producers (direct); (d) samples 



m unknown sources ; (e) samples of known purity. 



Among such a number, taken in most cases at random, there must necessarily be 



ry many which, on inspection alone, are evidently pure, and which, on analysis, 

 would yield figures above the standard fixed by law. The employment of the lacto- 

 densimeter, together with the Feser lactoscope, will, after a little practice, enable 



i 1884, p. 116. 



8 Kept. Mass. S, Bd, of Health, 1884, pp. 145, 14 



