100 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



Let us now consider the immediate causes leading to this 

 change and also some of the objections, especially in relation 

 to the way in which the change affects the interests of con- 

 sumers and producers. 



The immediate and chief cause which made this change pos- 

 sible was the fact that some dairymen persisted in keeping 

 herds of cows whose milk frequently contained less than 12 

 per cent of milk solids ; they were producing milk for quantity 

 and not quality. They were simply watering their milk 

 through the agency of their cows. It was possible for such 

 dairymen to meet the condition confronting them in one of 

 two ways: (1st) By keeping cows that would produce milk 

 of legal composition, or (2nd) by appealing to the legislature 

 to lower the limit required for milk-solids. They chose the 

 second method as being the easiest and cheapest. It was pos- 

 sible to accomplish their purpose because there was a quite 

 general misunderstanding, or perhaps lack of understanding 

 of the facts upon which the former legal definition was based; 

 this was true not only of dairymen but particularly of mem- 

 bers of the legislature. These details we cannot take time to 

 discuss here, but attention may be called to one point to show 

 how imperfect was the general understanding of what is meant 

 by the expression, milk standard. Milk which meets legal re- 

 quirements in composition is commonly but erroneously spoken 

 of as "standard" milk in the sense that it is necessarily of ex- 

 cellent quality in respect to the amount of fat and solids pres- 

 ent. Now, milk which comes just within the legal requirements 

 is emphatically not excellent in quality, but it is in reality poor 

 and far below the average of normal milk in composition. 

 While we commonly see such expressions as the "State milk 

 standard," "standard for pure milk," "legal milk standard," 

 "milk of the state standard of excellence," they are used, if 

 properly, not as implying excellence at all, but rather as ex- 

 pressing positive inferiority, or the lowest possible standard 

 or limit that the law permits for pure or normal milk. The 

 expression "legal definition of pure milk" is preferable be- 

 cause much less liable to mischievous misinterpretation than 

 expressions in which "standard" is used in a way to permit the 

 possible implication of excellence. 



Before considering in detail the objections to reducing the 



