STANDARD FOR PURE IVOLK. 69 



said, "Why pa's cattle run in a lot where there is a brook, 

 and there is a lot of fish in the brook, and the cows drink that 

 water ! " If a man's milk is suspected, and we want to test it 

 by the lactometer (wliich was a misnomer when it was brought 

 out, but is not now, because it is a lactometer now ; for we 

 have perfected it, and christened it anew), we get some milk 

 which Ave know to be pure ; and to do that, we want to mix 

 the milk of a whole herd if we can get it. I want to impress 

 this point upon every one — be sure that the sample you get as 

 the standard is pure. Siuce the factory system came into use 

 in New York State, they have fixed upon a standard for pure 

 milk by common consent, and it is done from the mixed milk 

 of our native herds. You will perceive at once, that if you 

 take a special breed, the milk from special breeds will be of 

 different weights. Some pure breeds give richer milk than 

 others, consequently lighter ; some pure bred cattle give poorer 

 milk than others , consequently .heavier ; but a mixed herd in 

 this country is one of the most thoroughly mixed-up things 

 that you ever saw, and although you may pick out a cow, here 

 and there, from the same herd, where the specific gravity will 

 vary ten per cent., yet I have never tested the milk of a herd, 

 (and I have tested hundreds) that varied one per cent, by the 

 lactometer. That is one of the most singular facts I have ever 

 met, and I can ouly account for it by the very thorough mix- 

 ing that our native cows have had. 



Now let me 2:0 on ; I have divers^ed somewhat. We will 

 take the mixed milk from a herd and put it into one of these 

 cream gauges, filling it up, say to ten ; we will leave ten per 

 cent, unfilled (there are not many men who put in more 

 than ten per cent, of water), and we will take the milk that 

 we suspect and fill up the other tube of the same size pre- 

 cisely to the same mark. And we do not care what the 

 specific gravity is. Then we will fill our per cent, glass with 

 water, and set it right in between these two. We will set 

 tJi^em so that they will be subject to the sanije temperature 

 precisely, and subject to the same atmospheric influences. 

 We will let them stand until the cream rises, and then with a 

 spoon made for the purpose, we will dip off the cream. You 

 can read the percentage of the cream. But I would say 

 here, if this suspected milk has a ""reater percentage of cream 



