No. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 291 



the adulterated milk nor the principal. The justice ruled 

 that, as the manager of the cafe was not personally present 

 at the time that the waiter served the milk, he was not re- 

 sponsible. Another case was brought before the regular 

 justice of the court at the conclusion of the vacation season, 

 but by this time the defendant had left the State and could 

 not be found. 



The agricultural papers and scientific men have been dis- 

 cussino; the idea of a statute standard of milk to an unusual 

 extent during the past year. The principle is well estab- 

 lished in Massachusetts, and is endorsed both by consumers 

 and producers. Farmers' organizations have time and time 

 again passed resolutions favoring it. Many cows produce 

 milk of less than 13 per cent solids, but they are a minority. 

 The Massachusetts law says milk below 13 per cent — with 

 an exception of some summer months — is not "of standard 

 quality," and is therefore unmerchantable as standard milk. 

 One critic says : "What the farmer needs and has a right to 

 ask is that the law shall not step in and try to punish him 

 because the Creator did not make all cows alike." This is a 

 misapprehension of the spirit of the law. Milk of standard 

 price must be of standard quality. The opposition to the 

 law has hithei"to been largely from men whose cows produced 

 milk poorer than the average, and who wanted to sell this 

 poorer milk as standard milk. These persons, under the 

 fallacious pretext that cows could not give as good milk in 

 the summer as in winter, have succeeded in getting the very 

 generous exception of five months in which 12 per cent is 

 declared to be standard milk. This assertion about summer 

 milk is not founded on fact. Mr. Clemence of the Dairy 

 Bureau has for several years made occasional tests — usually 

 about once a month — of the mixed milk of his herd, mostly 

 grade Shorthorns, and he has not only found it fully up to 

 the standard, but he has found it very uniform in quality, 

 varying less than .4 of 1 per cent, and usually less than .2 

 of 1 per cent, from month to month. Many similar experi- 

 ments are on record. The most recent is from the New 

 Jersey Experiment Station. The herd there consisted of 

 28 cows ; 23 were of mixed breeding, with 2 each of Hol- 

 stein and Guernsey blood and 1 Jersey. From 18 to 26 



