346 THE COMPLETE GRAZIEK. BOOK 11. 



improve now that almost all the milk-producing districts have been 

 tapped by railways. Well selected and well managed herds of cows 

 will yield annually from 500 to 700 gallons per cow, and occasionally 

 more, and this even at the low price of Qd. per gallon net will 

 afford remuneration, small though it be. In the course of a paper read 

 before the British Dairy Farmers' Association, on October 7, 1885, 

 " On the necessity for some change in the law in regard to the 

 adulteration of milk," Sir John Bennet Lawes, of Rothamsted, com- 

 mented on the then somewhat unsatisfactory state of the milk trade in 

 London : 



" It is not merely that the producer receives a very low price for the 

 milk he supplies, for in this he merely shares the fate of all those who 

 obtain their living from the products of the dairy, but because the 

 law which makes it a punishable offence to sell milk that has been 

 adulterated or what in most cases is milk diluted with water does 

 not recognise, as a fact, that the qualit} r of the milk from some breeds 

 of cows is so high, that even if it were mixed with a considerable 

 amount of water, it might still be richer than genuine milk, which was 

 the product of other cows fed on a lower description of food. The 

 result is, that the law in regard to the sale of milk, unintentionally 

 gives every encouragement to the sale, not of pure unadulterated milk, 

 but of poor unadulterated milk. 



" It is quite evident that, under such a system, many breeds of cows 

 which produce a high quality of milk, are altogether excluded from the 

 daily of the farmer, in consequence of his not being able to get a higher 

 price on account of its better quality, while he cannot afford to sell it 

 at the same price as the ordinary milk. As a matter of fact the pro- 

 duction of the largest quantity of genuine poor milk is the great secret 

 of success in such a state of affairs. 



"At Rothamsted they had been investigating several questions with 

 regard to the production of milk. Now suppose it was found that by a 

 certain combination of foods, a milk of an unusually low percentage of 

 solids could be obtained: would not this be hailed by the milk-selling 

 farmers as a far greater boon than any process by which a much higher 

 percentage could be produced ? It may possibly be said such a milk 

 would not be saleable, but this is quite a mistake. It is true the 

 dealers might raise some objection, as although they will not pay for 

 high class milk according to its value, still they like to have it : the 

 public, however, would buy the low percentage milk readily enough. 

 It does not further follow that the milk of poor quality would taste 

 poor : they had lately shown that milk from silage, which from its 

 colour and taste appeared richer than the milk from mangel, was not 

 so rich in reality ; and it is a well-known fact that the purest sugars are 

 not those that taste the sweetest. At all events, without anticipating 

 what may be in store in the future, it must be admitted that the 

 principle of offering a premium for the cow which produces the largest 

 quantity of poor milk is one which requires some modification. 



"It is quite evident that the weak spot of the present arrangement is 

 the want of some standard or basis on which the trade shall be regulated. 



