No. 4.] KEPORT OF THE DAIRY BUREAU. 225 



Condensed Milk. 

 TLerc is little doubt but that condensed milk, in what- 

 soever form it appears, has recently made serious inroads 

 upon the milk trade in this Commonwealth. Not only is 

 this true of Boston and other cities, but there is hardly a ham- 

 let so small or so remotely situated that the little cans of this 

 article have not found their way to the shelves of the grocery 

 store or the meat market. Yet with a possible exception not 

 a can of this milk is produced or condensed in Massachusetts. 

 The local storekeeper thus sends his money out of the State 

 for condensed milk, while at the same time he complains if 

 the local farmer buys dry goods or groceries outside his own 

 town. When the consumer buys condensed milk instead of 

 clean, fresh milk produced by local dairymen, because he is 

 loath to pay the latter a living price, does he know whether 

 or not he is paying a greater relative price for condensed milk 

 and at the same time getting a relatively inferior article ? 

 If not, he should post himself as to the facts. Condensed 

 milk has its use, a niche to fill, namely, wherever fresh 

 fluid milk cannot for any reason be obtained or kept in 

 proper condition ; but until this milk can be offered for 

 sale at less price than it now is, or can be proven to be 

 more nutritious as a food than an equal value of clean, 

 raw, whole milk, there is little excuse for either its pur- 

 chase or use wherever the latter is obtainable at present 

 prices. We have found, from the purchase and analysis 

 of a number of samples of condensed milks, facts similar to 

 those discovered by Professor Jordan, and reported by him 

 last year, that the average cost was around 11 cents per fluid 

 quart equivalent for condensed milk on the basis of the 

 Massachusetts standard of 3.35 per cent milk fat. In this 

 connection it should be remembered that ordinary fluid milk 

 averages a higher percentage of fat than that required by 

 law, thus rendering the comparison more than fair to con- 

 densed milk. Professor Jordan also reported that condensed 

 milk varied greatly in its bacteria count, all the way from 

 " very low " to 10,000,000 per cubic centimeter. Our own 



