116 KEPOET OF THE No. 55 



Out of 925 herds tested by G-. G. Publow, Chief Dairy Instructor for Eastern 

 Ontario, only five went below three per cent. In some localities it is easier to get 

 a higher standard than in others, and hence it is thought well to give the munici- 

 palities some discrimination. In our enquiries in the cities and towns of Ontario, 

 we have found that the food quality of the milk has been very satisfactory, with 

 the exception of Toronto, where forty per cent, of the samples have tested below 

 three per cent., which fact must be largely attributed to adulteration. It will be 

 seen, therefore, that a minimum standard offers no hardship to the honest dairy- 

 man, and it is intended only to offer hardship to the dishonest dairy- 

 man. It offers the only possible power by which Toronto or any other city may 

 protect it&elf against wholesale and repeated adulteration. In the case of cream- 

 eries and cheese factories, a standard is not so necessary, because the milk is de- 

 livered direct from the farm to the factory. If the milk is found to be lower than 

 is regarded as natural, a man is sent by the factory direct to the farm to make 

 tests of the milk immediately after it is drawn from the cows. In this way over 

 one hundred prosecutions have been made during the past summer with good results. 

 But it would be impossible to carry out this plan in the case of a large city, for the 

 simple reason that the milk is handled by three or four different persons between 

 cow and consumer. The only effective plan, we are convinced, is to adopt a mini- 

 mum standard and hold the vendor responsible for the article he sells, just as the 

 vendor is responsible for any other class of goods. It would then be the duty of 

 the retailer to see that he got unadulterated milk from the farmer and the con- 

 sumer to see that he got unadulterated milk from the retailer. Against a minimum 

 standard, it is urged that as natural milk averages about 3.5, a standard of 3.0 

 would be a temptation to dealers to quietly extract the extra percentage and still 

 keep within the law.' To this it is only necessary to point out that, under the 

 clause suggested, such a course would constitute adulteration just as certainly with 

 a standard as without it. The standard is in no sense a handicap and is in every 

 sense a safeguard. 



MORE SYSTEMATIC INSPECTION NEEDED. 



While the question of the richness of the milk has been the most prominent 

 one in the past with the consumer, it is not necessarily the most important. It is 

 even more important that milk should be pure and wholesome and should be pro- 

 duced and handled in a clean and sanitary way. To secure this, we believe every 

 city and town should have a system of thorough inspection, carefully enforced. For 

 very obvious reasons, it is desirable that such inspector should be a veterinarian, 

 and, as an indication of the growing importance of this work, it may be noted that 

 a special course in dairy inspection has recently been included in the curriculum 

 of the Ontario Veterinary College. Wherever possible, it is strongly advisable that 

 a man should be employed who could give all his time to the work, and therefore 

 be free from outside influence, but it is recognized that this is not possible in the 

 case of the smaller cities and towns. For their benefit, we beg to say that the prac- 

 tice of employing a veterinary to do the work in a portion of his time has been fol- 

 lowed in some parts of the Province by good results, despite its disadvantages. 



In support of the principle of inspection, little need be said. Its wisdom is 

 admitted in legislation as it is proven in experience. Inspection has long been recog- 

 nized as one of the primary essentials in effective government. Hence, we have 

 inspection of schools and of legal offices, of factories and bakeshops. It is being 



