188 MILK HYGIENE 



provisions, under which milk containing less than 2.8 

 per cent, fat can be sold only with a definite statement 

 of the fat content. 



It must depend upon local conditions whether such a 

 provision is desirable or not, and also whether it is re- 

 garded as wise to establish a minimum fat (and solid) 

 content, and at what point these should be placed. 



[Legal standards for milk are, by some, objected to 

 on two grounds ; first, that it is unfair to establish a mini- 

 mum standard so high that it will exclude the milk 

 from some cows, and, second, that if the standard is 

 low it will encourage dealers to dilute rich milk to a point 

 just above the standard. 



As to the first objection, it does not appear to be un- 

 reasonable that an article of food sold as milk shall be 

 required to contain a certain minimum amount of nutri- 

 ment. Entirely aside from the adulteration of milk, 

 which such standards are established to check, it is pos- 

 sible to select and develop herds of cows of certain 

 breeds that will furnish milk of very low fat and solids 

 not fat content. What has occurred in this direction 

 is shown by reports on the weekly analyses of the milk 

 of a herd of cows at Jaschkowitz, 48 where the milk ran 

 down to 2.47 per cent, fats and 7.88 per cent, solids not 

 fat. The lowest average for the herd for a month was : 

 fat, 2.60 per cent.; solids not fat, 8.06 per cent.; total 

 solids, 10.66 per cent. The official records of Holstein 

 cows 49 show that many individuals yield milk contain- 

 ing less than 3.0 per cent, of fat, and some as little, for 

 a time at least, as 2.6 per cent. This tendency could, 

 undoubtedly, be intensified if the absence of milk stand- 



48 Bericht iiber die Tatigkeit des Milchwirtschaftlichen Institute 

 zu Proskau f iir das Jahr 1905-1906. 



49 C. B. Lane, Record of Dairy Cows in the United States, U. S. 

 Dept. of Agr., B. A. I., Bulletin No. 75, Washington, 1905. 



