4o4 
added to ordinary milk, and such a practice is 
likely to continue if the present wholesale price oi 
milk holds. Such admixture makes it exceedingly 
dithcult tor the honourable trader to compete witn 
his less scrupulous rivals. 1t would also be well 
if some regulation were introduced dealing with 
the question of pasteurisation, and it should be 
made compulsory that all milk which is pasteurised 
for sale and constitutes more than, say, 25 per 
cent. of the total quantity of mixed milk sold, 
should be labelled “ pasteurised,” or the knowledge 
that it has been pasteurised in some way Con- 
veyed to the consumer. There is no doubt that 
the practice of pasteurisation is spreading on 
account of the more independent and careless 
attitude of the farmer. 
It should also be possible for distributors re- 
ceiving milk from farmers to ask the public 
authorities to take samples of any farmer’s milk, 
which for any reason is believed to be adulterated, 
at the stations on arrival, and for such samples 
to be analysed, and the proceedings taken against 
the farmer when necessary, without in any way 
the name of the distributor being brought into the 
question, as the present conditions of milk supplv 
have brought about a position such that the 
farmer may, if troubled too much by any particu- 
lar distributor, refuse, on a future occasion, to 
supply milk to him, and may also very probably 
notify farmers in the neighbourhood that such 
and such a buyer is an exacting person or con- 
cern, with the result that those distributors who 
are endeavouring to preserve a high standard may 
become boycotted. 
There appears to be at the present moment a 
favourable attitude towards the idea of grading 
milk. However well this may work in America, 
the result of selling milks of different grades in 
England will be that milk will deteriorate to the 
lowest grade, with the exception of quite a small 
quantity which a few people who wish for milk of 
a better quality will take. There is plenty of 
evidence at the present time that the general 
public buys milk simply on a basis of its price, 
and without any regard to its quality or source, 
and it would be most unfortunate if the sale of a 
low-grade milk were possible. History would re- 
peat itself in this as it has in the case of water 
in butter, which, since it was made legal to sell 
16 per cent. of water in butter, has gradually 
risen to this limit, though previously the greater 
number of high-class butters had a considerably 
smaller percentage of water than 16 per cent. 
The ordinary householder does not want to be 
bothered to consider what grade of milk he ought 
to purchase; he desires to obtain milk which is a 
reasonably sound commodity which he can con- 
sume, without cause for serious apprehension, in 
the raw state in which he generally prefers it. 
A further, and what may prove a _ serious, 
obstacle to the improvement of the milk supply 
looming in the near future, results from the fact 
that a trades union of milk carriers has recently 
been formed. One of the principal planks in their 
platform is that there should be only one delivery 
NO. 2329, VOL. 93] 
NALTORE 
[JUNE 18, 1914 
on Sundays, which, though quite a laudable idea 
in itself, would inevitably lead to great deteriora- 
tion in the bacteriological quality of the milk sup- 
plied on Mondays; and from the general attitude 
of the labour mind, if this point were achieved, 
it would doubtless occur to them that one delivery 
every day might also be sufficient, with disastrous 
results so far as the ordinary milk supply is 
concerned, 
It is one thing to legislate and quite another 
thing to put such legislation into operation when 
there are such determined labour forces opposing 
progress, There is no more regrettable feature 
of the labour world to-day than the steady decay 
of high principle and honesty of purpose which 
is making it all but impossible to carry out satis- 
factorily such rules and regulations as are so 
necessary in the handling of milk. It is necessary 
to sue as a favour for that which ought, with 
right-minded men, to be expected or demanded as 
a right. This careless attitude, combined with 
an ignorance of the elementary rules of cleanliness, 
render the handling of milk a source of constant 
and harassing worry to the managers of large 
dairies. 
There is also a great lack of cohesion among 
milk dealers themselves which makes any com- 
bined effort for good very difficult of accomplish- 
ment, and it must be said with regret that there 
is also a lack of a right and high ideal in many 
quarters. 
Reverting to the question of legislation, it is 
desirable that measures should be taken to put a 
stop to the type of dairyman who carries on his 
business surreptitiously, who emerges from 
obscurity when there seems a chance of making 
some profit at the expense of the legitimate trader, 
peddles a liquid which has a quite uncertain rela- 
tion to the cow (and would never be bought by 
anyone if it were not sold cheaply), and retires 
again into obscurity when it becomes unprofitable 
to continue. 
With regard to regulations concerning the pro- 
cedure to be observed in the milking, etc., of 
cows, the greatest simplicity is essential if there 
is to be a chance of such procedure being 
carried out in any real sense, as the times and 
seasons at which milking has to be done are not 
conducive to the development of any great en- 
thusiasm with regard to care on the part of the 
milker. It is hard enough to obtain milkers at 
the moment, and any great addition to the labour 
of milking might easily result in a very real 
dearth of such men. This is, again, a case for 
careful and patient education rather than for the 
thunders of legislative pains and penalties. 
No Milk Bill has yet shown the least attempt 
to bring the railway companies into a proper state 
of mind as to the necessary care and expedition 
in the carriage of milk. 
Since the above was written a new Bill has 
been introduced into the House of Commons by 
Mr. Herbert Samuel. Its principal clauses, like 
its predecessors, are those requiring reculations 
to be made by the central authority with regard 
rr 
