DEVELOPMENT OF CITY MILK SUPPLY PROBLEMS a5 
not until after the discovery of the Babcock test in 1890" 
that municipal control of skimming and watering became 
reasonably efficient. In the decade following 1890 state and 
municipal regulations against skimming and watering became 
practically universal. As an aid in securing court convictions 
minimum legal standards were commonly included in these 
regulations. While these minimum legal standards have un- 
doubtedly served a useful purpose in combating skimming 
and watering they have exerted an unexpected and unfor- 
tunate influence because they have tended to standardize the 
entire supply at a low level. 
The growing appreciation of the wide variation in the 
food value of the milk now upon the general market is giving 
the problem of food value a new form. There is a desire on 
the part of the public for a milk considerably richer in fat 
than required by the minimum legal standards. Milk dis- 
tributors desire to cater to this trade and wish to distribute 
a milk with a uniform fat content distinctly above that of the 
ordinary supply. The fat content of the normal milk supply 
is subject to variations. A supply which on the average gives 
the desired fat content will fall below this desired composi- 
tion during a portion of the year and be above the desired 
point during another portion. This difficulty could be readily 
met by adding cream during one period and skim milk at 
another were it not that such additions are a violation of 
some of the laws regarding milk adulteration. The proper 
regulation of milk standardization is now receiving careful 
consideration, and standardization seems destined to be an 
early development in the retail milk business. 
Until somewhat recently public consideration of food value 
of milk concerned itself almost exclusively with the amount 
of fat present. Later some attention began to be given to 
the accompanying solids, and the total energy value or the 
calorific value of the milk came under discussion. The 
newest angle of this old question of the food value of milk 
2S. M. Babcock, A New Method for the Estinvation of Fat in Milk, 
Especially Adapted to Creameries and Cheese Factories in Annual Re- 
port, Wis. Agr. Exp. Sta., 7 (1890), pp. 98-113, 1890. 
3 
