io 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Here the dairy farmer was either injuring his own interests or 

 some other fellow was hurting it. The intelligent producer real- 

 izes that anything that is done to injure the character of market 

 milk injures the general trade. Were pure milk always placed 

 on the market, a better price could be secured for it, and there 

 would not be the extensive sale for patent baby foods and con- 

 densed milk that there now is. To remedy this evil it became 

 necessary to treat milk in a measure as the fertilizers were treated, 

 or, in other words, determine the character of milk by analysis. 

 As in fertilizer control, so in milk inspection, Massachusetts was 

 a pioneer worker. The first act to punish fraud in the sale of 

 adulterated milk in Massachusetts was passed by the Legislature 

 in 1856. This law was ineffective, so in 1859 a new law was en- 

 acted, which provided for the appointment of milk inspectors in 

 towns and cities, whose duties it should be to detect adulteration 

 of milk, and secure the conviction and punishment of offenders. 

 This law has since been frequently amended and improved. At 

 the present time the Massachusetts law requires all milk to con- 

 tain at least thirteen per cent solids, and milk containing less than 

 that amount is condemned. Since the Massachusetts law was 

 first enacted the more progressive dairy States of the Union have 

 passed laws to prevent deception in the sale of dairy products, 

 and usually twelve per cent of solids is required in the milk 

 sold in the market. The London (England) milk supply is care- 

 fully watched by inspectors. The Aylesbury Dairy Company 

 of London is the largest of its kind in the world. During 1891 

 chemists analyzed 21,855 samples of the milk of this company, 

 and found before delivery 1275, during delivery 1274, and after 

 delivery 12"81 per cent solids, showing a very good grade of 

 milk.* 



That substance which makes milk most palatable is the fat in 

 it. Good milk should have four or five ; cream, eighteen to twen- 

 ty-five, and butter, eighty to eighty-five per cent of fat. Skim 

 milk, or thin, insipid, disagreeable milk, contains a small amount 

 of milk fat. When we speak of rich milk, we mean that which 

 contains a large percentage of this substance. There are in the 

 United States many thousands of cows, each of which does not 

 produce over one fourth or one half the amount of butter it 

 should. The claim is made f that the average yield of our dairy 

 cows is not over one hundred and twenty-five pounds of butter a 

 year, whereas it should be three hundred pounds at the least. 

 Some cows produce a much larger percentage of fat or butter in 

 their milk than do others. The farmer should own the better 



* Milch Zeitung, xxi, Nos. 11 and 12. 



f The Dairy Industry, by Peter Collier, New York, 1889, p. 8. 



