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Impurities in Milk and Butter. 
occasions, when I came into contact with it officially and 
unofficially. Apparently it is put on the market here with 
but scant supervision, for on the two occasions mentioned 
I was not impressed favourably either with its cleanliness 
or its genuineness. 
The fact, however, remains that rightly or wrongly the cry 
of “ dirt in milk ” has been taken up, and it therefore behoves 
farmers and milk purveyors to do all in their power to satisfy 
the public that, so far as English milk is concerned, it shall 
be sent out as pure in every sense of the word as it can 
be ; otherwise the public will demand special legislation on the 
subject, which will mean an increase of rates, without, I fear, 
a corresponding rise in the price of milk. 
Before leaving this question of the purity of milk, I would 
call attention to the artificial colouring of milk which takes 
place after it has passed out of the farmer’s hands. The richer 
the milk the deeper the colour, is a maxim so well known 
that it is hardly necessary to repeat it ; and although I believe 
the colouring of milk is not done with the view of obtaining 
a higher price (milk being usually sold regardless of the 
percentage of fat it contains), yet the practice is dirty, and 
should, in the interests of the consumer and producer, be 
stopped ; or, at any rate, the fact of colouring material being 
added to the milk should be disclosed to the purchaser. 
Butter. 
It is comparatively easy to discover dirt in milk, but to 
ascertain impurities in butter requires the skill and training of 
an analyst and bacteriologist ; and even then it is possible to 
mix moderate quantities of margarine with butter in such a 
way that the experienced chemist cannot find a real distinction 
between the adulterated * and the genuine article. It is, 
therefore, not surprising that the general public cannot tell 
genuine from “faked” butters, under which term I include 
blended butters of every description, whether mixtures of pure 
butters only, or a compound of margarine, foreign fat or water. 
Genuine butter I would define as butter churned once from 
pure cream, to which neither colouring matter nor preservatives 
have been added, containing 10 to 12 per cent, of water, and 
from 83 to 87 per cent, of butter fat. The selling price of 
butter is generally a fair test of the quality ; but, in order to 
understand this, certain figures must be gone into, and the 
description under which the butters are sold must also be 
considered. It is obvious that if one can get at the cost of 
making genuine butter in England, the selling price can be 
approximately estimated, an allowance for a fair profit to the 
middleman being easily calculated. 
