MILK' INSPECTION. 
977 
It tends to establish the confidence of people in milk, who, 
realizing that they are being supplied a pure article of standard 
quality, a quart of which, worth five or six cents, being equal 
in food-value to three-quarters of a pound of beefsteak that costs 
two to three times as much, will use more of it, perhaps, for no 
other reason than to reduce living expenses. The United States 
is the greatest dairy country of the world, yet some of the Euro¬ 
pean nations consume two to three times as much milk per 
capita as America. The explanation is that “ we do not appre¬ 
ciate the food-value of milk and its products.” 
LOCAL CONDITIONS. 
The local necessity of milk inspection will depend upon the 
following general and specific conditions : The population of 
the city or town ; whether milk is largely produced by the con¬ 
sumers themselves or purchased of vendors ; the kind and gen¬ 
eral condition of the cows that are kept ; the reputation of the 
dairymen and dealers; the carelessness and greed of consumers; 
the necessity of milk in every family ; its easy adulteration, so 
that its food-value and actual value become greatly diminished 
in almost an instant without cost ; and the fact that poor milk 
cannot be detected by its appearance. The inferior apple, 
potato, meat, egg, flour, and almost anything else used in the 
household except milk is noticeable at a glance, and the appear¬ 
ance alone will indicate the condition. Milk, as a rule, if the 
measure is full, will pass unchallenged. Of course, what may 
be regarded as the general necessity for controlling milk are ap¬ 
plicable to local conditions as well. 
The fact that the production of milk is largely in the hands 
of a class distinguished for industry and fair-dealing does not 
preclude the possibility of fraud. If fraud is practised it is safe to 
say that it is not general; but its elimination would be beneficial 
to the dairy interest. The man who sells milk containing four 
per cent, of fat cannot compete with an opponent whose milk 
contains two or two and a half per cent., because it costs more 
to produce the former than it does the latter kind of milk. The 
four per cent, milk represents the product of good cows that 
