"STRIPPING" THE COWS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 26 April 1918, Page 2

"STRIPPING" THE COWS

IMPORTANT DECISION IN ABER-

DEEN SHERIFF COURT

Sheriff Dudley Stuart, at Aberdeen Court, gave a decision in the case of Catherine Anderson, dairy farmer, Greenferns, Newhills, who was/charged in respect of a sample of sweet milk secured from a quantity supplied by her to dairymen in Aberdeen, which was found on analysis to- contain less than three per cent, .of milk fats. The case, in which a large mass of evidence was given at the hearing, largely turned on the question of "stripping" the cows, it being contended for the defence that the milk sent to Aberdeen was the genuine product of the cow, nothing being added to or taken from it. One, witness for the respondent stated that if the cows had been "stripped" after being.milked the milk would have been of better quality than the sample. For the prosecution it was contended that . the milking process should have been-completed, including the "stripping." ■ " The Sheriff found established that the milk on the-occasion in question was found to be deficient "in milk fats, that deficient in milk fats, that that deficiency was to a large extent frankly admitted by the respondent, of not '/stripping" the cows, namely, of not inducing the cows to give every drop of milk they were able to give at any one milking, and that apart from the question of "stripping" or not "stripping^," there was no actual tampering with the milk after it left .the udder of the cow. The question arose: Was not "stripping" an abstraction of milk fats from the milk'? He was prepared to hold on .the evidence that there was no such .universal practice as "stripping" of cows proved that would justify him in saying that the failure to "strip" the cow was an illegal practice or an abstraction of milk fats^ or in any sense a contravention of Sections 6 and 9 of the Act. That was in conformity with the decision on the point of the Lord Justice-General, although there were diverse opinions on the point. He was therefore of opinion that the charge failed and that the respondent was entitled to a verdict of acquittal. He thought it right to add that, while that was his opinion, it did seem to him as a matter of fairness whether it was not. a fair thing as between customer and milk seller that the customer should ryet all the milk—that was to say, the very best, the last strip of milk when he asked for milk. If by not "stripping" the milk was found to be deficient, he ran the risk of being sus'vcted of unfair practices.