THE PURE FOODS BILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8539, 20 March 1908, Page 6

THE PURE FOODS BILL.

Some discussion has taken place at Auckland upon a clause of the Puio Foods Bill making it compulsory u t milk vendors to supply milk containing not less than 3i per cent, of butter-ia',. As anyone who has had any funning experience knows, tho statement mede by a leading Auckland dairyman, which Mr John Massey quoted, that it ;s impossible to supply milk all tho J' round with the above percentage ot butter-fat, for the reason that the cows do not give milk of such richness for moro than a part of the year, is rather wide of the mark. If the tests taken in the Manawatu are any criterion of the average that could easily be maintained, it is nearer than 3i per cent. In December, when ' the milk is at its greatest quantity and the test is lower than at any other part of the season, tho tests range from 3.7 to 3.8, and for the rest of the year increase as the amount of milk declines, until as high as per cent, is reached, and in some cases oven higher. Altogether an average all the year round of from 2.8 (or 2 4-5) to 3i per cent, should be easily maintainable. In the Auckland district it is stated that the tests ruling are from 2to 5 per cent, and that during tho greater part of tho year tho proportion of butter-fat received would bo rather lower, but taken all round tho percentage fixed by the Bill seems a most fair one, and should impose no hardship upon fair-dealing milkmen.