JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1107, 19 May 1893, Page 7

JOTTINGS.

Dr Babcock, the inventor of the famous milk-tester, never received a penny directly or indirectly from his invention. The doctor held that, in. asmuch as he was in the public service at the time he invented his test, receiving from the public treasury full payment according to the contract for his services, the result of his labours belonged, as of right to the public, and therefore, persisentty refused to apply for a patent. Anybody may make these testers.

Stock-owners of the present day are too apt to assume that all improvements in our cattle, either for the block or the pail, have been affected by the breeders of the present century. ' Here are some reports of the produce of milch cattle in the last century,' says the writer of' Scraps' in the Live Stock Journal, and he makes the pertinent inquiry, ' Can we beat them ? ;-r- ---' Colonel Fullerton, in a survey of Ayrshire writes :—" Some Dunlop—i.c , Ayrshire cows—give 34 English quarts, and even 40 quarts in a day have been given by a special cow " Baron d'Alton, in his Midlothian survey, states that cows of this same breed have been known to give 36 English quarts. In 1791 the record was published of Mr Wakefield's dairy of 100 cows, which averaged 678 gallons a piece, a very wonderful record for such a number. It was said of this dairy that the longhorn section of it averaged 730 gallons per cow, and the shorthorn 821. In the Rural Economy of Gloucestershire (Marshall) a small dairyman produced, from seven cows, 35cwt of cheese, besides the milk used in the family. In Gloucestershire, at this time, it was held that it required 149| gallons of milk to make lewt of cheese, so that these cows averaged 747£ gallons apiece. A Mr Green, near Liverpool, also had a dairy of shorthorn cows which averaged 821 gallons. And Mrs Chevalier, of Aspal, Suffolk (the wife of the clergyman who endowed English farmers with the Chevalier barley) had a Suffolk cow which gave, in the 12 months, 994 gallons of milk.' Remarkable success appears to have attended the operation of the Danish Margarine Law, passed on April Ist, 1891. Giving the gist of a report for 1891-92, recently issued, Consul Inglis

says that 691 samples of butter. 155 of margarine, and 65 of cheese were taken during the year, and that no case of adulteration was detected in the butter or cheese, while each lot of margarine contained at least as much butter fat as was stated on the parcel. Only ten cases of infringement of the law were reported by the inspectors, and nine of them were cases of neglecting to confirm to the regulations respecting the form and labelling of margarine receptacles, one being a lack of exhibiting a copy of the Act in the place of business in which it should have been displayed. On March 31st, 1892, there were sixteen margarine factories in Denmark, which had turned out 14,211,0001 b of margarine in the preceding twelve months. Almost the entire quantity, and 2.000,001 b of imported margarine as well, were consumed in the country, ihe exports being trifling. On the other hand, 100,000,0001 b of butter were exported, upwards of 98,000,0001 b having come to this country. The successful war waged in the United States against the fraudulent sale of oleomargarine for butter is described in the ninth annual report of J. K. Brown, Dairy Commissioner. It is stated, says the American Agriculturist, that there is no question that the butter now made in New York State is genuine, and free from adulteration. The Jaws against simulated dairy products have been so enforced that butter materials are sold under their proper names. The former oleo market of fifteen million pounds per year ' has disappeared. Although formerly 75 per cent of all the milk sold for consumption was adulterated, the public are now assured that adulteration has been reduced to such a degree as to render the milk now ; practically pure. The territory in which it is produced for : consumption has been greatly enlarged, and much greater quantities are used. In and about New York city especially, much has been done to bring the owners of stabled animals to a sense of their responsibility to the community. As yet, the Dairy Department has not been given power to deal with tuberculosis in cattle, but the power to do this is lodged in the health authorities. The Dairy Commission, however, can vigorously prosecute those who sell milk from consumptive cows.