The Portland daily press., 1869-05-03

PORTLAND.
Monday Morning, May 8, 1859.
Tho MINK Law.

1t is fair to presume that all dealers in milk
are aware that law was passed at the last
session OF our Legislature regulating the sale
OF milk. We have heretofore written several
articles upon the iniquity of adulterating
milk, and our Lawgivers supposed there was
some mischief in the milk traffic, otherwise
they would not have passed remedy. II is
said that when the reason ceases the law
ought to cease. But was there not good
reason for enacting this law? And if so, has
that reason ceased? Or, in other words, do
milkmen here or elsewhere in our State
"wilfully sell, or offer for sale, milk from dis
eased or sick cows, or milk produced from
cows fed upon the refuse of breweries or dis
tilleries, or upon any substance deIeterious to
the quality of the milk, or adulterated milk,
or milk to Which scater Is added, or any for
eign substance? That is the question. and
if our mayor and aldermen, or the selectmen
of towns containing not less than three thou
sand inhabitants, believe such milk is sold,
then it clearly their duty to appoint Inspect
ors of milk where duty is prescribed by the
law.
Now we entertain the opinion that a good
deal of milk is sold in our city "to which wa
ter is added" before sale, to say nothing now
Of other adulterations mentioned In the law,
and we believe thousands of others have the
same opinion. We have purchased milk sew
eral times and have given it the right temper
ature and fair chance to send up cream to
ifc c1rfaoa hYrf rvo .,<x,, Gass Ill -
been unsuccessful In many instances we
have been unable to produce any cream SO
thick as common window glass. In one or
two cases very small amount of cream has
risen, being disturbed by a spoon, has resem-
bled thin summer clouds floating in clear
blue sky. But such feature cannot often be
produced on much Of the milk that is sold in
our market 1t is no doubt true that many
families who have their regular milk men from
the adjacent towns get pure milk as it comes
from the COW, but there are many families
and these of the poorer classes-who are COM
PEELED to pay eight cents per quart for water
for the sake of getting little milk. Such
traffic is hard ON the poor who are not able
to bear such misfortue. 1t is true that there is
a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at
the flood, leads on to fortune, but we don't
like 10 purchase milk that has been too near,
or mingled with this foodtide. 1t may lead
the sellers, but not the buyers, to fortune.
A physician of Providence, r. /. asserts
that ten per cent. of Of the 5,475,OO0 quarts
of milk used in that city during the year, is
merely water, and that the citizens according
ly pay $43,S00 year to get it in that form.
he thinks that the lives of many children are
sacrificed every year by the use of adulterated
milk. They are actually starved to death be-
cause the milk they use has so much water in
it that it will not nourish them, nor even
support life. He.goes further and shows that
this dilution of milk falls with especial Sc
verify upon the poor. He is happy to know
that Maine has law that punishes vendors
of adulterated milk with fine. We have
such law, hut whether it will continue a
dead letter on the statute book remains to be
seen.
We understand from the Lewiston Journal
that dealers in milk in that vicinity will, on
the first OF May, reduce the price per quart
(wine measure) to six cents. The reduction
in price is all very well, but that other reduc-
ton we have spoken of above, is not quite so
we'll We suppose our dealers will cheerfully
obey the law SO far as wine measure is CON
cerned, but whether "all measures, cans or
other vessels used in the sale of milk will be
annually sealed by the sealer of weights and
measures and properly Marked according to
the acquisitions of the law, may be problem
atica1. Our Mayor and Aldermen know what
the law is and it depends upon them wheth-
er it shall be executed or not. We trust they
will exercise sound discretion in the matter
And If 1t be fact that adulterated milk, OIL
that which is reduced by water not half SC
pure as the Sebago water, is sold in our mar.
ket it is their imperative duty to see that thu
law is properly executed, and the poorer classe
saved from the expensecf paying eight cent
per quart for impure water.
AGRIcOLA