The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-11-02
L HE PR Es s.
FRIDAY MORNING. NOV. 2.
AGRICULTURAL.



A Boston newspaper man has interviewed
retired milk dealer of that city, and some
very interesting statements are made by him.
BE SAYS that about nine-tenths OF all the
milk.sold in Boston is more or less prepared.
He discrminates between adulterated and
prepared milk, saying that there is not
drop of the former sold in the Hub market.
Prepared milk, he afirms, stands the test of
the lactometer and the most skillful tasters.
His explanation of how milk is prepared is
as follows:
The principal ingredient is water, which,
is pure, is harmless, and only serves to in
crease the quantity, Then we put in salt,
which tends to keep it fresh, and burnt SUI
gar, which is the coloring matter used to
give that rich look to the milk which to the
eyes OF the ignorant, is a sure indication of
cream The interviewer inquired "What
proportion of water is used?v "That," re-
piled the milkman, ''depends upon the class
OF trade and the dairy from which he OBJ
tains his supply. If a miIkman be wise, he
will select source of supply upon which he
can safely rely, and then he will, if careful
test his milk 10 see that the farmer does not
cheat him by preparing it for the first time
The milk from some COWS will stand more
water than that flom different breed, 1t
depends good deal, too, upon what the
cattle are fed. Then again, as to the con-
6uLACAps II q oOllo LIS LQllk 10 u
poor class of people who cannot afford to
pay fair price for it, so as to give him a
living margin Of profit, of course he uses
water more literally than he would if he
dealt with people who were willing to paw,
and did pay. If milkman pays four cents
quart for his milk, you can readily see
that he cannot sell it to small grocer who
retails it himself at five cents quart. In
this case he gets his profit from the water
used In preparation. One I'M five is not bad
MILK, ana one IN eight is, of course, better"
What do you mean "by one to fve'' and
zone to eighth" Said the milkman in reply:
One in five means one can of water to five
cans of milk, and 'one in eight of course,
one can Of water to eight cans of milk. By
the way, forgot to tell you that there is an
other ingredient sometimes used. In dry
season, when milk is scarce and the prices
high, have known milkmen, in order not
to lose customers by failing to supply them,
use condensed milk with water and the
other ingredients already mentioned. This
makes very good drink, and one can of
condensed milk will make a great many
large cans of milk
The rext inquiry addressed to this milk
man, was, 'Why not sell pure milk to peo-
pie who are willing to pay for it%' "If the
people be intelligent, we do. But there's
the rub people don't like pure milk az it
NOuOS AAOh bnC SOWs IL luUSb pGODI6 IL is
nauseating. How often have you heard a
city child in the country say. 4 don't want
cows milk; give me milkman's milk It
may seem strange to you, but it is neverthe-
less true. once had customer who said:
i want pure cows milk, and l will pay you
your price for it, l said all right and |
served him with the pure article, but he
bitterly complained; said he knew milk
when he tasted it; cursed all milkmen as
frauds, and was going to withdraw his Gus
tom, when told him I would try another
farmer. / then gave him 'one in eight and
he was perfectly satisfied. There is another
fallacy. Mothers always demand pure milk
for infants. Now, venture to assert that
the majority of cows milk, fresh from the
cow, would not stay upon an infants stom-
ach. Again, without salt, it is almost i'm
possible to keep milk sweet but very short
time. 1t sours soon, and here again the
poor milkman comes in for abuse If you
pay or cents quart for your milk, you
will get good, nutritious article, but not
pure milk. So what can you expect, when
you only pay 5 cents quartz"
This is the revelation of man whose
boast is 81 k1soso what am talking about.'