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*Warranties.— It is the practice of the Food Inspectors when sampling
to inquire whether a warranty in any form is held by the vendor, and if
there be a warranty and the sample prove to be adulterated, to take a
sample of the milk of the guarantor upon delivery at the vendor's premises.
The control sample is not a sample of the suspected milk, but it affords
evidence in some degree of the kind of milk supplied by the guarantor.
The Board of Agriculture point out that the repeal of the Warranty
Clauses as demanded by those who desire to strengthen the law as to
fraudulent adulteration as well as those who desire to protect the farmer.
It is alleged that certain dealers and milk-sellers are adulterating milk and
selling the milk which they know to be adulterated, relying on those clauses
to afford an almost certain way of escape in case they are prosecuted.
Deterioration of Milk in Transit.— At the last meeting of the Gloucester
Chamber of Agriculture the County and City Analyst, Mr. George Embrey,
related the results of investigations into the problem of preventing the
deterioration of milk in transit from the farm to the wholesale depot in
London. Mr. Embrey had consignments of milk from Gloucester to
London kept under close observation, and yet the milk, which contained
4.3 per cent, at the farm, showed only 3.5 per cent, when it reached the
depot. In the unloading of the milk at London it was discovered that there
were considerable leakages as the result of the tilting and rough handling of
the churns. The shaking on the railway aids the rising of the cream to the
surface, so that the milk that is lost is the richest, and this is suggested as
the explanation of the extent of the deterioration. Mr. Embrey has been
giving attention to the perfecting of a churn which will make leakages
impossible, and hopes by means of indiarubber rings to solve the problem.
The loss of 0 8 per cent, on the railway journey is serious both for producers
and distributors in that the average milk is unable to bear so great a reduction
and comply with the Government standard of 3 per cent, butter fat.—
The Times, February 11, 1911.