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95
significance, the exceptionally high rate in the December
quarter 1925 being no doubt due to the inclusion of a number
of high quality samples taken in course of delivery at hospitals.
Figures for other groupings of the samples are also given
below, but the small numbers involved in some cases do not
invest them with any importance:
1925 1935
Samples taken in street 3.49 (139) 3.3 (179)
,, „ course of delivery 3.71 (15) 3.38 (56)
Samples taken from dairymen
who are also cow-
keepers 3.46 (20) 3.35 (14)
It is however, worth noting that the samples taken in
course of delivery, being usually supplied by large wholesalers
under contract, do not in 1935 differ materially from
the general average for the retail trade (8.36). With regard
to the last mentioned category, it should be mentioned that
there is no guarantee that the milk sampled was actually
produced by the vendor: it may quite well have been supplementary
"accommodation" milk from another dealer or
wholesaler.
The apparent fall in the fat percentage, which may of
course have commenced before 1925, calls for some explanation,
which the data in the possession of the department
cannot provide. It is well-known that the control of the
milk trade has been increasingly concentrated in the hands
of a few firms with modern processing plants, and it may
be that the changed composition is associated with this fact.
The difficulty in judging of the administrative importance
of this change is the ambiguity of the standards which are
in existence. Since the sale of Milk Regulations, 1901, a
further standard has been laid down in the Public Health
(Dried Milk) Regulations, 1923, where milk is defined as
containing not less that 3.6 per cent. fat, while according
to the Ministry of Agriculture publication" Variations
in the Compositions of Milk "(previously referred to) which
was issued last year, three dairy experts are quoted as giving
the average fat percentage of milk as 3.70, 3.71 and 3.95
respectively, although it is recognised that there are wide
variations in individual samples. It would appear, therefore,
that whatever may be the legal force of the standard
in the Sale of Milk Regulations, average milk actually contains
considerably more fat than that standard and if the
public is entitled to milk as delivered by the cow, it is reasonable
to judge the milk sold by such higher standard, especially
as the Dried Milk Regulations show that such higher standard
js in fact obtainable,