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132
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (INTELLIGENCE
DIVISION).
Extract from the Annual. Report for 1904.
Scaling of Churns.—The sealing of churns, by which the possibility of milk
being tampered with while in the possession of the Railway Companies may be
reduced to a minimum, is recommended by the leading Dairy Farmers'
Associations. In this connection the following extract from the Annual
Report of the Northumberland and Dairy Farmers' Association for the year
1904 may be quoted :—
"We have had several cases of prosecution for milk adulteration
"In one of these cases we certainly think the milk had been tampered with
"on the railway; and until members will take the easy and sensible plan of
"sealing the cans sent by rail, they will always be liable to prosecution
"for what may be no fault of theirs. After great difficulty we have
"succeeded in getting cheap yet effective pincers and lead seals, and there
"is no excuse for neglecting this obvious precaution, as the Railway
" Companies now allow it, and the cost is a mere trifle."
In spite, however, of the publication of the information that the sealing of
churns is not forbidden by the Railway Companies, it is evident from the
inquiries addressed to the Hoard on the subject, and from the misleading
statements made in many quarters, that there are many people who still think
it is prohibited. The Board thought it advisable therefore, during the month
of June, to republish in the form of a leaflet the correspondence which passed,
in 1899, between the Board of Trade, the Railway Companies' Association, and
the Board themselves on the subject, and which was originally printed in the
Journal of the Board of Agriculture for March, 1900. A large number of
these leaflets have been distributed, and it is to be hoped that the advantages
of the practice of sealing churns will be more fully appreciated. It is asserted,
however, that it is still possible to pilfer milk from many churns, while it is
obvious that the risks to the farmers arising out of the adulteration of milk
after it arrives at the receiving station are not in any way affected by the
sealing of churns.
As to the tealing of milk in transit.—
In March, 1903, your Committee communiesd with the London and North
Western Railway Company, the Great No hern Railway Company, the
Midland Railway Company, and the Metropolian Railway Company, asking
whether they prohibited milk churns consigned to them for carriage from
being fastened, and if so, whether any precautions were adopted against the
milk being tampered with in transit.
Replies were received from the two first-mentioned Railway Companies that
they allowed cans to be sealed provided that the tare was conspicuously marked
on the outside. The two last-mentioned Companies apparently required the
churns to be left open in order that they might be gauged or sampled by their
local Inspectors.
In 1905 the Medical Officer of Health enquired by circular letter for
the regulations of all the Railway Companies having termini in London, and