On town milk / by John Chalmers Morton.

  • Morton, John Chalmers, 1821-1888.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On town milk / by John Chalmers Morton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    had yielded it. It contained 8(vl6 per cent, of water,—rather less than the ordinary natural proportion i and 12 per cent, by measure were cream. The other samples contained from 90 to it 1 per cent, of water ; and from 9i to only 3 per cent, were cream. The price in every case but two was 4(7. per quart; in those two it was bd. ; and there the quantity of cream was only 4 and 6 per cent, respectively ! How great the temptation to dishonesty, and how great its facility, are both apparent from these analyses. A large business in a first-class establishment is prospering which sells as new what is no belter than skim-milk. The reports regarding the otber cases are as follow :— much coloured artificially, one-fourth of cream removed, and one-sixth of water added ;—one-fourth of cream removed, and one-third of water added ; — skim-milk, with one-third water ! — one-third cream removed, and one-fifth water added. If 4rf. per imperial quart be the price at which milk can fairly be sold retail, then in one of these instances, where it was sold at bd. after one-third of the cream was removed and one-fifth water added, no less than 20/. per annum profit, beyond that of the fair retailer, is made for every gallon sold per diem : and if 100 gallons be sold daily, there is the enormous premium of 2000^. per annum realised by this dishonesty. This then is the first point for consideration in any discussion of town milk—the great temptation which is offered in the trade to dishonesty, to which dealers very often yield with lamentable consequences to their customers, especially when the milk is bought for the nourishment of young children. But the ' Agri- cultural Journal' is hardly the place for a detailed examination of this part of the subject, and 1 will conclude by quoting the letter of one recently in the trade who has had the best oppor- tunity of forming an opinion. He says :— I siipy^iose it is allowed on all sides that tlie London milk trade is not what it .should be, and that very little pure milk is sold, especially to the poor. Before attempting to remedy this great evil the causes must be ascertained. With the j)Oor, milk is a necessary more than a luxiu-y; and, if pure, it is a most valuable article of fowl. As sold to the poor it yields a much i;reater profit than t/j the upf)cr classes, as the former nearly always ' fetch' it tliem- selves, and thereby save the milkman the expense of distribution, which at a West-end shop cjsts alx<ut J'/, a (piart for a wide-sjiread business, and \d. for a a^mpact one: and besides thi.s, tlie rent iiafl ])0ur district is so much lower. liut in sj^itc of all this the poor are the worst served, and the reason is that the trade among them lias fallen into the hands of such very ' small' men, who sell no little, that the business cannot yield a maintenance without help from the 'cow with the iron tail.' Tliese sanio small men cannot contract with a cf>nntry farmer for his nnik, and tlicrefnre are in the hands of the whohsale dealers. The wholesale dealers, agidn, give only ho low a ]irico to the fanner that he in his turn, to make it pay, ninsl add a little water.