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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![And if you go below the labouring class to paupers : they are treated worst of all. We have tendered for five or six workliouses at a price which would have given us a profit of less than one farthing a quart, and yet we have not been accepted. Tenders of Is. ^d. a barn gallon (8 quarts) have been accepted, or 4:d. a barn gallon less than our milk now costs us at our shop; and we are only paying the market value of pure milk in large quantities. We have had men in attendance at the opening of the tenders, and it was evident that it was all settled beforehand who was to have the contracts, as the outsiders knew well before it was announced. The fact that a dealer offered to buy a large quantity of our ' skim,' avowedly to supply a workhouse contract for ' new,' shows what the paupers really get Next, as regards the upper,' classes, the expense of distribution is so great that only a very small margin is left for profit on each quart; but, on the other hand, the businesses are generally large. The bar to the sale of pure milk among the better classes is the system of percentages to servants. They all expect 5 per cent, on the gross amount of their master's bills, and this is just about what would be net profit on an honestly-conducted West-end business. If this is not paid the milkman is ' worked out.' So, to avoid this impleasant process, he commences by adding water sufficient to pay this tax, and as that seems to pay well he soon doubles the quantity. We lose two or thi-ee customers a week from the servants, but we continually get more new ones, as pure milk will draw in spite of all this. The different causes which I have enumerated above have gradually made the milk trade one of the most dishonest in London, and I believe few in it now ever make the effort to be honest. *' I have forgotten to mention one of the most rascally tricks of it, which deserves exposure. I mean the selling cream in quantities short of imperial measure. When we began our business we were forced to have cream-cans of correct measure made on purpose, as the tinman assured us that no dairy- man in London sold cream except in measures 25 ])Qr cent, short, and conse- quently he had no others. We have found this to be true by measuring the cans of many other dealers. The milk, however, is sold in proper measures. I now turn to what may be called the agricultural side of my subject. Purchase of the Cow. The art of producing milk with profit depends on the selection of a cow, and of food for it, on housing her com- fortably, and on treating her with gentleness and regularity. On the selection of a cow of course depend both her current produce and her ultimate selling value. She should not be a very young cow, because her milk is not then at its full yield ; and she should not be a very old cow because there is then great difficulty in fattening her. The general practice is to buy one, if possible, immediately after her 3rd, 4th, or 5th calf; and then to keep her on till she does not yield more than 6 quarts of milk a day. When hfe» jnilk begins to shrink she will generally put on flesh on the same food that she has been all along receiving; but](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22298435_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
