The percentage of skimming is almost equally formidable; here again I have passed all samples above the limit, though it is too low; but even on this low calculation 19 per cent, were skimmed as well as watered, and more than 7 per cent, were skimmed but not watered.
This tale of sophistication Is really serious to the public. Averaging the 300 samples, the result is that 13 per cent, of the fat has been skimmed off, and that the milk has, in addition, been watered nearly 13 per cent.; while if the figures I actually found in the dairies are taken as the standard, as I consider they ought to be, 20 per cent, of the fat has been skimmed off, and the watering is 19 per cent.
Ten years’ working of the anti-Adulteration Acts has brought us really to this point, that as regards milk our position is hopeless until the law is amended; no one can hope to get pure milk in London, unless under other guarantees than this Act affords, and we ought to tell the public so, that they may take action in the matter.
Trivial fines of a few shillings do not bear on the question at all. The average consumption of milk in the middle class districts of London may be taken at something like ten gallons per head per year, but to put it at the least I will take 3½ gallons per head per year as the average, or say 1½ oz. per day each person. The milk bill of this population of four-and-three-quarter millions must therefore be, at fivepence per quart, somewhat about £1,400,000, or seven-eighths of the water rates, which are £1,562,000.
This milk appears to be watered on the average nearly 19 per cent. The value of this milk replaced by water is £266,000 per year. It is not easy to say absolutely what value shall be given to the fat, but certainly it is putting the most lenient view possible on the matter if we consider that the abstraction of this fat is equal to a value of £90,000 more.
Adding this figure to the other, I find that we in London pay £356,000 a year for fraudulent dealing with milk—just about one-fifth part of our water rates. How long this will
