CHAP. 437.—An ACT to regulate the use of utensils for testing the com-
position or value of milk and cream, providing standards and pro-
viding for its enforcement, prohibiting false aan ate or over-
reading or under-reading of milk and cream tests, defining violations
of the act and fixing penalties therefor. (H. B. 22.)

Approved March 21, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
for the purpose of regulating the use of utensils for testing the
percentage of fat in milk and cream, to prevent fraud and de-
ception in the sales of milk and cream made on the basis of the
value of its milk fat content:

No bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensils shall
be used in this Commonwealth by any inspector of milk or
cream, or by any person in any milk inspection laboratory, in
determining by the Babcock or any other centrifugal machine,
the percentage of fat in milk or cream for the purposes of in-
spection or by any person in any milk depot, creamery, cheese
factory, condensed milk factory, or other place, in determining
by the Babcock or other centrifugal machine, the composition
or value of milk or cream as a basis for payment in buying or
selling, until it has been tested for accuracy and verified by the
chief chemist, his assistants or other experts of the department
of agriculture and immigration of Virginia. Every such bottle,
pipette or other measuring glass or utensil shall be submitted
to the dairy and food commissioner by the owner or user thereof
to be tested for accuracy before the same is used in this Com-
monwealth for the purposes aforesaid. The said commissioner
shall cause the bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensil
so submitted, after the fees herein provided have been paid, to
be tested in the laboratory of the said department of agriculture
and immigration. The owner or user shall pay to the said com-
missioner as a fee for making the test, a sum not exceeding five
cents for each bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensil
tested. Any bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensil
that has been tested and verified as aforesaid shall be marked
by the chief chemist, his assistants or other experts of the said
department of agriculture and immigration, to indicate the fact
of such test or verification; or if tested and found to be inaccu-
rate, may be marked by him or them to indicate that it is inac-
curate. No bottle, pipette or other measuring glass or utensil
that has been marked by the said chief chemist, his assistants
or other experts of the said department of agriculture and im-
migration to indicate that it is inaccurate shall be used in this
Commonwealth by any person in determining the composition
or value of milk or cream.

2. Every Babcock or other centrifugal machine, or cream
test or butter fat test scale, used in this Commonwealth by any
inspector of milk or cream or by any person in any milk inspec-
tion laboratory for determining the composition of milk or cream
for purposes of inspection, or by any person in any milk depot,

95
ice cream factory, confectionery, creamery, cheese factory, con-
densed milk factory, laboratory or other place for de

the composition or value of milk or cream as a basis for pay-
ment in buying or selling, shall be subject to inspection at least
once in each year by the dairy and food commissioner, his assist-
ants or agents. The owner or user of any such scale shall pay
to the said commissioner as a fee for making such annual in-
spection the sum of one dollar for each scale inspected. Any
Babcock or other centrifugal scale used as aforesaid, that is
not in the opinion of the said commissioner or his assistants or
agents in condition to give accurate results, may be condemned
by the commissioner or his assistants or agents. No Babcock or
other centrifugal machine or scale that has been condemned by
said commissioner or his assistants or agents as not in condi-
tion to give accurate results shall be used in this Commonwealth
by any person for determining the composition or value of milk
or cream as aforesaid, unless the machine or scale be c

to the satisfaction of the said commissioner or his assistants or
agents, and approved by him.

8. No inspector of milk or cream, and no person in any milk
inspection laboratory, shall manipulate the Babcock or other
centrifugal machine for the purpose of determining the com-
position of milk or cream for purposes of inspection, and no
person in any milk depot, ice cream factory, confectionery,
creamery, cheese factory, condensed milk factory, or other place
in this Commonwealth shall manipulate the Babcock or other
centrifugal machine for the purpose of determining the com-
position or value of milk or cream as a basis for payment in buy-
ing or selling, without first obtaining a certificate from the dairy
and food commissioner that he is competent to perform such
work. The fee for such certificate shall be one dollar and shall
be paid by the applicant therefor to the said commissioner. In
case any holder of a certificate is notified by the dairy and food
commissioner, his assistants or agents to correct his use of a
Babcock or other centrifugal machine, and such person or holder
of a certificate so notified fails to comply with the notice and
correct his use of a Babcock or other centrifugal machine, he
or they shall be deemed guilty of a violation of the provisions
of this act and in the discretion of said commissioner, and chief
chemist of the department of agriculture and immigration act-
ing jointly, may forfeit his certificate. No holder of a certificate
whose authority to manipulate a Babcock or other centrifugal
machine has been revoked by the dairy and food commissioner
and said chief chemist, shall thereafter manipulate in this Com-
monwealth any centrifugal machine for the purposes aforesaid
until his certificate has been renewed.

4. The dairy and food commissioner is hereby authorized
to issue certificates of competency to such persons desiring to
manipulate the Babcock or other centrifugal machine who may
present certificates of such competency properly filled out and
signed by the professor of dairy husbandry or other authorized
officer of the Virginia college of agriculture, and to such other
persons, as, in the opinion of the dairy and food commissioner
are competent to manipulate said machines. The said commis-
sioner may make and enforce rules governing applications for
such certificates and the granting thereof and may, in his dis-
cretion, revoke the authority of any holder of a certificate who,
in the opinion of the dairy and food commissioner and said chief
chemist is not correctly manipulating any Babcock or other cen-
trifugal machine as aforesaid or is using dirty or otherwise
unsatisfactory glassware or utensils. The dairy and food com-
missioner is hereby authorized to fix such standards and to issue
such regulations as may be deemed necessary to carry out the
provisions of this act; provided, that in the use of the Babcock
or other centrifugal machine, the standard milk measurer or
pipettes shall have a capacity of seventeen and six-tenths (17.6)
cubic centimeters and the standard test tubes or bottles for
milk shall have a capacity of two (2) cubic centimeters for each
ten per centum marked on the necks thereof; cream shall be
tested by weight and the standard unit for testing shall be eigh-
teen (18) grams, and it is hereby made a violation of the pro-
visions of this act to use any other standard of milk or cream
measure where milk or cream is purchased by or furnished to
creameries or cheese factories, and where the value of said milk
or cream is determined by the per centum of butter fat con-
tained in the same or where the value of milk or cream is deter-
mined by the per centum of butter fat contained in the same by
the Babcock or other centrifugal test or cream test or butter
fat test scales. In sampling milk or cream from which compos-
ite tests are to be made to determine the per centum of butter
fat contained therein, no such sample or sampling shall be law-
ful unless a sample be taken from each weighing, and the quan-
tity thus used shall be proportioned to the total weight of the
milk or cream tested.

5. It shall be the duty of the dairy and food commissioner
and he is hereby authorized, to test or cause to be tested all bot-
tles, pipettes and other measuring glasses or utensils submitted
to him as provided in section one, to inspect or cause to be in-
spected at least once each year every Babcock or other centri-
fuga] machine or cream test or butter fat test scales used in this
Commonwealth by an inspector of milk or cream or by any per-
son in any milk inspection laboratory for purposes of inspec-
tion, or by any person in any milk depot, ice cream factory, con-
fectionery, creamery, cheese factory, condensed milk factory or
other place for determining the composition or value of milk
or cream as a basis for payment in buying or selling, and to col-
lect or cause to be collected the fees provided for in this act.
The said dairy and food commisioner, his assistants or agents
are further authorized to enter upon any premises in this Com-
monwealth where any centrifugal machine or cream test and
butter fat test scales is used as aforesaid to inspect the same
and to ascertain if the provisions of this act are complied with.

Any person who shall by himself or as the officer, ser-
vant, agent or employee of any person, firm or corporation,
falsely manipulate or under-read or over-read the Babcock test
or any other contrivance used for the purpose of determining
the amount of milk fat in milk or cream, or who shall make
any false determination of any test or contrivance used for the
purpose of determining the amount of milk fat in any dairy
products, shall be guilty of the violation of the provisions of
this act. For the purpose of this act, the tender of payment
for milk or cream at any given test, shall constitute prima facie
evidence that such test was made.

6-a. Any person who shall hinder or obstruct the dairy
and food commissioner, his assistants or agents in the discharge
of the authority or duty imposed upon him or them by any pro-
visions of this act, and any person, firm or corporation violating
any of the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not
less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars, and costs of
prosecution, or by imprisonment in the county or city jail not
to exceed ninety days or until such fine and costs are paid or
both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.

7. It shall be the duty of the dairy and food commissioner
to see that the provisions of this act are complied with, and he
may in his discretion, prosecute or cause to be prosecuted any
person violating any of the provisions of this act. But this act
shall not be construed to affect any persons using any centri-
fugal or other machine or test in determining the composition
or value of milk or cream when such determination is made for
the information of such persons only and not for purposes of
inspection, or as a basis for payment in buying or selling.

8. The money collected under the provisions of this act
shall be paid into the State treasury to the credit of the dairy
and food commissioner of the department of agriculture and im-
migration and used to help defray the expenses of the office of
the said division in addition to the regular appropriation there-
for. The expenses incident to the enforcement of this act shall
be paid from the funds in the State treasury to the credit of
the dairy and food division of the department of agriculture and
immigration as the other expenses of said division are paid.

9. The word “person” or “holder” as used in this act shall
also include a corporation, association or partnership or two or
more persons having a joint or common interest.