When people went to buy milk from the milkman or at the dairy, they would bring their household milk can, which was much smaller than the large cans used at the dairies or on the milkman’s cart.
The milkman would pour milk from the large cans into the household can, and at home the milk would be divided into smaller containers.
Asa Bartov from Moshav Herut recalls:
At times, the owners of the dairy cows would dilute the milk with a small amount of water.
At the dairy, there was a large communal milk can into which the farmer poured the milk.
An inspector used to go from one dairy to another — and if the milk had already been poured before he arrived, “lucky them,” since it was impossible to know who had diluted the milk.
The problem was — no one knew when the inspector would arrive! He carried a measuring stick with him.
When the inspector came, he would insert the stick into the large milk can, and suddenly — wonder of wonders — the measuring rod would drop down!
The farmer caught cheating (who had added water to his milk) was fined and would immediately rush to warn his friends that the inspector had arrived at the moshav.
And when the inspector finally showed up, the farmers were full of stories and excuses:
“Today the cow kicked the bucket,”
“The cow wasn’t feeling well and didn’t give much milk,”
or “The milk wasn’t of good quality today.”