Milk.—­The reports of the Borough Analyst for several successive years, 1879 to 1882, showed that nearly one-half the samples of milk examined were adulterated, the average adulteration of each being as much as 20 per cent.; and a calculation has been made that the Brums pay L20,000 a year for the water added to their milk!  Next to the bread we eat, there is no article that should be kept freer from adulteration than milk, and the formation of a Dairy Company, in April, 1882, was hailed as a boon by many.  The Company started with a nominal capital of L50,000 in L5 shares, and it rigidly prosecutes any farmer who puts the milk of the “wooden cow” into their cans.

Minories.—­Once known as Upper and Lower Minories, the latter name being given to what, at other times, has been called “Pemberton’s Yard” or the “Coach Yard.”  The names give their own meaning, the roads leading to the Priory.

Mints.—­See “Trades.”

Missionary Work.—­About a million and a quarter sterling is yearly contributed in England to Foreign, Colonial, and Home Missionary Societies, and Birmingham sends its share very fairly.  The local Auxiliary, to the Church Missionary Society, in 1882, gathered L2,133 8s. 6d.; in 1883 (to June both years) it reached L2,774 17s. 8d., of which L2,336 6s 11d. was from collections in the local churches.  The Auxiliary to the London Missionary Society gathered L1,050, of which L991 was collected in churches and chapels.  The Baptist Missionary Society was founded in October, 1792, and branch was started here a few months afterwards, the first fruits totting up to the very respectable amount of L70.  A branch of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed here in 1814 for the Birmingham and Shrewsbury district, and the amounts gathered in 1882 totalled L4,829 10s. 3d.  To the Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, the Birmingham Auxiliaries in 1883 sent L323.  There are also Auxiliaries of the Church of England Zenana, of the South American, and of one or two other Missionary Societies.  The Rev. J.B.  Barradale, who died in China, early in 1879, while relieving sufferers from famine, was educated at Spring Hill College.  He was sent out by the London Missionary Society, and his death was preceded by that of his wife and only child, who died a few weeks before him, all from fever caught while helping poor Chinamen.

Moated Houses.—­The Parsonage, as well as the Manor House (as noted elsewhere), were each surrounded by its moat, and, possibly, no portion of the United Kingdom could show more family mansions, and country residences, protected in this manner, than the immediate district surrounding Birmingham.  Many more or-less-preserved specimens of these old-fashioned houses, with their water guards round them, are to be met with by the rambler, as at Astwood Bank.  Erdington, Inkberrow, Yardley, Wyrley, &c.  Perhaps, the two best are Maxtoke Castle, near Coleshill, and the New Hall, Sutton Coldfield.