THE PROBLEM OF CITY MILK SUPPLIES 



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What does the farmer do with the milk after his cans have been 

 filled ? In many cases tlie cans have no covers and instances are known 

 where open cans are kept over night in filthy barns. Odors are taken 

 up readily by milk and chickens and other fowl find comfortable places 

 for roosting on the cans. The amount of milk sold that contains little 

 or no filth is small. Sucli milk is necessarily higher priced than ordi- 

 nary milk, as many precautions have to be observed to produce it. It is 

 higher priced, however, only in a sense. By paying more for each quart 

 we get a pure article with full food value, and have a reasonable as- 

 surance that no diseases are communicated that way. Thus there is 

 really a saving, as diseases are always expensive. 



How is it feasible to procure milk which is satisfactory from the 

 standpoint of the sanitarian ? The principal thing is that the consumer 

 demand a good product and he must know what constitutes good milk. 

 It is relatively easy to discover rotten eggs, decayed meat and vegetables, 

 because these are betrayed by the odor. Milk, however, does not putrefy 

 in the way eggs and meat do, and even the taste is apt to be misleading. 

 Chemical and chiefly bacteriological tests are the only safe guides to the 

 dectection of poor milk. For it must be remembered that fresh clean 

 milk, which contains few bacteria and is safeguarded against their 

 entrance, will not spoil for many weeks. It decomposed more or less 

 rapidly in proportion to the numbers of bacteria present, and bacteria 

 enter milk chiefly with dust, dirt and through the agency of flies. The 

 problem then is to prevent bacteria as much as possible from gaining 

 access to milk and this object can be attained only by scrupulous 

 cleanliness. 



The enormous mortality of infants is thought to be largely due to 

 poor milk. In some localities a successful battle has been fought and is 



Photograph 4 



