14 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



palatable. As far as the city milk inspector and the state in- 

 spector are concerned, they should be more closely coordinated 

 than at the present time. I think it would be safe to remove 

 all food from the possible inspection of a Board of Health and 

 have an organized food department which should embrace milk, 

 meat and other foods, except, as I have previously said, in cases 

 where contagion occurs, and have the Boards of Health attend 

 strictly to business. 



Livestock Industry. 



There is, furthermore, always this to consider, that it is de- 

 sirable that more livestock be kept in order that the hay and 

 roughage be consumed, and the fertility returned to the farm. 

 It is, however, not very encouraging to the man who attempts 

 to raise livestock, either for beef or for dairy purposes, to find 

 that his market is controlled by the packing houses of the West. 

 Such, however, is the case. It has been the policy of the pack- 

 ing houses to conduct a campaign in a clandestine way to create 

 the impression in the minds of milk and butter consumers that 

 milk is not fit for human consumption. Incidentally, this 

 creates a protest against butter and, the greater the protest 

 against butter, the more oleo is consumed, which the packers 

 themselves manufacture, and profit by its sale. This cam- 

 paign manifests itself from sources that one would little expect. 

 The teachers of domestic science, for instance, have assiduously 

 taught that oleo is just as good as butter, and nave dissemi- 

 nated this information before every audience that they could. 

 They, too, are afifected with the propaganda which has been so 

 rampant in this state recently, that milk is dirty and unfit for 

 food. They forget that this is the first thing that many and 

 many a baby takes into its stomach, and continues to live and 

 thrive upon until it becomes old enough to assimilate solid 

 foods. This is not only so now, but has been for time imme- 

 morial, and it is remarkable to hear city dwellers speak of 

 milk which is much more cleanly -that it used to be, as though it 

 was not fit for food. Wonderful things, however, happen. 

 Factories are putting on the market, milk made into malted or 

 evaporated product. This milk is raised from cows under ordi- 

 nary conditions ; it is drawn from the cow under ordinary 

 conditions. It is then taken to the factory and doctored, dried, 



