DAIRY MERITING. 159 



much offended if I had bluntly told her that she was not cleansing 

 those milk pails. She thought she was doing well, but ideals 

 of cleanliness have changed. Cleaner milk will tend to help 

 producers by saving losses from souring, and by improving the 

 market through the larger demand and better prices that will 

 result from consumers' increased confidence. 



In connection with the dangers from unclean or contaminated 

 milk is a point not always fully explained to producers in clear, 

 untechnical language. At meetings where clean milk is dis- 

 cussed it frequently happens that after the leading speaker has 

 concluded, a gentleman in the audience will arise to take part 

 in the discussion. His face is intelligent but lines of skepticism 

 are evident — his bearing indicates that he is going to annihilate 

 the lecturer. He tells the audience that he has used milk freely 

 all his life and is alive and well to tell the story; that he has 

 brought up a large family of children who have eaten milk in 

 large quantities, and all are ideals of health ; that he has retailed 

 milk for many years and never knew of a case of sickness due 

 to his product; in short, what the speaker has said may Dc rll 

 right from the theoretical or scientific standpoint, but if it were 

 true from the practical side the human race would have perished 

 long ago. 



You have all heard this kind of talk — sometimes a sharp talker 

 will use ridicule and sarcasm and bring down a hearty laugh on 

 the lecturer. In reply: ist. A proposition cannot be correct in 

 theory but wrong in practice. Actual experience discloses the 

 sophistries in many plausible theories. Practice and true theory 

 must always agree. Nothing is more impractical than an 

 unsound theory. I agree emphatically with the spirit of a 

 recent remark of Dr. Twitchell "The day has gone by for any 

 controversy between the scientist and the practical worker." 

 (I would add that the scientist is a practical worker). 2d. There 

 has been a sensational, scary way of treating the milk subject 

 by yellow journals and speakers, which I condemn as much as 

 any one. I recall a set of 3 pictures representing the same cot- 

 tage with its tasteful surroundings of shrubs and trees. In 

 the first a milk man's wagon stands in front of the house, in the 

 second the physician's carriage, and in the third the under- 

 taker's vehicle. That kind of argument (?) I deprecate 

 emphatically. But as to the facts regarding bacteria and health: 



