44 AGRICUJUTURE OF MAINE. 



Boards of Health have made mistakes in some parts of the 

 country in estabHshing rules for the producer, to the end of an- 

 tagonizing them in general. As far as possible, some system 

 whereby the public health will be protected and the price not too 

 prohibitive, has been sought for. Eventually the proper educa- 

 tion of the producer by means of visits from experienced men, 

 schools of instruction, farmers' institutes and dairy meetings, 

 and the enlightenment of the consumer by public lectures and 

 demonstrations, courses in public schoo'ls, visits to dairy farm; 

 and reading of literature pertaining to the milk situation, will 

 be the solution of this problem. 



EDUCATIONAL WORK. 



Education of the producer and consumer along the right 

 lines, ratlher than the prosecution and payment of small fines, 

 will eventually result in the most improvement, and with this 

 object in mind, the educational factor has not been neglected. 



At a Pure Food Show held in Portland under the auspice^ 

 of the Civic Improvement League, I was given space for an 

 educational exhibit on clean milk. The extensive preparation 

 was amply repaid by the amount of interest taken by the many 

 visitors to whom sudh facts as were demonstrated were little 

 known. Unsanitary and sanitary conditions, sediment in milk, 

 adulterants in milk and in stock food, food value of milk, the 

 open, covered and hooded milk pail, constituents of milk, sepa- 

 rator, slime, life history of the fly, and prepared specimens of 

 disease germs occuring in milk, as seen under the microscope, 

 were included in the make-up of the exhibit. Bulletins were 

 distributed and names added to the mailing list for future 

 issues. 



At the Maine State Fair and at the Central Maine Fair, milk. 

 cream and butter scoring contests were supervised by this De- 

 partment. The samples were scored and the detailed results 

 sent to the producer. Much interest was shown in the result 

 of the bacterial count. An exhibit of sanitary and unsanitary 

 conditions, sediment in milk, testing apparatus and fly breedhig 

 stages and growing bacteria from milk were shown and dairy 

 bulletins distributed. 



At these fairs contests with single cows and groups of four 

 cows, for milk yield in twenty-four hours and butter fat, were 



