12 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Unquestionably they can sample every can of milk that 

 comes across the city line of Portland, or sample every can of 

 milk that is offered for sale in Portland and, if it is not whole- 

 some, can condemn it, and at this particular place their author- 

 ity ceases. ' If the time has come when the Portland Board of 

 Health can send inspectors into a home to inspect its condition, 

 except for disease, the farmers of Maine want to knovy it. 

 The old English Law was, that a man's home was his fortress. 

 If that law has been repealed or modified, the farmers of the 

 State of Maine want to know when it was done; or, if it has 

 not been done and is about to be done now, they would like to 

 know the definite time when that change is likely to occur. 



After any product leaves the farm it can be inspected and, 

 if not fit for food, can be condemned. The conditions under 

 which that food is produced is of no concern whatever to a 

 board of health, or to anyone else, unless it becomes a menace 

 to the public health. If milk is inspected and sampled when it 

 arrives in the city it cannot become a menace to public health, 

 under any condition. So far as milk being a menace to public 

 health, we have more light on that subject than we formerly 

 had. Mr. Williams, the Sanitary Engineer for the Massachu- 

 setts Board of Health, testified before the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission in Boston, during the month of March, in 

 the rate case hearing, that not one per cent of the literature 

 written on disease transmission by milk was worth the paper 

 it was written on. Mr. Williams is an eminent authority and 

 this was his voluntary assertion under oath. 



The old idea of a board of health's duties and the reason it 

 was given the autocratic powers which it possesses was that, in 

 case of public epidemics or of contagious diseases, some source 

 of authority should exist, entirely above and beyond the ordi- 

 nary authority given to municipal officers, to protect communi- 

 ties from these diseases. It was hardly expected that these 

 boards of health would arrogate to themselves the responsibility 

 of pure food inspection, which is entirely an administrative 

 function of the government. It seems, however, that the pure 

 food inspection appeals to their taste and fancy more than loca- 

 tion of disease. 



It has been a source of wonderment not only to myself but to 

 many others that employees around the eating places in our 



