196 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



milk as a food for infants, either after a child has been weaned 

 from mother's milk, or, as is the case in a too rapidly increasing 

 proportion of the infants of today, from the very first weeks 

 of life. 



This increasing dependence upon cow's milk for very young 

 infants is a grave medical, social, and public health problem. 

 Very often you will hear statements credited to medical men 

 and others, alleging that the entire reason for this decreasing 

 use of mother's milk as the source of nutriment for young in- 

 fants is selfishness and disinclination on the part of American 

 women to carry out the nursing function. While not denying 

 that many instances can be found where sheer laziness or sel- 

 fishness has been at the basis of premature weaning, I cannot 

 agree that this is the fact in all cases, or even in the greater 

 portion of the cases. 



I think the truth is that the ability to furnish mother's milk, 

 especially among our native born mothers and still more among 

 city mothers of native American stock, is steadily diminishing. 

 I feel positive that the greatest reason is that many mothers 

 do not have the milk to furnish the child, much as they would 

 prefer to nurse their children if able to do so. 



If this is a fact, it only means that there is still greater reason 

 why increasing care must be paid to the quality of our general 

 market milk, especially in cities, for in many, many instances 

 the infant's struggle for existence must be determined solely 

 by the quality of the milk that can be obtained in open market. 

 It does not matter how successfully milk is modified or diluted 

 or how scientifically the hours of feeding are adjusted, if the 

 quality of the only milk available at the outset is bad, the final 

 result can be nothing save disastrous to the infantile life of the 

 community. Another reason why milk is a public health prob- 

 lem is because milk will decompose more quickly than any of 

 the other commonly used foods. It is true that in most in- 

 stances the type of decomposition that takes place in milk is the 

 natural lactic acid fermentation or souring. This is a process 

 which is not injurious in itself, as has been quite thoroughly 

 proven of late years by the widespread vogue of sour milk 

 and lactic acid in treatment of cases of indigestion; but the 

 fact remains that sour milk is distasteful to most people and 

 especially to young children, and undoubtedly nature intends 



