212 AGRICUWURE; of MAINE. 



milk to the cities of Grade C quality at Grade A price. I am 

 getting four cents per quart for my milk. I would like to know 

 what the farmers have to say about that? 



Answer : In one city we have men who have been getting 

 four cents per quart, who were producing one million or more 

 bacteria. Men are getting eight or nine cents with lower bac- 

 teria. The simple reason is this : We have not been in a posi- 

 tion to properly grade milk. 



Question : Is it practicable for the small cities to work out 

 a grade of their own, and have they done it? 



Answer : New York City has a very rough grading system, 

 because the milk comes in in such enormous quantities that 

 you cannot draw the line very closely, but in your small cities 

 you can have a system that is much more refined. I think two 

 grades would be enough — Grade A for the best and cleanest, 

 and Grade B for the poorer grade. The Board of Health 

 should test this milk; the dealer takes out a license to sell the 

 kind of milk which he wishes. This gives the Board of Health 

 a local control over the milk ; because the man who takes out a 

 Grade One license puts himself under obligation to keep his milk 

 up to the standard. If the inspector takes a sample and finds 

 the milk not up to grade, he inspects it again very soon; if it is 

 not up to grade, it falls into the lower grade, and the dealer is 

 fined. It costs less to ask the laboratory to test the milk, and 

 take out the poor milk. 



Mr. Bradford : If milk is brought in, testing under a hun- 

 dred million bacteria count, and was properly pasteurized, and 

 when it is pasteurized the count was found to be two thousand 

 or less, which I believe is a fair count; if that is cooled to 40 

 degrees or below (we say on our city carts, milk must be kept 

 below 50 degrees) and it is kept a week and tested again and 

 it seems all right, I would like to know explicitly if that milk 

 is safe? 



Mr. Lythgoe: So far as I can see, that milk is just as good 

 as it was when first pasteurized. 



Mr. BradEord : I remember a case where milk was carried 

 from Chicago to the Paris Exposition, tested and took the first 

 prize. Wisconsin was the dairy school where it started from. 

 It was not pasteurized, but it took the first prize. Was it safe 

 milk to use? Is it all right to keep milk a week under proper 



