REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 BACTERIOLOGY 



THE FINANCIAL STIMULUS IN CITY MILK 



PRODUCTION* 



H. A. HARDING and J. D. BREW. 



SUMMARY. 



i. Under present financial conditions the wholesale price of 

 city milk is not high enough to yield the average owner of a dairy 

 a satisfactory interest upon his investment. Therefore he is com- 

 pelled to supply the cheapest grade of milk that the market will 

 accept without reducing the purchase price. 



2. The main opportunity for cheapening production is to omit 

 the labor and care which are necessary to the production of a clean 

 sanitary article. 



3. The financial stimulus is the strongest force which can be 

 enlisted in the improvement of municipal milk supplies. Milk 

 supplies will never become better as long as the largest profit is 

 attained by the production of dirty milk. However, they will improve 

 when consumers are able to buy graded milk which they are sure 

 is true to grade. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Bulletin No. 337 1 of this Station gives the record from September, 

 1907, to March, 1911, of the changes in sanitary quality of the milk 

 supply of a city of 13,000 people as supplied by 550 cows distributed 

 among 40 dairies. The object of that publication was to call atten- 

 tion to publicity and payment based on quality as potent factors 

 in the improvement of city milk supplies. 



In that study the quality of the milk was estimated by scoring 

 the dairies according to the Cornell Dairy Score Card devised by 

 Dr. R. A. Pearson. The facts regarding the individual dairies 

 were ascertained by the city saaitary inspector and the scores were 

 apportioned by one of the authors (H) of this article. 



1 Publicity and payment based on quality as factors in improving a city milk supply. 

 H. A. Harding, N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 337. 1911. 



* Reprint of Bulletin Xo. 363, April, 1913; for Popular Edition, see p. 74fl. 



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