Thirty-sixth Annual Convention 953 



THE MARKET VALUE OF CLEANLINESS IN MILK PRODUCTION 



Charles E. North, M. i)., Consulting Sanitarian, New York 



City. 



Before showing the pictures I want to say just a word of in- 

 troduction. I want to tell jou that the whole text of the pic- 

 tures is that cleanliness has a market value. The word cleanli- 

 ness has been greatly abused, but we are coming to know what it 

 means. There was a time when it had no market value, at least 

 none that we could determine. The dairy industrv has been 

 through a great many changes and it has been a difficult matter 

 for the men in that industry, producing milk, shipping milk, 

 retailing milk, to tell just what foundation they could use that 

 would be a secure foundation for their business. But the popu- 

 lar demand for clean milk, the movement which has taken such 

 strong hold of the people of this country, has forced everyone 

 ill the business to-day to recognize that cleanliness is coming to 

 have a market value. The question before the dairy industry 

 is this : How much cleanliness is going to be demanded and what 

 is that cleanliness worth ? Is it the degree of cleanliness which 

 we find in certified milk and for which we know to-day the market 

 value is sometimes as great as ten cents a quart above the regu- 

 lar price of market milk ? In other words, do we mean that we 

 want ten cents of cleanliness added to the retail price of milk; 

 or is the public going to be satisfied with a lesser degree of clean- 

 liness, a more reasonable degree of cleanliness, at a more rea- 

 sonable price ? It is the old question after all, of quality and 

 price ; and what we all want to know — the dealer, the producer, 

 the manufacturer — is how much quality, at what price. Now, 

 that is the problem which I have tried to throw a little light upon. 



Cleanliness has a market value. This used not to be so. 

 In times past in the milk business the word " pure " was exten- 

 sively used in connection with milk, and every dealer advertised 

 that he sold pure milk. It did not mean then what it means now. 

 Modern knowledge of sanitary science has sharpened our ideas 

 on the subject of purity and of cleanliness so that we now know 

 that these are vital matters because of their close relation to the 

 bacteria of disease. Our standards have been raised and the cam- 

 paign for better sanitary conditions on dairy farms which was 



