No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 191 



If bacteria are known to abound in dust, dirt, or the hairy coat of 

 cattle, or the soiled hamds of a workman, or in his clothing, or in 

 poorlj washed dairy utensils, or in an atmosphere which has been 

 contaminated from manure piles in a heating condition, or in stag- 

 nant pools of water, it becomes our moral duty to our fellow man 

 to remove such conditions from our dairy premises. We must not 

 think to tolerate them just because of our kiiowledge that their harm- 

 ful influence upon our milk and butter can be arrested by the ad- 

 dition of chemicals in the shape of preservatives. Let us remember 

 that milk is a complete food, containing all the elements necessary 

 to the growth of bone, muscle, hair, nails, and, in fact, every part 

 of the body, and that these elements or cotistituents of milk are found 

 in the right proportion for the proper development of the body, hence 

 anything done by us which results in a change of its constituency 

 just to that extent interferes with Nature's plans. If w^e take from a 

 food, we lessen its nourishing power; if we add to it, we change its 

 qualities in accordance with the character of the substance added. 

 If we add pure water, we simply make the milk less nourishing; if we 

 add sugar or starch, we increase that constituent of the milk in pro- 

 portion to the amount added. But if we add a preservative of any 

 kind we thereby add something that is injurious to life, because it is 

 used as a poison, i. e., it is introduced to destroy the life of those 

 germs or micro-orgatkisms which by their growth and multiplication 

 cause the many changes so common in milk. If a preservative is 

 poisonous to small fry it must be proportionally so to larger animals. 

 If not injurious to life it is not a preservative. Even cold is injurious 

 to life, and it is for that reason it becomes so valuable in the preser- 

 vation of milk, meat, etc., and it would be just as injurious to health 

 were it takeci into the stomach, and kept there, as other preserva- 

 tives are. But it is the only preservative known that can be added 

 to food and maintained there until the food is to be consumed, and 

 then effectually removed, leaving no trace of bad effect. It is 

 Nature's only preservative; all others come to the ingenuity of man. 

 If food were taken into the stomach at a temperature of 40 degrees 

 Fahrenheit, and that temperature maintained, the result would be 

 prompt and serious. Cold does just what other preservatives are 

 meant to do — merel}' arrest germ growth. Upon its removal the 

 germs may again become active. And so a reduction of temperature 

 does not actually poisoti or destroy germ life, but places around it 

 conditions that temporarily arrest its growth and development. 

 Now if it were possible to so handle and protect milk during its 

 commercial life as to totally prevent the introduction of any germ 

 life whatsoever, and were the cow from which the milk is drawn 

 perfectly healthy, we can readily see that it would never go sour. 

 But such a degree of perfection and cleanliness is not practicable, 



