No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 283 



ins, color, bitter flavor, etc. Under favorable conditions the chief 

 of these is hictic acid, which is not objectionable except when we 

 want sweet milk. It is the normal souring. Along with the bac- 

 teria which bring about this result, many others gain access to tbe 

 milk and the products of their growth may be objectionable or posi- 

 tively injurious, especially where milk is held several days at low 

 temperatures under ordinary conditions of cleanliness or uncleanli- 

 ness. Where milk is Pasteurized and held several days there may 

 also b(; ])roducts that are objectionable. 



Certain forms which are more or less closely associated with the 

 intestinal track of the cow may be introduced into the milk through 

 particles of manure that get in during the milking process. Even 

 though these particles or at least the undissolved portion of them 

 are strained out the milk has been seeded with bacteria which may 

 cause intestinal disturbances in children to whom it is fed. 



The diarrhea of the milk fed infant is very frequently due to the 

 presence of these bacteria or the toxic (poisonous) products of 

 bacterial growth. 



it is an unmistakable evidence that the above statements are 

 true which has started and is developing tbe interest in the charac- 

 ter of the city milk supply. Meetings to discuss the subject are be- 

 ing held. Milk Commissioners are being created by the medical 

 societies in many cities and the daily press is giving attention to the 

 subject. The truth was first brought home to the medical men in 

 their efforts to learn the cause of the high death rate among city 

 babies necessarily depending on milk as a food. Not only have these 

 investigations shown the above conditions but they have shown that 

 much milk used in some of our cities is produced in barns, especially 

 within the city limits, that are in such condition 'of filth and lack 

 of fresb air that cows cannot possibly be healthy, to say nothing 

 of the filthy floors and flanks of the animals and air so ladened with 

 fumes of rotting material that milk cannot possibly be drawn 

 through it into a pail without absorbing gases that impair its quali- 

 ty and shorten the period of usefulness, if not making it positively 

 a menace to the life of the user. 



In other cases milk is delivered to shipping stations, say for sake 

 of illustration, on Tuesday evening, the cans are placed in cold watei' 

 and held till Thursday morning (Wednesday's delivery being simi- 

 larly held) Thursday morning all of this milk is placed in milk cars 

 and shipped to the city, reaching there Thursday night, Friday this 

 milk is distributed to the consumer who expects to hold some of 

 it for breakfast Saturday morning, or to feed the baby Friday night 

 and Saturday morning. Thus some of this milk is 72 hours old Ibe- 

 fore it is finally used. 



If the conditions have been thoroughly sanitary from the process 

 of milking through, this milk may be considered sweet when used, if 

 on the other hand there has been neglect there is frequently the for- 

 mation, of products by bacteria which thrive at low temperature that 

 are positively injurious to the delicate stomach. If some of this 

 milk instead of being delivered in sanitary bottles, goes into a little 

 store in a crowded section of a great city, is dumped into a can t"hat 

 may or may not have been washed, is frequently exposed to the air of 

 the store reaking with the odors and fumes from a heterogeneous 



