294 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



factory results. It is therefore desirable to know the water supply and if necessary 

 sterilize it l)efore it comes in contact with milk or milk products. Tt is not infrequent 

 that disease producinfj perms are found in such waters and there is a chance of con- 

 veying some infectious disease by their use. Ice contains germs, sometimes in as large 

 nu'mbcrs as water. Often the ice is secured from .some dirty pool and in addition to an 

 rxtrcmelv larpe nundter of bncteria. it carries with it a preat mnss of organic matter. 

 It is really a pernicious habit to add either water or ice from an unknown source or 

 the quality of which is unknown, to milk. 



The use of preservatives in milk is assuming vast significance because of the common 

 practice of emi)loyin.<,' them in milk designed for human consumption. It is not our 

 purpose to name the various kinds on the market nor to consider their germicidal value. 

 The use of these preservatives promiscuously is illegal, is deceitful, is dislionorable 

 and is criminal. They in no way have any relation to pure milk supply other than their 

 elimination. 



The hygienic aspect of the question of pure milk is exceedingly great, for in it is 

 included" The conveyance of disease through milk and the diseases arising from filth. 

 Of the former, many diseases are actually known to be conveyed by milk, such as 

 tvphoid fever, tuberculosis, cholera; of the latter, typhoid fever, gastro-enteritis and 

 other intestinal disorders. In the years 1883 and 1884 three hundred cases of cheese 

 poisoning occurred in Michigan. Every year witnesses a large number of cases of 

 milk poisoning or )>oisoning from foods made from milk. When all these cases of 

 cheese and milk poisoning are enumerated in Michigan alone the number is large. 

 Inasmuch as it is the result of carelessness, it is high time that some consideration 

 be given to the securing of milk free from disease elements. How many deaths from 

 tuberculosis, typhoid fever, cholera infantum or other choleraic troubles may be traced 

 to impure milk, it is impossible to say, but if cursory iiidgnient may approximate 

 the truth, the number must be large". Deliberate carelessness is never excusable, 

 consequently the crude. inditTerent methods used in producing milk are not pardonable. 



\\ liat economic value the proposition of pure milk has must bear a .secondary 

 relation. If a manufacturing plant fails to make a profit or even cost, it at once 

 ceases operation. The manufacturers do not usually condemn the people because they 

 do not buy their products, they rather admit their inefficiency in meeting prices of the 

 same grade of goods. While in some respects the milk producer does not simulate the 

 manufacturer, yet in large part he does and therefore must recognize his place among 

 other producers. He must create a market for his class of goods or compete with the 

 common producers. This last class is very plentiful and there is little to be gained 

 in such competition, but the man who has the combination of energy, intelligence 

 and capital can easily surpass the common class of producers and create a new brand 

 of his own. He wilTestaldish a market for his goods; once established, there will be 

 no serious trouble in getting rid of his goods. However, if he once begins to produce 

 cheap milk, the dairyman will find it a difficult matter to change unless he finds a 

 new market. The writer does not claim that he can produce milk at two and one- 

 half cents per quart and sell it for five or six cents to the retail trade according to 

 proper methods; but he Ijclieves that a pure milk may be secured for an additional 

 and maxinial cost of one cent ])er quart over the present cost of average dairies which 

 furnish milk to the retail trade and can reduce that expense above the average dairies 

 to the fraction of one cent per quart in the preparation of milk for butter and cheese. 



With the foregoing fact and conditions in mind, it is the purpose of the author to 

 offer a suggestive scheme founded upon exact principles underh'ing dairy work and 

 anticipative of future de\'elopment. What may be ]iromulgated in such a plan may 

 not be of immediate applicability, but he who is desirous of progressing will be able 

 to keep the ideas in mind, or some similar and equally desirable, that he may have 

 some high standard toward which to labor. Science ofTers sufficient demonstrated 

 data at the present time to render improvements advisable and secure, and these data 

 the writer hopes to make applicable. These must not be interpreted as within the 

 immediate attainment of every milk producer, for such would not be true. Each 

 milk producer has a set of conditions and circumstances with which he must accord 

 and he will be able to get rid of them by a gradual change towards a high ideal, 

 altering his conditions and circumstances of the present for conditions and circum- 

 stances better adapted to a higher type. That individual who ridicules better models 

 than his o^ti by regarding them as impracticable and impossible only bars all oppor- 

 tunities for his own betterment; he will die in the same suit of clothes of intelligence 

 he put on when a mere bo}\ 



In this bulletin there will be no attempt to follow the milk after it has been 

 obtained in a pure form for consumption as milk, butter or cheese. 



