718 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



and handling of milk, it furnishes a milk that compares favorable 

 with the best handled certified milk at a cost to the consumer of half 

 the cost of certified milk, that is, from (> to 8 cents per quart. 



OLD METHODS OF HANDLING MILK. 



In contrast with the above methods, let ns see how the bulk of 

 milk for cities was formerly handled. In fact there are still great 

 quantities of it being- sold daily. Cows, any old thing that will 

 give milk, no difference whether they give enough milk to pay for 

 the feed they eat or not, milked in a stable that is cleaned only 

 when the dairyman can ryid nothing else to do. Cows never cur- 

 ried, manure sticking to their sides and flanks until they resemble 

 the knight of old in his coat of mail. The milking is done anytime 

 and often the milkers use wooden pails, or worse still, tin pails that 

 have felt the effect of Brindle's hoof so often they scarce look like 

 pails. Milk dumped into cans, not too clean, without straining, or if 

 strained at all, only through a wire strainer, cooled by setting the 

 cans in tank of water only because he knows the dealer will reject 

 it if it is not fairly sweet when received in the city. In many cases 

 the milk is dosed up with preservatives of some kind, though of late 

 years this has become rather a dangerous proceeding, owing to the 

 activity of our dairy and food departments enforcing the laws 

 against adulteration. The milk is then taken to the train, shipped 

 to the city to some dealer who takes it to his sanitary (?) dairy in 

 the basement of some dwelling or store, or what may be worse, to 

 the rear end of some store room, the balance of which serves as a liv- 

 ing room for the family, here immersed in a tank of foul smelling ice 

 water, allowed to stand until enough cream has risen to the top, 

 then skimmed until it will barely pass the limit of fat required by the 

 law, or if there is any assurance the inspector will not be in the 

 neighborhood that day, the skimmer goes still deeper. It is then 

 sold from a can, or churn as many call them, placed on the seat of 

 the wagon beside the driver, measured in vessels that are coated 

 with a film of dust from the city streets each time the wagon passes 

 from one customer to the next. Or, perhaps this milk is whole- 

 saled to the corner grocer who stores it in his store along with 

 onions, potatoes, cheese and various other flavor-producing articles, 

 to be sold to his customers at cost in order to draw trade. 



Think of it, will you? This milk first flavored with the odor of a 

 dirty stable, and a passing examination will disclose that it con- 

 tains more than the odor, then with that of a dirty ice tank, than 

 which nothing smells worse, then skimmed and doctored until a self- 

 respecting cow would be ashamed to own it. then flavored with all 

 the various flavors of a grocery store, and then this abortion of pure 

 milk sold to draw trade; rather one would think it would drive it 

 away. And yet there are hundreds and thousands of poor people who 

 have never tasted the nice, sweet, clean flavor of pure milk, and who 

 think this is all right. They don't realize that it would be better 

 to use half the quantity of pure, wholesome milk, that they would 

 get more nutrition for their money. They don't realize it is feeding 

 such stuff as this that causes such a large infant mortality, and if you, 

 the producers of milk could see the poor little half-starved speci- 

 mens of humanity that city dwellers see on the streets in the poorer 

 sections of the city, you would register a vow right now that you 



