634 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



people, and it is a significant fact that the human race for many 

 years has been becoming more and more dependent on cows' milk 

 for food. That our dependence on the cow for this food will in- 

 crease as times goes on, we cannot doubt. As dairymen, as pro- 

 ducers of market milk, you are expected, for a just compensation 

 and a fair profit to feed the people. You must then, for your own 

 benefit as producers, keep in close and sympathetic touch with the 

 consuming public. You must ever be ready to anticipate the wants 

 of the consumers, and to supply those wants, if you would secure 

 and hold their confidence and win for yourselves a profit in your 

 business. 



It is for your best interests that the consuming public have ab- 

 solute confidence in you and in your ability to produce and to deliv- 

 er into their hands a food product that is pure and clean. It is a 

 long time since it was discovered that cows' milk was good for food. 

 It was one thing for primitive wants, but it is quite another problem 

 under present conditions to produce and transport long distances 

 milk that shall satisfy the appetite of the millions of human beings 

 who have never milked a cow and perchance have never seen one. 



It was evidently intended by the Creator of all things that milk 

 should be furnished to. the young without ever coming in contact 

 with the atmosphere, and foreign substance or things whatsoever. 

 Under such conditions, all agree that milk has no perfect substitute. 

 When, however, man makes his hands take the place of the calf's 

 mouth and the milk, instead of going directly to the calf, passes 

 through, the air into a bucket, he has interfered with the natural 

 process, and the condition of the product when it reaches the con- 

 sumer will depend almost entirely on the conditions under which 

 that milk was secured and cared for. The producer is largely res- 

 ponsible for those conditions, and he should accept his responsibil- 

 ity like a man. 



In the great interest and haste in matters pertaining to the breed- 

 ing and feeding of dairy cattle for the last dollar obtainable, the 

 sanitary side of the dairy business — the matters that pertain to the 

 health of the cow and the health of the consuming public — have, in 

 many localities been neglected. Neglect, however, could not always 

 remain covered for the natural result of uncleanliness in any kind 

 of work must sooner or later make itself known. Thus it is that neg- 

 ligence or ignorance on the part of some one is occasionalh' uncov- 

 ered in various parts of the country by the discovery of disease in 

 herds of dairy cattle, or among people who have obtained their 

 food supply from a common source. 



Many dairymen now know and many others have yet to learn 

 something of the nature and influence of even a little dust in the 

 air of the stable, or a little loose dirt or hair on the cows' udder 

 and flanks at time of milking. Many dairymen now know and many 

 others have yet to realize that a milk pail, strainer or can that has 

 not been well cleaned may become a source of trouble. 



Many dairymen now know and many have yet to learn that even 

 a very small piece of dirt, a hair or a fly falling into the milk carries 

 with it many thousand small plants which find in the milk conditions 

 well suited to their growth and increase. Dairymen, as a rule, are 

 careful to strain out these visible things when by some accident they 

 get in the milk. If these little plants or bacteria were only large 



