MICHKl.W ACADKM^- OF SCIKNCE. 113 



How about the individual farmer in liis liome life? How few in- 

 stances there are of co-operation or community effort in the way of sup- 

 plying the farm liouse and buildings with light, water, sewage disposal 

 system, heat or any sanitary necessities or modern conveniences ! We 

 hear of instances of the use of a creamery plant as a co-operative laundry, 

 occasionally the farm house is supplied with water, gas or electric light 

 when favorably located, but of few instances of real co-operative effort. 

 And yet the farmer can have most of the conveniences of modern city 

 life without prohibitive expense. The farm house must be well built 

 with a view to lightening the burden of the housewife and to conserving 

 the health of the family, there must be a good heating and lighting 

 system, pure running water, safe sewage disposal, a pleasant outlook, 

 and a place outside the home for industrial enterprises. There must 

 be good roads and means of using them. There must be well constructed 

 barns and stock shelters designed to safely and economically supply the 

 needs of the farm crops and animals. The food produced on the farm 

 must be as far above criticism as is that inspected by the city inspector. 

 If the farmer cannot produce safe and acceptable food at current prices 

 then there must be a readjustment. Under no circumstances should the 

 American farmer, the representative of the most reliable and typically 

 American ideals today, permit himself to be humiliated by investigations 

 which presuppose that his product is of questionable quality. The 

 farmer must produce pure milk, clean meat, fresh eggs and perfect fruit 

 and vegetables and collect — I said collect, not accept what is offered — 

 all that is necessary to recompense him for his trouble. No self-respect- 

 ing community of farmers should wait to be coerced into improving their 

 milk supply. It is their business to produce safe and clean milk and to 

 get paid for their effort. It is their business to produce meat that will 

 pass the most scrutinizing inspection and to demand this inspection 

 just as a reliable manufacturer demands that the machines that bear his 

 trade-mark be as specified. I know of no way that an approach can be 

 made to this condition except by enlightened self-interest. 



The relation of governmental health agencies to the farmer must 

 become more intimate. In the control of the recent outbreak of foot and 

 mouth disease we have experienced a most remarkable example of govern- 

 mental interferences in the farmer's business. The U. S. Bureau of 

 Animal Industry and the State Livestock Sanitary Commission of Michi- 

 gan co-operating have destroyed private property and paid for the same 

 with the result that a foreign livestock plague has been eradicated from 

 the state. This result could have been accomplished only as a result 

 of the hearty and intelligent co-operation of the Michigan farmers and 

 local officers. Never has there been shown a better, intelligent — not 



