394 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



tion. Good men stay with me now, it is a pleasure to run this dairy, 

 and my wife says I spend my leisure hours out here with the cows, 

 and last but not least I am now making it pay." This is only one 

 among many similar instances that might be cited. 



Some improvement has been made in the quality of milk sold, as 

 well as in the sanitary condition of the dairies, but much more re- 

 mains to be done, and I feel that the most good can be accom- 

 plished along educational lines — for as among dairymen of all 

 classes the producer of milk to be sold and consumed as such, there 

 is a tendency to fail to appreciate the importance of strict sanita- 

 tion and that milk is a food consumed largely by invalids and chil- 

 dren of tender years, and that clean, sanitary milk cannot be pro- 

 duced in a filthy and unsanitary barn. The cow gives clean, almost 

 germ-free milk, and when milk is otherwise it should be charged 

 to the failure of human intelligence or willful carelessness on the 

 part of man. 



The most marked defects of dairy barns in this state is the lack 

 of sunlight in the barns and proper ventilation. There are but two 

 requisites for the production of pure milk. The first is to keep dirt 

 out of the milk, and the second is to cool it as quickly as possibie 

 after milking and keep it cooled below fifty degrees Fahrenheit. 

 The first excludes bacteria, and the second prevents the growth or 

 multiplication of those few that may have found lodgement therein, 

 with the exception of the one bacteria that is the bane of the milk- 

 man — ^the bacillus lactis viscosus, which multiplies only after the 

 temperature of the milk has been reduced to fifty degrees Fahrenheit 

 or below. This bacteria causes milk to present a slimy, ropy, greasy 

 and repulsive appearance, and the housewife erroneously attributes 

 this condition to the fact that the cows are sick and the milk ex- 

 tremely dangerous as human food. It is unfortunate that some of 

 the dangerous germs like those of tuberculosis or typhoid should 

 not manifest themselves as plainly as does this one. 



Table showing the number of milk licenses issued to city milk dealers 

 for each year from 1904 to 1911. In each case the year ends on July 

 Fourth, 



1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 



Number 780 827 803 1006 1078 1149 1106 1310 



