536 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



enactment of regulations and restrictions for the producer of milk. 

 Sometimes these are not wise, sometimes they remember that to 

 conform to their rules requires an increased outlay and a higher pro- 

 duction cost but most times they do not. When the city is ready to 

 pay for clean, first class milk, it will be forthcoming, but the cheap 

 milk and the clean, rich milk which most cities demand, is an impos- 

 sible combination. It is not fair to the dairyman to ask that they 

 furnish a superior product at an inferior price. The real solution 

 for less bacteria is more cents per quart." 



We feel that by the use of the government score card, we are 

 enabled to efficiently improve the sanitary condition of the dairies 

 and instruct the dairymen in the better care of their product. We 

 surmise that the marked agitation for pure milk in Chicago is causing 

 the cities of Iowa to wake up to the importance of the supervision 

 of the milk supply, but we should remember that the conditions in the 

 smaller cities are not what they are found to be in cities the size of Chi- 

 cago, in this: that in the average Iowa city the milk is consumed before 

 it is 2 4 hours old and probably 50 per cent of it within 12 hours from 

 the time it is milked; v/hereas, in these larger cities where the milk 

 is shipped in from long distances, the milk is usually 24 hours and 

 often 48 hour.g or more old before it reaches the consumer. 



There are two cardinal points that control the wholesomeness of 

 milk, one is its age and the other the tempsrature at which it is kept 

 and while the latter condition is overcome in a measure by the use 

 of refrigeration cars, the age of the milk in these larger cities is always 

 much increased before consumption and while our problems are sim- 

 ilar, it is much simplified. In these towns and small cities, the bulk 

 of the milk is produced within a short hauling distance and much 

 of it even within the corporation. 



The market milk question would be greatly simplified if, as Dr. 

 Jacobi, in his president's address before the last meeting of the A. M. A., 

 states that practically all mothers could nurse their own infants if 

 they would and the use of artificial feed for infants could thus be 

 eliminated. His remark that an action for homicide should be insti- 

 gated in every case of death of a baby from want of its own mother's 

 milk against the doctor, the nurse or the mother, seems harsh, but 

 it is doubtless true. 



We recognize the fact that in a large sense the question of clean 

 milk -is a public health question but we must also reraember that it 

 has an economic side and that the most efficient way to induce the 

 dairyman to produce a sanitary milk is to increase their profits by 

 furnishing for them a market whereby it may replace the inferior 

 sort. Sanitary milk cannot be produced with the average Iowa cow, 

 delivered and sold on the market today for less than 8 1-3 cents per 

 quart. From personal observation I should estimate that 85 per cent 

 of our market milk is sold for a little over 7 cents per quart (14 quarts 

 for $1.00) or less. Possibly 14 per cent at 8 1-3 cents per quart (or 

 12 quarts for $1.00) and only a fraction of 1 per cent above this price. 



