324 Journal of Agriculture. [8 June, 1908. 



each new supervisor doing his work for a time under the guidance of an 

 experienced officer, until sufficient! \ capable and familiarized with his 

 duties to be left to act alone. 



The Ideals to be Aimed at. 



The general results deduced from bacteriological investigations during 

 the past decade seem to point to the following facts : — (i) With good 

 administration, it is possible to obtain milk sufficiently clean to be delivered 

 to the consumer without either pasteurization or sterilization. Special 

 facilities for cooling are required in the summer. (2) The lactic acid 

 bacteria are beneficial rather than harmful to the human alimentary canal, 

 fj) Raw milk, provided it is sufficiently free from putrefactive bacteria, is 

 a better article of food than sterilized, or even than pasteurized milk. The 

 greater the temperature to which milk is exposed, the greater the destruction 

 of the most valuable food substances it contains, the serum albumen, and 

 the special compounds of iron, lime and phosphoric acid. 



It is fortunate that the problem, of providing a satisfactory supply of 

 raw milk is simplified by the fact that the onlv common bovine disease that 

 is transmissible in the ordinary way to human V)eings is tubercle. All the 

 others may be avoided by cleanliness. This applies to typhoid fever, 

 and to the various forms of intestinal disorder that may V)e grouped under 

 such names as diarrhoea, enteritis, gastritis, &c. 



Undoubtedly, the most up-to-date arrangements under which the milk 

 supply of a large town is handled are similar to what obtains in Copen- 

 hagen, Berlin, and a few other large cities. The milk is produced on large 

 farms, where the cows are well fed, housed, and grfx>med, and kept under 

 constant veterinary supervision. - The milk is cooled at once after milking, 

 and kept at near the freezing point until distributed. Special methods of 

 filtration, pasteurization, &c., are carried out as circumstances direct. Con- 

 trasted with some such method as the above, it may be said that the Mel- 

 bourne milk supply comprises about 1,400 dairies, supplied by 40,250 cows 

 on 3,200 farms. There is no large organization which is likel\- to control 

 any appreciable percentage of the distribution. Manv of the most progres- 

 sive farmers are comparatively wealthy, and do not look upon dairy farming 

 as offering inducements much l>etter than those offered by other less exacting 

 branches of agriculture. Neither municipalities nor philanthropic insti- 

 tutions have established either model dairv farms or distributing centres. 

 Cold storage, though freely available, is utilized to the extent of onlv a 

 few hundred gallons a day during the summer months. If the quality of 

 a city milk supply may be judged by the incidence of gastrointestinal 

 disease in infants, that of Melbourne was just middling — there was undoubt- 

 edly much room for improvement, but on the other hand, there were no 

 great abuses calling for reform. Under these circumstances it was felt 

 that a judicious system of in.struction, with inspection, would probably, 

 achieve the l>est results. That, while a greatlv improved milk sujjply would 

 be secured, the business could at the same time be made mf)re profitaVjle 

 and attractive for the farmer. 



The conception of the milk supi>ly to be aimed at, then, comprises 

 healthy, well-fed cows, cleanliness, rapid cooling, and i^rompt delivery, 

 and, in addition, good, general management, so that the farm becomes a 

 centre of progressive prf)Six;rity. In manv countries, the enforcement of 

 healthy cows and clean milk would comprise the .sum of the duties of the 



