MR. J. W. BRITTLEBANK'S PAPER 201 



action which is pushed too rapidly will have as its 

 immediate result the forcing up of the price. 



It is not my particular business to come here to 

 offend dairy-farmers, but I have had a good many 

 years' experience, first of all as a veterinary prac- 

 titioner in a country district, and for the last twelve 

 years as a veterinary officer whose duty it has been 

 to inspect dairy farms whence milk was sold in the 

 city of Manchester ; and as the result of the accumu- 

 lated experiences obtained, I have come to the con- 

 clusion that to a very large extent we approach our 

 subject from the wrong standpoint. I plead rather 

 for a policy which shall have for its basis the 

 statement of fact and the abolition of sweeping 

 statements. 



It is perfectly true to say that many of the con- 

 ditions under which the production of milk is carried 

 on are objectionable, that on very many farms the 

 dirty conditions are appalling, and that there is little 

 doubt that no inconsiderable proportion of the cattle 

 producing milk are diseased. 



Let us take first of all the dirty conditions. It 

 would be scarcely possible to find a farm which is not 

 carried on under conditions which are scientifically 

 dirty, and on a very great number so badly are they 

 constructed that it would be almost impossible to attain 

 conditions even of " practical " cleanliness. This 

 appears to me to be the crux of the whole question. 



In the first place a large percentage of the indi- 

 viduals engaged actually in cow-keeping have not 

 the slightest conception of what scientific cleanliness 

 means. As an individual the farmer has been brought 



o 



up, as have many generations of his progenitors, 

 to believe that the actual dirt of the farm, which is 

 of course mostly manure, is no unimportant monetary 

 factor, and further that manure, as manure, never did 

 anybody any harm. Are you going to clear his mind 

 of the falsity of his beliefs by merely rushing into the 



