222 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



Dr. GEORGE SCHOLEFIELD (West Lancashire) said that as 

 medical officer of health of a rural district in Lancashire, 

 not far distant from Liverpool, he would like to say a word 

 or two on behalf of the rural districts. Dr. Hope, in his 

 paper, probably rightly blamed the rural districts for sending 

 impure milk into the large cities. He would like to tell the 

 Conference what they did in his district; perhaps as regards 

 that particular district, which was largely of a rural charac- 

 ter, some of Dr. Hope's strictures would be removed. 

 Some ten years ago they had no by-laws under the Dairies, 

 Cowsheds, and Milkshops Order. The Council, of whom 

 about two-thirds were connected with the farming industry, 

 had not seen any necessity for having such by-laws, but 

 after he had for three or four years pointed out to them 

 the necessity of such by-laws, they at last consented to adopt 

 them. Since that time the cowsheds had been regularly 

 visited, not only at the stated periods that the by-laws said 

 that visits should be made, but also surprise visits had 

 frequently been paid and the improvement in the cowsheds 

 in the district had been very marked indeed. There was 

 more cleanliness, the ventilation was very much better than 

 it used to be; in fact the only fault he had to find was 

 that in the by-laws they were not allowed by the Local 

 Government Board to have any specified number of cubic 

 feet for each cow. The by-laws stated that if the cows were 

 turned out at some period of the day during the whole of 

 the twelve months, then the amount of space was not to 

 be a certain number of cubic feet. That undoubtedly was 

 a disadvantage, because during the cold winter months the 

 cows were turned out for perhaps a few minutes and that 

 just complied with the by-laws, and for the rest of the 

 twenty-four hours they were in some cases, he was afraid, 

 very much overcrowded. That overcrowding was con- 

 sidered by some of the farmers to be an advantage because 

 they thought that if they had a cowshed very hot and with 

 heat produced by the cows being close one to another they 

 would get more milk, and it was very difficult to convince 

 many of them that pure air was as good for cows or cattle 

 generally as it was for human beings. As regards the 

 quality of the milk sold to the public the Council had for 

 some time past allowed him at times to take samples, which 

 had been submitted for examination for tubercle bacilli. 

 Many samples had been taken and he was pleased to say 

 that the samples had always been reported upon as free from 

 tubercular bacillus. It had been rather a difficult matter 

 to educate the farmer to the necessity of having his cow- 

 sheds well ventilated and frequently cleaned, lime-washed. 



