172 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



washed and cleaned, sterilized and dried, and the bottling of the milk, 

 the bottle washing and sterilizing and the refrigeration and shipping of 

 the milk are attended to. The farmers transact their business with 

 the manager of the central plant, bring their milk there and receive their 

 cleaned and sterilized milk pails and cans each day for use on the farm. 

 At the dairy farms, milking must be done in covered pails provided by 

 the station, which in transportation to the farm must be kept clean. 

 Milk pails and cans must not be washed or sterilized at the farm. No 

 strainers and no utensils other than those provided by the station must 

 be used and all milk must be cooled by placing it in 40-qt. cans in ice 

 water. The superintendent does the chemical and bacteriological work 

 and posts the results of his tests of the farmer's milk. He also inspects 

 the dairy farms and in doing so helps the farmers by instructing them 

 on simple points of sanitation. 



Payment for the milk is made on the basis of cleanliness as indicated 

 by the bacterial counts and on its richness as shown by the butterfat 

 test. Milk of a low bacterial and high butterfat test brings a better 

 price than milk of high counts and low test. A still higher price is payed 

 for milk of the former class from tuberculin-tested cows. 



North claims to have been very successful at Homer and at Sparks, 

 in interesting the farmers and in getting good milk. It is his belief that 

 the dairyman, or his methods, is a factor of 90 per cent, in the production 

 of clean milk and the equipment of 10 per cent, and he holds that dairy- 

 men trained in sanitary methods can be transferred from their own dairy 

 district to any other and on the day of their arrival produce clean milk. 

 This theory was actually tested by taking 10 dairymen from Oxford, 

 Pa., where they were in the habit of producing clean milk to Kelton, 

 Pa., where the farmers were not producing such milk but wished to pro- 

 duce milk of "grade A" rating. These Oxford dairymen had been pro- 

 ducing milk having a bacterial count of about 18,000 per cubic centimeter, 

 and the Kelton dairymen milk running about 1,500,000 per cubic centi- 

 meter. In the Kelton dairies the 10 Oxford dairymen on the day of the 

 test produced milk that showed an average test of 9,300 per cubic centi- 

 meter. The barns, cows, and surroundings were exactly the same but 

 the Oxford men used sterilized cans and sterilized small-top pails which 

 the Kelton men did not. These cans and pails undoubtedly were factors 

 in reducing the count. Other factors were that the Oxford men milked 

 with dry hands, kept the 40-qt. receiving cans out of the dust, avoided 

 raising a dust at milking, did not use cloth or wire gauze strainers and 

 cooled their milk, without stirring it, by setting it in 40-qt. cans in tanks 

 or barrels of cool water. 



From this experience and other observations North concludes that 

 the factors of primary importance in producing clean milk are: 



