THE TRANSPORTATION OF MILK 



205 



train. Sometimes milk is delivered at the cars by a general collector 

 for a district and in some places the cases are filled at the siding of a 

 creamery which has received the milk from the farmer, cooled, standard- 

 ized, pasteurized and recanned it. A considerable percentage of the 

 milk of some cities, notably Chicago, is shipped from country milk plants 

 ready for delivery. In most cases it is the intention of the farmer to 

 deliver the milk at the station platform shortly before the train is 

 scheduled to leave but the milk is often left exposed for a long time both 

 at points where it is picked up and at which it is delivered. Kelly tells 

 of an instance that came under his observation where a shipment of milk 

 that was not refrigerated in transportation arrived at the city terminal 

 with a temperature of 65F. and was unloaded onto an uncovered plat- 

 form where half of it remained over an hour and a half acquiring a tem- 

 perature of 85 to 90F. Such occurrences are far from exceptional. 



Temperature of Milk in Transit by Rail. This question of keeping 

 the milk in transit from the country to the city at low temperature is 

 important. The board of health of Baltimore, Md., in 1911 made a 

 special investigation of conditions under which milk was shipped by rail 

 to that city. Temperatures of 79 shipments of milk were taken as soon 

 as they were loaded on the cars, and again when the train reached the 

 city. No means of cooling the cars or the milk was provided and the 

 temperature of the cars ranged from 69 to 71F. The time occupied 

 in bringing milk from the most distant shipping station was 2 hr. and 15 

 min. A summary of the observation appears in Table 65. 



TABLE 65. TEMPERATURE OF MILK WHEN LOADED ABOARD RAILROAD CARS AT 

 COUNTRY SHIPPING STATION AND ON ARRIVAL AT TERMINALS IN BALTIMORE, MD. 



(THOMAS) 



The shipments showing the maximum initial temperatures had also 

 the maximum final temperatures, as would be expected, and showed the 

 minimum rise in temperature, this being in each case a negative quantity, 



