CONTROL OF THE PUBLIC MILK SUPPLY 373 



ized. It appears that in the 20 years from 1885 to 1904 it was but slowly 

 that American cities assumed control of their milk supplies. The early 

 efforts of inspectors were directed toward the suppression of skimming 

 and watering which had become very common ; no city maintained regular 

 dairy inspection until 1895; from then on the cities gradually took it 

 up but it took 10 years to impress the country with its importance. In 

 the five years from 1905 to 1909 no less than 33 of the cities under con- 

 sideration accepted it and by 1913, 69 per cent, of them had done so. 

 It cannot be said that the movement for municipal milk control proceeded 

 in a regular manner from the older sections of the country to those that 

 were settled later. On the contrary it was adopted wherever a city grew 

 to sufficient size to make the supplying of it with milk a difficult problem. 

 In the early years samples were examined only for fats and solids ; bac- 

 terial examinations came later. Montclair, N. J., was the first city to 

 make regular bacteriological examination of milk; most other cities have 

 taken up this line of work since 1900. 



In regard to these tables it should be stated that the Board of Health 

 of New York City in 1873 forbade the sale of swill-milk, watered or 

 adulterated milk and in that same year collected $2,400 in fines from 37 

 dealers who violated it. In 1876 the Board adopted an ordinance pro- 

 hibiting the sale of watered, adulterated milk or skimmed milk. In 

 enforcing this law the lactometer was used to determine the quality of the 

 milk till 1895 when producers and dealers became so proficient in beating 

 the instrument that the board was compelled to set a chemical standard 

 and begin the regular collection and analysis of milk samples. 



In Iowa since 1892, the local milk inspection in cities having a popula- 

 tion of 10,000 or over, are appointed by the State Dairy Commissioner 

 and the courts hold the legislature has never delegated the right to regu- 

 late the milk supplies to the cities, the power to control being vested only 

 in the State Dairy Commissioner. In several of the Mountain States 

 the control of milk supply is a function of the State. In Idaho none of the 

 cities undertake to protect their milk supplies; that, since May, 1911, 

 has been done by the State Department of Food, Drug and Hotel Inspec- 

 tion. In Montana, since 1912, the State has had charge of all milk 

 supplies except that of Butte. In Nevada the State Department of Food 

 and Drugs Control since Jan. 1, 1910, has been in charge of dairy in- 

 spection and milk analysis. Reno operates under a special ordinance 

 in cooperation with the State Board of Health. 



Milk control in the United States has received several impulses that 

 have visibly affected its course. Among the most important of them were 

 the invention of the Babcock test in 1891 which gave an easy and accurate 

 way to determine butterfat in milk, the publication by Sedgwick and 

 Batchleder in 1892 of the results of their bacteriological examination of 

 Boston milk, which brought the public to a realization of the importance 



