CONTROL OF THE PUBLIC MILK SUPPLY 



405 



of production of the milk that is certified to and not either the exact com- 

 position of the milk or its absolute freedom from morbific principles. 

 Certified milk is produced from all sorts of cattle from natives to grades 

 to purebreds of the five principal dairy breeds so that the composition 

 of the milk must inevitably vary. By insisting on veterinary inspection 

 of the herds, on their being kept in proper surroundings, on their being fed 

 wholesome rations and tended by healthy employees and by seeing to it 

 that the milk is properly handled and transported the commissions offer 

 to the public a raw milk that is very unlikely to be unwholesome or in- 

 fected, nevertheless it is impossible to guarantee that some cow with an 

 undetected udder ailment or some bacillus carrier or mildly sick person 

 has not infected it. The fact that certified dairies have very seldom been 

 connected in any way with outbreaks of communicable disease shows 

 that the danger of the milk being infected is very slight; still there are 

 some who would pasteurize certified milk. 



The high quality of milk that may be produced by certified dairies 

 has recently been shown by Kelly, who has given out the results of the 

 scoring of milk by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in cream contests 

 wherein both certified and market milks have been entered. These 

 scores are given in Table 116. 



TABLE 116. AVERAGE SCORES OF CERTIFIED AND MARKET MILK IN MILK AND 



CREAM CONTESTS (KELLY) 



These scores presumably represent the products at their best. It 

 appears that on the bacterial count the certified milk scored nearly *7 

 points higher than the market milk, and led it in all other respects except 

 in flavor in which it fell behind half a point. Certified cream scored 8 

 points higher than market cream and was superior to it in every other way 

 except fat content in which it was less than 1 point behind. 



It is required that all certified milk shall reach the consumer within 

 30 hr. after milking but it easily keeps sweet much longer than that. 

 Occasionally it is put aboard ocean liners by travelers to Europe who have 

 it kept cold and use it throughout the voyage. At the Paris exposition 

 in 1900 certified milk from the United States, to the astonishment of the 



