CONTROL OF THE PUBLIC MILK SUPPLY 407 



fed after milking: pastures and barnyards are well-drained; particular 

 attention is paid to the utensils; small-top pails are almost always used; 

 the cows are carefully groomed long enough before milking to let the 

 dust settle ; milkers scrub up thoroughly before starting to milk and wear 

 clean suits consisting of overalls, jumpers and caps; as each cow is milked 

 her milk is brought to the milk room where it is strained; under the best 

 management the milkers wash their hands before milking the next cow. 

 The milk is cooled either before or after bottling. The bottle caps are of a 

 style that completely cover the top of the bottle and many dairies use a 

 double cap. The caps are sterilized by dry heat before being used. In 

 transit the milk is kept cold. Some certified dairies deliver their own 

 milk while others distribute it through a city milk dealer. 



Kelly states that in a study of 92 certified dairies in 17 States he found 

 that the number of cows to a herd varied from 9 to 600 and that the aver- 

 age was 88. The amount of milk handled ranged from 12.5 to 6,000 qt. 

 and averaged 747.5 qt. The average production per cow per day was 8.3 

 qt. which was above that of the cows in market dairies but which he regards 

 as lower than it should be. The bacterial count of certified dairies varies 

 up to 30,000 per cubic centimeter, probably most of them expect to keep 

 it below 10,000 per cubic centimeter. In this study one of the dairies 

 reported that its plates ran from sterile to 1,000 per cubic centimeter, 

 and three reported counts of 20,000 per cubic centimeter, but the average 

 of all was 4,069 per cubic centimeter. It was stated that a few of the 

 producers put their milk on the market when it was 6 hr. most when it 

 was 20 hr. and a few others when it was 48 hr. old. 



Kelly estimates that in 1912 the total production of certified milk 

 per day was 25,000 gal. which was a 300 per cent, increase since 1907. 

 Among 43 active commissions that replied to his queries the most milk, 

 certified per day by a single one, was 10,752 qt. 



It is probable that in none of our large cities does the production of 

 certified milk greatly exceed 1 per cent, of the total supply. The reason 

 for this is the high price asked for certified milk. It nearly always costs 

 more than most milk users can afford to pay. So certified milk solves 

 the milk question only for the wealthy. Undoubtedly it is expensive to 

 produce certified milk but it seems certain that in the past certified 

 dairies in general have not been managed in the most economical and effi- 

 cient way possible. This has had a bad effect in two ways: it has limited 

 the field of activity of medical milk commissions and it has tended to 

 discourage dairymen from making the effort to adopt sanitary measures 

 and produce a high grade of market milk. It is desirable that the business 

 side of dairying be more strongly emphasized by the commissions in the 

 future. 



In doing this it would seem that expensive building and unnecessary 

 apparatus should be tabooed and that an effort should be made to cheapen 



