428 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



employed in handling it, by teaching the consumer how to care for milk 

 and its value as food, by chemical and bacteriological control of the 

 supply, by developing a scheme for detecting the presence of milk-borne 

 contagion and for checking its spread, and finally by stimulating general 

 interest in dairying and dairy products. 



Dairy Farm Inspection. Farm inspection is undertaken to make 

 sure that the milk comes from well-fed, healthy cows kept in sanitary 

 surroundings and that the milk is properly cooled and cared for till it 

 leaves the farmer's hands. If the inspection is of the right sort, its value 

 is very great. It must be educative. The farmer is dairying to make 

 money; therefore, he is interested primarily in making his place conven- 

 ient to work in, in his cow, in feeding, in ensiling, in soiling and in practical 

 farm management. The inspector who can advise him in these matters 

 has an advantage. The farmer's interest in sanitation becomes something 

 more than perfunctory only when he can be shown that it pays. That 

 it does, becomes apparent if the code makes it necessary to attain a 

 certain minimum score to get a license to sell milk and if the high scores 

 are published so that the public gives its trade to the dairymen who make 

 them. The relationship becomes still more clear if contractors give 

 premiums for high scores and low bacterial counts or if the milk is graded. 

 The relationship between the pocket nerve and milk quality is clearly 

 shown by the experience of New York City with grade A milk. The 

 very men who could not be moved by legislation or educatory effort to 

 produce aught but unclean milk are putting out this highest grade of 

 milk now that it commands a better price on the market than ordinary 

 milk. This suggests that a proper function of the department of milk 

 control is to develop a good market for milk and to protect it from the 

 inroads of unfair competition. 



In starting dairy inspection a reasonable time should be given farmers 

 and others to make the alterations necessary to comply with the ordi- 

 nance. A little capital at least and sometimes a good deal is required 

 for the improvements so that it is but fair to proceed slowly. The scoring 

 of dairies should be done in the presence of the farmer and a carbon copy 

 of the score should always be left with him. It is well to establish the 

 rule that complaints about the inspection shall be based on the score 

 card because this precludes paltry charges and leads the dairyman to 

 make a careful study of his score. 



It has been said that inspection is good but it cannot be ignored that 

 many farmers do not believe it to be so. They maintain that it is over- 

 done, that they are bothered by a flock of inspectors from the contractors, 

 the cities and the State who are not agreed among themselves, who 

 therefore give contradictory instructions and who are a time-consuming 

 pestiferous lot. In some instances there may be justice in this complaint 

 but the dairies that are underinspected far outnumber those that are 



