434 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



handle and friction with the authorities over skim-milk, etc., is reduced to 

 a minimum. 



In Massachusetts the State Supreme Court found that the Board 

 of Health of the City of Boston had exceeded its powers in prohibiting 

 the sale of dipped milk, but before the decision was announced the ordi- 

 nance had been in force long enough to demonstrate its wisdom and no 

 one has cared to resume the sale of milk in bulk. 



Stores selling bottled milk must needs be inspected, too. It is im- 

 portant to see that bottles are not filled on the premises and that the prac- 

 tice of splitting bottles of milk is not indulged in. It must be ascertained 

 that the milk is stored properly for there is danger that the bottles may 

 stand around the store uniced. Stores selling bulk milk should be 

 scored on the Federal Dairy Division score card, designed for that purpose. 



Milk in the Home. By attention to these various phases of the 

 dairy business, health departments reach the dairy farmers, the milk 

 contractors and the vendors of milk and help them to serve the public 

 with milk of good quality. It remains to interest the milk consumers 

 and to get them to do their part in maintaining a good milk supply. 

 Some boards do this by issuing leaflets on the value of milk as a food, on 

 the care of milk in the home and like topics. The effort is made to get 

 the housekeeper to realize that the best of milk will spoil quickly unless it 

 is kept properly and so that if she is neglectful her family must be content 

 with poor milk. In some places the misuse of milk bottles has been 

 greatly lessened by urging people to be careful to return them whole and 

 clean and by pointing out that excessive waste of bottles tends to raise 

 the price of milk. Sometimes boards have helped the public by showing 

 it to be impossible to sell good milk at prevailing market prices and 

 helping to establish rates high enough for the dairymen to be clean and 

 honest. Wherever boards win public confidence they are frequently 

 consulted as to the quality of milk put out by different dealers. To 

 answer such questions the board must have a laboratory and make many 

 milk analyses. 



Laboratory Tests. The States, most of the large cities and many of 

 the small ones support laboratories for bacteriological diagnosis and 

 the testing of foods including milk. Indeed, this sort of work has become 

 so important that to secure its benefits contiguous towns not large 

 enough to support laboratories of their own combine and support a single 

 laboratory that serves them all. The milk tests that are commonly 

 made in these laboratories are of three principal kinds, namely: physical, 

 chemical and biological. The object in applying these tests is to keep 

 dirty, decomposed and adulterated milk off the market. 

 > Sediment Test. The two principal physical tests of milk are the 

 sediment and the lactometer tests. In fact, many small towns that 

 cannot afford laboratory facilities rely solely on these two tests to keep 



