480 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



thing is not going to help very much. What is needed is the patient 

 sympathic education of consumers and dealers, and for this work there 

 seem to be neither funds nor officials. 



In contrast to the small communities the large cities are served by 

 milk companies with ample capital and with highly trained men. The 

 city boards of health have well-equipped laboratories and inspectors 

 enough to cover the dairies fairly well. The consequence is that where 

 politics does not blight the efforts of those who want good milk supplies, 

 something akin to them is obtained. The chief inspector's staff commonly 

 consists of dairy inspectors who devote their time to producing dairies, 

 milk plant inspectors, who look after the various types of plants where 

 milk is prepared for the market and city inspectors who attend to the 

 shops and restaurants where milk is sold, to the delivery wagons, to the 

 collection of milk samples, and to complaints made by consumers. In 

 some cities where the bureau of food control is organized independently 

 of the milk inspection bureau the former undertakes the inspection of 

 stores where milk is sold. The cost of milk inspection varies a great 

 deal according to various factors, among which may be mentioned the 

 distance of producing dairies from the city and from each other, the loca- 

 tion of milk plants and their number, the amount of laboratory work and 

 the salaries paid. The expenditures for milk inspection are never lavish. 

 Generally the legislative branch of the government which votes the funds 

 provides inadequately for the work so that those in charge have to 

 economize severely. In some places no attempt is made to inspect 

 dairies that are far from the city and in many others an inspection once 

 or twice a year is all that can be made. 



Cream. The quantity of cream used by the American people is 

 steadily increasing ; in fact, in some markets it is the price of cream that 

 sets that of milk. Rich creams, those of 35 per cent, and more, keep 

 well so that they are more easily shipped long distances than is whole 

 milk. This often results in the cream supply of a city being derived from 

 sources entirely distinct from the milk supply; a dairyman may produce 

 all of the milk he sells but purchase all of the cream he markets from a 

 creamery 300 miles away. Cream ought to be produced and handled 

 in the same careful way that milk is and in particular the separators 

 should be kept scrupulously clean but sanitary supervision of the cream 

 supply is frequently neglected. Apparently there is no other reason for 

 this than that cream is used less generally than milk and so there is 

 somewhat less likelihood of people becoming infected from it than from 

 milk. Nevertheless, the danger exists for epidemics like that, for instance, 

 of septic sore throat in Concord, N. H., have been traced to cream. More- 

 over, the fact that in extremely hot spells and at other times, also, a 

 temporary heavy demand forces dealers to get cream from unusual 

 sources, makes it very necessary that the quality of the cream supply 



