62 



THE IRRIGA110X AGE. 



the basis of steak being worth from 12 to 

 16 cents per pound, milk would be worth 

 from 9 to 12 cents per quart. Its ordi- 

 nary retail price is of often as low as 4 

 cents per quart, and seldom exceeds 6 

 cents. The practical tests, too, coincide 

 with the laboratory tests to the effect that 

 where large quantities of milk are used, 

 the cost of living is reduced by the les- 

 sened use of more expensive foods. It 

 will be a long time, however, before the 

 woman who orders the kitchen supplies 

 will see the economy of ordering two 

 quarts of milk at 5 cents each instead of 

 one and one-half pounds of steak at 16 

 cents, yet the saving would be 14 cents. 

 The very qualities which make milk 

 such a desirable food also render it unde- 

 sirable from another standpoint. It is 

 particularly fine media for the growth of 

 bacteria, and through changes which may 

 occur within itself or by acting as a med- 

 ium or carrier, set up disease. Milk as 

 ordinarily handled is particularly* exposed 

 to bacterial infection. The germs even 

 invade the udder of the cow so that from 

 a practical standpoint, none can be ob- 

 tained in a sterile condition. During the 

 process of milking, hair, scales from the 

 body and dust from the air all add their 

 quota. If the milk be allowed to stand 

 exposed in buckets, as is too often the 

 case, hundreds of other bacteria are added. 

 The milk buckets and cans as a rule are 

 rinsed with well water that contains thou- 

 sands more, so that almost any milk will 

 contain from one thousand to several 

 thousand germs in each cubic centimeter 

 (small thimble full) by the time the milk 

 is ready to start to the customer. During 

 delivery the exposure continues if the milk 

 is carted in cans, and such is the usual 

 method. The dust from the streets falls 

 in the can each time the lid is removed to 

 dip, and the bowl or pitcher may have been 

 the same one used the day before and par- 

 ticles of "sour milk still cling to its sides. 

 Fortunately most of the forms which find 



their way into milk in this manner are 

 harmless, or at their worst, only produce a 

 souring of milk. The most common dan- 

 ger, however, is that some forms will be 

 introduced that will cause diarrhoeal and 

 other intestinal disorders. It is from 

 such causes that so many children have 

 trouble in cities during the summer 

 months. It is only occasionally that milk 

 becomes the carrier of tuberculosis or 

 other disease from animals, or that it be- 

 comes the means of conveying typhoid 

 fever, or scarlet fever, or other infectious 

 diseases from a dairyman's home. There 

 are hundreds of well authenticated cases of 

 disease being carried in this manner, but 

 they are a small circumstance compared 

 with "milk poisoning " in children, which 

 passes under some other name. 



THE HERD: Good milk should contain 

 four per cent of butter fat, and a high 

 grade milk should contain five per cent or 

 more. Milk of this quality can not be ob- 

 tained from poor grade cows made poorer 

 by poor feed. The general practice in 

 city daries is to select cows on the basis of 

 quantity of milk produced, to keep them 

 only during the time they are thought to 

 be profitable, to turn the calves over to the 

 butcher for veal and let the cow go fatted 

 when she is no longer useful. The daires 

 are kept up by purchase. The result is a 

 nondescript lot of cattle below the milking 

 average in quantity and quality. The 

 farmer does not sell his best cow to the 

 dairyman. In not a single case has the 

 dairyman weighed the product of each 

 animal to know whether she is profitable 

 or not, neither has he had her tested for 

 quality. The result i a lot of herd aver- 

 ages of 3.2, 3.4 and 3.6 per cent of butter 

 fat, and with total milk production of less 

 than the average of the better dairies that 

 furnish five per cent. Dairies depending 

 upon purchase to keep up their stock have 

 more unruly cows, more defective cows, 

 and more disease than those rearing their 

 own stock. 



