DAIRY INSPECTION. 147 



make a definite standard of cleanliness which can be defined 

 with accuracy, and to insist that all dairies should come up 

 to a standard. It might be directed that proper attention 

 should be given to cleanliness, but manifestly the determina- 

 tion of what is a proper cleanliness would depend upon the 

 individual notions of each particular inspector. Nearly every 

 other rule that might be suggested for dairy inspection 

 would, in the end, come back upon the judgment or caprice 

 of the inspectors. This, of course, allows a great irregularity 

 and makes it extremely difficult to suggest any rules for dairy 

 inspection that could be satisfactorily accepted. 



A third difficulty consists in determining what rules and 

 regulations such dairy inspectors could or should try to 

 enforce. The bacteriologists may suggest a large number 

 of precautions to be adopted in the dairy, but if they were all 

 enforced it would either force up the price of milk to a pro- 

 hibitory point or would force dairymen out of the business. 

 Exactly what compromise could be adopted, so that really 

 practical and satisfactory rules could be obtained, is extremely 

 difficult to determine. 



Lastly, it must be always difficult to enforce such rules. It is 

 quite possible to have a statute saying that milk falling below 

 a certain chemical standard will subject its distributor to a 

 fine, but it would be very difficult to enforce a law that a dairy 

 that falls below a certain indefinite standard of cleanliness 

 shall be prevented from distributing milk. Private concerns 

 can do this with ease, for a milk-distributing company can 

 easily refuse to take milk from a dairy which its inspectors 

 regard as not up to a proper condition in regard to cleanli- 

 ness. To enforce such a cleanliness, however, by public law 

 is almost certain to be attended with difficulties which .will 

 be nearly insurmountable. It is not easy to enforce the rules 

 in regard to the chemical analysis of milk even though extreme 

 accuracy can be obtained by analysis. It will be manifestly 

 extremely difficult to get conviction in any case where the 



