166 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



this milk. These regular tests furnish a measure of the sanitary- 

 character of the milk. The system of payment offers a bonus 

 of 10 cents per can above the regular market for all milk con- 

 taining less than 10,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter. The 

 stimulation of this bonus has been sufficient to transform all 

 of the milk into this high grade. 



The use of a small-mouthed milking pail is a primary factor 

 in securing these results. When one considers that nature has 

 made arrangements whereby each little calf obtains certified 

 milk daily under all sorts of conditions because the milk is pro- 

 tected in the process from external contaminations, it is obvious 

 that the use of a small-mouthed milking pail brought close to 

 the dairy cow can in a similar manner prevent the contamina- 

 tion of milk during its transfer from the dairy cow to this 

 receptacle. In a short time the average milker can readily 

 learn to milk into a milking pail with a mouth only 5 inches in 

 diameter. 



An inspection of the 71 dairy barns at Homer, New York, 

 shows them to be of the most ordinary type. In some of them 

 milk is produced containing even less than 1,000 bacteria per cubic 

 centimeter. The score of these dairies, made by a representa- 

 tive of the United States Department of Agriculture, showed 

 that many of those which scored the lowest are producing milk 

 containing the smallest numbers of bacteria. 



At this Homer station more than 10,000 quarts of milk are 

 produced and bottled daily for the use of the infant milk depots 

 in New York City. 



The writer established a similar shipping station at Sparks, 

 Maryland, for the shipment of milk to Baltimore. Here 28 

 Maryland farmers were producing over 3,000 quarts of milk 

 daily. The conditions on these dairies were much inferior to the 

 conditions in New York State. The majority of the barns have 

 dirt floors, and the work is performed by negro help. The 

 milk as brought to this station is regularly tested for bacteria by 

 a high school boy, who takes samples daily, and makes his tests 

 in the little bacteriological laboratory established in the local 

 high school. Some of the dairy barns at Sparks are over two 

 hundred years old, very badly lighted, and practically without 

 any of the sanitary features required by dairy inspectors. 



