42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



enough, or has not enough " body," and he is afraid of losing 

 a good customer, he is tempted either to give that person 

 a supply from near the top of a can, thus depriving some 

 one else of cream which rightly belongs to him, or to do 

 what he thinks his dishonest competitor is doing, — what- 

 ever that may be . There is a great desire on the part of the 

 purchaser to get milk cheap. People too easily forget qual- 

 ity, and think only of quantity. Consumers should remem- 

 ber that, at the highest price usual anywhere, good milk 

 is about as cheap an article of food as can be purchased. 

 Buyers of milk should remember that milk can be contami- 

 nated as easily after delivery to the family as before ; and 

 the milkman is often blamed for bad milk, when it was 

 made so by conditions over which he had no control, — 

 sometimes left where dust and flies have access to it, or, if 

 set in ill-ventilated refrigerators, or in cellars where there 

 are bad odors, milk will be in bad condition in a few hours, 

 no matter how good it was when delivered. 



Consumers should demand certain things of the producer 

 or middleman, and for these the producer or middleman 

 should be responsible : namely, that milk should keep sweet 

 at least twenty-four hours after being delivered to the con- 

 sumer, if it has been held at a temperature of 50° or below ; 

 that milk should be clean ; that the flavor of the milk should 

 not be injured by improper feeding and handling ; that milk 

 should be of a certain known composition, which is uniform 

 from day to day. These demands are not unreasonable, and 

 they can be carried out with but little or no trouble by the 

 producer and handlers. 



Food Value of Milk. 

 It has always been known that pure milk is a valuable 

 food. . Next to bread and water, milk is more commonly 

 used than any other article of food ; it is used Avith few 

 exceptions by every member of the family at every meal. 

 All are interested that it be pure and wholesome. It is one 

 of the cheapest foods, at the prevailing prices. Many per- 

 sons use as little milk as possible, because the knowledge 

 they have of careless ways in which some milk is produced 



