52 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



long time, that the State Board, through the Dairy Bureau, 

 miofht have more of an educational feature to it than it has 

 to-day, which would be beneficial to the farmers. 



It costs no more to make a good product than it does a 

 poor one ; and if we encourage this feeling among the 

 farmers, their product will be so much improved. It is 

 simply a waste on the farmer's part if he does not keep his 

 product in the best possible shape until it reaches the 

 creamery or the consumer. It has been stated, on the best 

 authority, that there is no product which makes so perfect a 

 food as milk when it is first made ; there is nothing to make 

 it better, — we have only to keep it as it is. 



Hon. M. A. Morse (of Belchertown). I read one day 

 that so many bacteria are necessary in every quart of milk ; 

 and the next day I read that there shouldn't be 500,000 — 

 or whatever it is — in it. I don't know whether any au- 

 thorities have ever designated just the exact number neces- 

 sary, or not, but I do know this : if the health authorities 

 want to jjet at the root of the matter, thev will jjet at these 

 cans that come to you and to me, which are so extremely 

 dirty. Now what is the use of talking about your barn and 

 my barn, your filth and my filth, when you and I haven't 

 seen anything about our premises for years so filthy as those 

 distressing milk cans that are sent to us from Boston ? Why 

 don't the health authorities strike at the root of the matter, 

 and not come onto us poor, innocent, hard-working fellows? 

 We alwaj^s get the hard end of everything, and there doesn't 

 seem to be anybody to stand up for us. Let us force this 

 thing ; let us demand that the utensils which come to us shall 

 be fit to receive the milk which is produced on our farms ; 

 let us have clean utensils first. 



jNIr. Allen. As Mr. Morse has brought up the shipping 

 back into the country of those filthy cans I want to say 

 that last winter I made several visits to the contractors in 

 Boston, and I couldn't quite understand how the State Board 

 of Health, or the local boards of health, could permit of the 

 transportation of such filthy cans. That, you will notice 

 in my lecture, was one of the chief points in our co-operative 

 movement, — that we have our cans brouo-ht to our farms 



