1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 327 



more in going about the country and getting in with the 

 people of a neighborhood than by any other means. I believe 

 dairy education of most value is to be found in these travel- 

 ing schools, and their centers should be at the factories and 

 creameries now in existence. These are practical schools, 

 and appeal to the sense and understanding of the farmers."* 

 We should have traveling schools that shall give oral and 

 optical demonstrations in the various departments of hus- 

 bandry. We may not know just how it will work, but let us 

 begin, and after we have begun we shall find that knowledge 

 and experience will light the way to further progress. 



This Board, in conjunction with the societies, should also 

 take up the work of developing the consumption of certain 

 food products, such as milk, cheese, mutton, fruits and 

 vegetables. 



State Control of Milk Supply. 



Why should we not take steps, not only to improve the 

 milk supply of large cities, but also to increase its con- 

 sumption, — for it is a healthful article of food if it comes 

 from wholesome sources. 



I go so far as to believe that it is for the welfare of the 

 State to take an active interest in the milk question. City 

 governments believe that it is for their interest to control 

 the water supply ; but the article of milk, more difficult and 

 delicate than water to handle, drawn from sources that are 



* President Goodell, commending this feature of the plan, says : " In Germany, 

 itinerant lecturers are employed by agricultural societies, who travel about giving 

 such local information as would be of practical benefit to the farmers. In France, 

 ninety departmental professors of agriculture are supported by the government at an 

 expense of $57,000 annually, whose duty it is to deliver lectures on agriculture to 

 teachers and to farmers in the towns of the district. In Belgium the fifty-two 

 agricultural societies engage itinerant lecturers to give information on selected sub- 

 jects to farmers in the chief villages. This plan is also followed in the Netherlands. 

 In all these countries, the effort is made to bring the information direct to the 

 farmer. Jenkins, in his report for 1884, says : ' In Denmark the butter sold in the 

 markets was execrably bad. To-day it has no rival in the London market. The 

 result is directly attributable to the technioal instruction given by the lecturers em- 

 ployed to go about from place to place.' The same tale is told both of the amount 

 and quality of other articles exported, especially of barley, pigs and cattle. In Ire- 

 land a traveling educational dairy owned by the Royal Agricultural Society of Ire- 

 land is employed, in which churning is done three times a day while the lecturer 

 gives instruction. Prizes are offered to the dairymaid passing the best examination 

 after having attended three consecutive lectures. The improvement in the quality of 

 butter in the districts where this dairy has been wheeled about has been most 

 marked." 



