59 



the warmer air, and as a result it receives ail the impurities that fall. Housekeepers 

 should, therefore, be careful not only to have the vessel covered when set out to- 

 receive the milk from the milkman, but they should be specially careful to keep the 

 milk covered, whether it be in the larder, cellar, or kitchen. 



I have thus referred to milk because I believe if the people better understood the 

 difference between human and cow's milk, there would not be so much sickness, and 

 the cow's milk and the milkman would not be so often blamed. The only tests that 

 I rely upon outside of analyses are to obtain the volume of cream, which should be 

 at the very least 12 per cent, then get the specific gravity of the milk after the 

 cream has been taken off, which should be close to 1.036. Every household should 

 be supplied with conveniences to make these tests. There is a little German patent 

 tester that will test milk in a second to the satisfaction of almost any one. If milk- 

 men knew that their customers are taking these precautions they will furnish good 

 milk all the time. 



Realizing that grass is the natural food for milch cows, and that the pasture is 

 their home, I have made their changed condition a study, so that the milk supply 

 should not become unhealthful either by reason of diseased cows, unwholesome 

 foods, water, or air, ever bearing in mind that unwholesome air is far more danger- 

 ous to milk than the eating by cows of unwholesome food; for in the latter case 

 digestion may overcome the impurities, while in the former, the air is taken into 

 the lungs, and then to the blood, and milk being the direct product of the blood, 

 would be sure to be impure. 



Unfortunately my predecessor had instructed many dairymen to use lime, or chlo- 

 ride of lime, as a disinfectant, and they, like many others, not knowing that lime 

 did the very thing they did not want done, Avere at a loss to know why their cow 

 stables were so unpleasant. After explaining to them that lime set free the offen- 

 sive matter, ammonia, etc., and that gypsum (land plaster) not only attracted but 

 held the impurities, w r e have no trouble. 



In this department of my duties I have had, free of expense, the kindly aid of 

 Dr. James Withycombe, Oregon's worthy State veterinarian. 



When I say the enforcement of the cubic-air provision of the law, giving each cow 

 when stabled 800 feet of air, as well as prohibiting cows standing in their stables 

 head to head unless there be an air-tight partition, and to see that cleanly surround- 

 ings were furnished, has w r orked wonders, I speak the truth. 



In order to detect the adulteration of milk by the addition of water, or by the 

 removal of cream, it becomes of great importance to determine whether the con- 

 stituents of average milk vary between certain limits, and Avhat these limits are. 

 The constituents vary, more especially the fatty matter, according to age, breed, 

 time before or after calving, the quantity of the food, condition of the animal, etc. 

 But even taking into consideration these facts, we find that nature in its endeavor 

 to produce a healthy food for the young will, in a great measure, overcome sur- 

 roundings which are most antagonistic to the production of healthy normal milk. 

 So much has been done to determine what the standard is below which pure, healthy 

 milk never falls, that we now know with absolute certainty that the variation in 

 the constituents of average milk is between certain defined limits. The milk of our 

 cows is much better here than it is in the East. This fact is attributable to our 

 richer food and equable climate. 



I had 15 analyses made of our dairy milk, which averaged specific gravity 

 1.031; cream by volume, 15; sugar, 4.51; fat, 6.46; total solids, 14.51; solids not fat, 

 9.42 ; ash, 0.727 ; albumen, 3.63 ; 0.72 not traced. I have for my guide the following : 

 87.5 water, 3.2 fat, 9.3 solids not fat; total solids, 12.5. 



Reliable authority reckons that one-half the people buy the butter and milk they 

 consume, and that each person consumes 26 pounds of butter per annum. This tells 

 us that the people of this State buy and consume annually 4,550,000 pounds of butter, 

 which, at 30 cents per pound, aggregates $1,365,000. 



