628 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and his place is supplied by the milk-supply companies that control 

 the product from hundreds of farms and regulate the large part of 

 the milk which the city consumes. These companies send milk 

 trains into the country in all directions, and collect milk from thou- 

 sands of farms. The milk is brought into the city in cars in which 

 it is cooled by ice. It may be already many hours old when it 

 reaches the city. It is taken from the cars, and the milk from 

 many different sources is mixed in large mixers to insure greater 

 uniformity. It is again packed in ice, and remains thus until the 

 individual dealer is ready to put it into his cart and distribute it 

 through the city to the customer. 



As a result of this' the customer no longer knows whence 

 his milk comes. If he is a citizen of New York, he may receive 

 milk from his own State, or Connecticut, or Pennsylvania, or New 

 Jersey. It may come from a thrifty farmer, or from a slovenly, 

 filthy farm, or, for all that the consumer knows, it may come in 

 part from a farm where there is a contagious epidemic. There is no 

 method of tracing responsibility, no method of even knowing the 

 source of any lot of milk. One morning we may receive milk from 

 northern New York, and the next from New Jersey. One morn- 

 ing, for all he knows, it may come from a model dairy farm, and 

 the next from the most unhygienic surroundings imaginable. 



But this is to a certain extent true of other foods. We can not 

 tell where our flour or meat comes from, or our apples or sugar. 

 Why should we be more disturbed over milk than other foods? In- 

 deed, until recently we have had no especial interest in the milk 

 problem, and have taken milk as it has been offered without ques- 

 tion, except as to its being pure milk unadulterated with water. 

 But the rapid discoveries of bacteriology, which have shown milk 

 to be such a good locality for bacterial growth, have been raising 

 some very significant questions. We have been told of the count- 

 less millions of bacteria which we have been drinking daily. This 

 has somewhat disturbed us, and no sooner have we become recon- 

 ciled to this idea than we are told of the great amount of filth that 

 finds its way into milk two hundred pounds of cow dung being 

 the daily ration of New York city, some one tells us. The matter 

 appears more serious still when we are told by the public press that 

 there are more bacteria in city milk than in city sewage, and are 

 informed of the epidemics of typhoid which are distributed by milk, 

 or of the prevalence of tubercle bacteria in this food product. 

 We become suspicious of the milk supply and hesitate to use this 

 food product or to give it to our children. 



Naturally, the people in small communities feel somewhat more 

 at ease in the matter since they know their milk producer and can 



