CHAPTER VIII 



PUBLIC PROBLEMS 



A NUMBER of very vital questions have arisen in the last ten 

 years concerning the relation of milk to the health of our com- 

 munities, and the problem of the milk supply is becoming a very 

 pressing one. Although this problem has not yet been solved, 

 a number of factors have been fairly well settled. In the first 

 place it may be stated beyond peradventure that cheap milk is 

 always poor milk, and an improvement in the quality of the 

 milk must mean an advance in price. We have just seen in the 

 tast chapter what a great amount of care is necessary to guard 

 the milk from various sources of undesirable contamination and 

 to preserve it after it has been produced. It is impossible to 

 produce good milk at a low price, and the only hope for a better 

 quality of fresh milk is that the public should be ready to pay 

 a price sufficient to reimburse the producer for the extra care 

 necessary to produce it. 



' THE CITY MILK SUPPLY 



The condition in which milk reaches our larger cities varies 

 greatly under different conditions. The bulk of it is brought 

 in upon ice cars and consequently kept fairly cool ; but the 

 temperature varies greatly, with the different seasons of the 

 year, with the amount of ice used and the care that can be given. 

 It is the ice car that has made it possible to concentrate in our 

 large cities the immense milk supply that is demanded. Since 

 New York demands a quantity of milk so great as to require it 

 to reach 400 miles for part of this supply, it is evident that only 

 with the use of the ice car can this demand be met. It is also 

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