PUBLIC PROBLEMS 169 



evident that such milk cannot be furnished in the city in a very 

 fresh condition. In fact, in some of our cities a large part of 

 the milk is 48 hours old when distributed. Some of it may not be 

 more than 24 hours old, but only a very small portion of it, from 

 dairies close at hand, can be regarded as really fresh. It is not 

 a matter of very great importance whether the milk is fresh 

 or not, if it is only possible to keep it for the length of time 

 necessary under conditions in which the bacteria will not 

 develop too abundantly. If, therefore, it is kept sufficiently cool, 

 milk from a distance may be, at the end of 48 hours, in a much 

 better condition than milk from nearer dairies that has been 

 brought into our cities, fresh, but that has not been properly 

 cooled. The distance of transportation, therefore, is not neces- 

 sarily a factor to render milk less wholesome, provided it is 

 properly handled. 



There has been a very great improvement in the conditions 

 regulating the milk supply in the last 15 years. The milk is 

 produced on farms with more care; farms in general are more 

 cleanly, some of them very much more cleanly than formerly; 

 and more attention is paid to the quality of the milk. This 

 improvement in the dairy has resulted in an improvement in the 

 milk, and at the present time our larger cities are supplied with 

 a better grade of milk than before. 



Curiously enough, these statements cannot be made in regard 

 to the milk of the smaller communities, for these are sometimes 

 at a disadvantage in comparison with the larger ones. In some 

 states the larger cities have very stringent rules regulating the 

 milk that can be sold, rules which exclude the milk from many 

 of the poorer classes of dairies. But these same dairies, whose 

 milk cannot be sold in a city, may send their product to the 

 smaller towns and dispose of it without difficulty. This condi- 

 tion is doubtless only temporary, for laws will probably be 

 adopted by which the smaller communities will be as well pro- 

 tected as the larger. 



