258 THE MILK QUESTION 



the bottle are not used, the cap should not be returned, but 

 a clean glass should be inverted over the neck of the bottle 

 before it is returned to the ice box. A good ice box will 

 have a separate compartment for milk and butter, or the 

 milk bottle may be placed directly upon the ice. The milk 

 bottles should always be cleaned and scalded out before 

 they are returned to the dealer. 



There is one phase of the responsibility, or, rather, irre- 

 sponsibility, of the consumer that should be noticed. If 

 the milk sours from neglect in the household, it is a self- 

 imposed loss. If the milk becomes infected in the house- 

 hold, the infection, as a rule, remains in the household 

 where it was caused. At least it does not, as a rule, cause 

 large epidemics, as is the case when infection is introduced 

 on the farm or at the dairy. 



In the household, milk should be kept clean, cool, and 

 covered. 



The separation of the producer and consumer 



The wide separation in distance between the producer 

 and the consumer is one of the fundamental causes of the 

 milk question. At first, milk was consumed on the farm 

 that produced it; the village received its supply from the 

 neighborhood; the growing towns drained the dairy farms of 

 the immediate vicinity; even the larger cities for years 

 and years obtained all their milk from farms within wagon 

 haul. This was an enormous advantage, as it assured the 

 freshness of the milk. 



Fresh milk, next to clean milk, is the keynote of our 

 problem. When cities and towns are supplied with fresh 

 milk from ,near-by sources, the milk is handled by compar- 

 atively few. hands, and the various sources of supply are 

 kept separate. Hence widespread epidemics, due to the 

 commingling of infection with a great bulk of milk as in 

 the modern dairy, do not occur. 



As the cities grew larger in size, a radical readjustment 



