288 THE MILK QUESTION 



and many other countries where goat's milk is used. There 

 the animals are driven to the door, even upstairs to the 

 attic apartment, and the goats milked on the premises. 

 Sometimes the baby is permitted to suckle directly from 

 the goat's teat, thereby insuring at least a fresh supply un- 

 contaminated by commercial conditions. 



Certified milk and milk of the highest grade must be 

 bottled at the producing farm and transported in the origi- 

 nal package. This is expensive, bulky, the breakage is 

 considerable, and the return freight adds to the cost. 

 However, it is necessary for the safety of a high-grade milk. 



Scientific research 



The economic engineer may give us greater efficiency 

 and diminish cost, but protection to health depends upon 

 scientific research that has come out of laboratories. The 

 sanitary sciences are, after all, the backbone of this whole 

 question. If it were not for the health side there would be 

 no milk question. We are indebted to the science of bac- 

 teriology, chemistry, immunology, and the advances in the 

 sanitary sciences generally, not only for opening up but for 

 solving the milk question. The scientist in the laboratory 

 has pointed out the dangers, has led the way, and has given 

 the power of prevention and cure. 



Progressive milkmen recognize the value of sanitary 

 research, even though it is of an abstract nature and appar- 

 ently has no direct practical bearing upon the problems at 

 hand. Some of the fruits of science which are daily used by 

 dairymen in their practical everyday work have been gained 

 in laboratories only through research which, to the average 

 man, appears to be of an abstruse and impractical nature. 



Research workers do not always find what they are look- 

 ing for. The most valuable discoveries have been made by 

 searchers after pure truth in surprising and unexpected 

 directions. Sometimes a new fact seems to have no practi- 

 cal value at all, but sooner or later fits into the mosaic 



