48 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



are paying no particular attention to better milk are receiv- 

 ing the same price for their milk as those who are trying to 

 market a clean, safe product. This state of affairs, one can 

 readily see, does not encourage clean milk production; how- 

 ever, we must work with the facts as they are. If we expect 

 the farmers to produce better milk, we must assist them to 

 receive a reasonable profit for their labor. 



In some sections of the country, dairymen state that the 

 price received for milk is not sufficient to warrant their 

 staying in the business. If it were not for the value the cows 

 are to the farm, more dairymen would stop milking them, 

 and take up some other line of agriculture. The question 

 of prices and profit is a problem which we must meet. . . . 4 



Undoubtedly the economic pressure upon the dairy 

 farmer is heavy, but the question how far his com- 

 plaint on this score is justified and what the remedy is 

 must be left for consideration in a later chapter. 



A contributing cause to the farmer's disquietude is 

 his frequent ignorance and distrust of bacteriology 

 and sanitary science. The ultraconservative farmer 

 is apt to consider measures of milk sanitation as mere 

 theory, as hobbies of the doctor or fads of the health 

 officer. We cannot, of course, expect farmers to be 

 versed in sanitary bacteriology, but we can expect 

 them to so appreciate its aims as to act intelligently 

 for the attainment of these. 



The farmer often bespeaks consideration of the 

 hardships that beset his mode of life, with the plea 

 that no further demands should be made upon him 

 without corresponding additional compensation. Here 

 is a typical example, taken from the letter of a dairy- 

 man to a Massachusetts newspaper: 



