THE SANITARY FACTORS 85 



production. The idea of scoring has become so well 

 established and its effectiveness as a means of prac- 

 tical procedure so well proven that the move to put 

 it on a thoroughly accurate basis is well worth while. 

 Some such schedule is evidently desirable to prevent 

 inspection or dairy demonstration from becoming a 

 matter of the inspector's personal opinion and to 

 answer the farmer's question as to how he can best 

 attain the demanded result of low bacteria counts. 

 Even where sufficient bacteriological testing is not 

 available, such a card will furnish a valuable guide to 

 dairy inspection and operation, although the accurate 

 grading of milks requires such testing. A practical 

 application of a card of this new type in connection 

 with bacteria counts would readily determine its ap- 

 plicability and its degree of correlation with the bac- 

 terial results. 



It must be borne in mind that the score card, useful 

 as it may be, can give only approximate or probable 

 indications. The ultimate criterion is the laboratory 

 test. How, for example, shall we infer that a dairy- 

 man actually does always use the sterilized small- 

 mouth pail or that he milks and cools properly, except 

 by results as shown by regularly favorable tests? His 

 statement may or may not be dependable, but the test 

 is a telltale.* The logical mode of control is the valua- 



* It is not here meant that the bacteriological laboratory can indicate 

 the exact history of a milk or absolutely certify that the dairy methods 

 are correct. Bacteria counts are subject to variations that are impossible 

 to interpret without a knowledge of circumstances, and can only be 

 taken as general summings-up. For this reason inspection can never 

 be dispensed with, but must be considered as complementary to the 

 laboratory. 



