78 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



15 to 30 minutes, and no higher, and the maintenance of this 

 temperature, in accordance with the precise degree used, for a 

 period of from 15 to 30 minutes. It also means that the en- 

 tire volume of the milk shall be heated evenly, and not some 

 parts of it left almost cold while others are burned. 



The official supervision of pasteurization has the appearance 

 of a difficult problem. Dr. A. D. Melvin, Chief of the Fed- 

 eral Bureau of Animal Industry, suggested recently that a 

 solution could possibly be found by imitating a method used 

 in the Federal Meat Inspection. That is, if a dairyman has a 

 sufficient amount of milk to pasteurize to make it reasonable to 

 station an inspector at his establishment, let him do his own 

 pasteurizing in his own place under the supervision of an in- 

 spector; on the other hand, if his supply is not sufficient to 

 make this reasonable, have him send his milk to a central pas- 

 teurizing plant, where it can be pasteurized under proper su- 

 pervision. The inspectors, in addition to supervising the pas- 

 teurization, could give careful attention to the general quality 

 of the milk offered for pasteurization, and they should be em- 

 powered to condemn all milk not up to well defined, reasonable 

 standards. 



THE CHAIRMAN: Doubtless you remember that in the census of 

 1900 sixty-six per cent of our people were living under rural 

 conditions, as defined by the census; that is, in places of 8,000 

 inhabitants or less. In the meantime, the trend towards the 

 cities has been running strongly. The tide has been setting 

 strongly to the cities, so that in the present census I suppose the 

 figure will be nearer to fifty per cent. But even that means that 

 at least half of our people live in essentially rural conditions. 

 Some of us suspect that the milk supply of villages are not al- 

 ways, by any means, what they ought to be, especially those of us 

 who go to the country in the summer, and we shall, therefore, 

 listen with especial interest to Dr. LeSeur, Health Officer of Ba- 

 tavia, New York, who will speak to us on this subject. 



DR. LESEUR spoke as follows: 



MILK SUPPLY OF VILLAGES 



I have no doubt that the majority of you are feeling very 

 much as the little boy felt who had been attending a religious 

 service with his parents. At this service several very pro- 



