98 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



and further that safe pasteurized milk for babies should be 

 milk produced on farms where at least 75% of the sanitary 

 requirements have been complied with." Such milk should not 

 contain more than 100,000 bacteria per cc. before pasteuriza- 

 tion; should be heated to at least 140 degrees F. for at least 

 20 minutes, and should not contain more than 10,000 bacteria 

 per cc. when offered for sale. 



Now, as I say, these are, as far as Mr. Burton and I know, ex- 

 actly the Commissioner's ideas. I am personally very sure that they 

 are. I myself just added a note under bacteriological count. Of 

 course, in making these various bacterial standards, we do not 

 mean that fifteen thousand bacteria are necessarily any more 

 harmful than ten thousand. What we mean is that milk properly 

 cared for and properly pasteurized cannot have more bacteria 

 than that. That is, the bacteria are not so much what you might 

 call, definitely, a danger, but they are a detective, they detect 

 conditions, and those conditions, in many respects, are brought to 

 our attention better by the bacterial count than in any other way, 

 because we can go over a thousand farms in one afternoon's work, 

 while inspectors can cover only a few. This is one means, as I 

 say, of detection. I personally believe that the bacteria, in them- 

 selves, when present in too great a quantity and of the wrong 

 types, are a very distinct danger, and these standards are made to 

 represent conditions under which they detect. 



I am very sorry indeed that Dr. Lederle is not here, to give 

 you in a better way and more fully, the opinions which the paper 

 that I have read is meant to represent. 



We now have other speakers, and I am glad to say that they are 

 here to go on with the work. We all know the great work that 

 the experiment stations are now doing in these lines, and I am 

 very glad indeed that this conference is opened by Dr. VanSlyke, 

 Chemist, State Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. Dr. VanSlyke. 



DR. VANSLYKE spoke as follows: 



USEFULNESS AND LIMITATIONS OF SO-CALLED 

 MILK STANDARDS 



LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I wish to say that the worst pic- 

 tures that were thrown on the screen a short time ago were 

 really short of the truth in a great many cases. I was born 

 in the country, and if there is any one who can give me points 

 on the condition of dairies, from an unsanitary standpoint, I 

 would like to see him. Before I became a chemist, I remember 



