160 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



gram this afternoon, I find that some of the things that I had 

 prepared to say have already been said; consequently, I shall 

 have to crave your indulgence if I seem guilty of repeating 

 what has already been said. 



In times past, we have been accustomed to regard quality 

 in milk as merely a matter of food content. The science of 

 bacteriology has broadened the meaning of the words quality 

 and good as applied to milk and practically given them a new 

 definition which many people have not yet fully realized. 

 Quality, as applied to milk, relates to four conditions, any one 

 of which being poor will render the milk of poor quality. 



First. Good milk must have a satisfactory amount of food 

 material. 



Second. Good milk must have no foreign substance, either 

 preservative or visible dirt. 



Third. Good milk must have very few bacteria and none of 

 the pathogenic kind. 



Fourth. Good milk must be produced by healthy animals, 

 under clean and sanitary conditions. 



Hence, there must be four standards for milk : 



1. A reasonable amount of food material, that is, milk solids. 



&. An absence of foreign substances : Preservatives, or visi- 

 ble dirt. 



3. A bacteriological standard and, possibly, as an incident 

 to that and by way of helping enforce it, a temperature stand- 

 ard. 



4. A score card standard. 



First. The standard for food material, that is, the minimum 

 amount of milk solids which merchantable milk may contain, 

 has two purposes. Such a standard is of assistance in enforc- 

 ing laws against adulteration with water, because added water 

 within 5 or 10 per cent cannot be detected by the chemist with 

 a sufficient degree of certainty to warrant his staking his rep- 

 utation in swearing on the witness stand that a given sample 

 of milk is watered. Furthermore, a standard as regards food 

 material has a second purpose, namely, an attempt to protect 

 the consuming public from milk unduly impoverished, and also 

 to protect a large portion of the producing public against com- 

 petition with milk having a low amount of food matter. The 

 objection to this standard is the claim that law goes beyond 



