THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 13 



mately 300. The number of dairy farmers engaged at present in the 

 furnishing of milk to the District is reported to be 1,142. 



The Dairymen's Association of the District of Columbia, Maryland, 

 and Virginia was organized in 1895 under the designation of " The 

 Milk Dealers and Producers' Association of the District of Columbia, 

 Maryland, and Virginia." It is an unincorporated body, with a 

 present membership of 22. It is estimated that there are engaged 

 at this time exclusively in the dairy business in the District about 80 

 individuals, firms, and corporations, and that this number has dimin- 

 ished in recent years is accounted for elsewhere in this report (p. 20) 

 by the fact that milk is now very generally sold by grocers and other 

 storekeepers, and by the additional circumstance that the small 

 dairyman with one or two cows has in many instances retired from 

 business. 



The committee avails of this opportunity to express its acknowl- 

 edgments and its appreciation of the kindly reception of and hearty 

 response to its inquiries, and the uniform courtesy shown the com- 

 mittee in conducting its investigations. 



After full deliberation, your committee respectfully presents the 

 following report of its investigations. 



It may be prefaced that the committee in its deliberations has rec- 

 ognized the responsibility devolving upon it to exert its efforts as an 

 integral part of the chamber of commerce toward giving the fullest 

 consideration and protection to the mercantile interests represented, 

 as affects not only individual members of the chamber itself, but 

 also in gener .1 terms the commercial development of the District of 

 Columbia, with the idea constantly in mind, however, that the con- 

 siderations of public health are paramount to all others, and that 

 the advancement of the material interests of the District in its civic 

 aspects is equally a charge upon .the committee by reason of a funda- 

 mental provision in the constitution of the chamber of commerce, 

 which outlines, among the purposes of the organization, the promo- 

 tion of "the general welfare of the citizens of the District of 

 Columbia." 



The committee has felt, furthermore, that it could not treat intelli- 

 gently the complaints of the milkmen and the local milk situation 

 generally without going somewhat fully into the consideration of con- 

 ditions affecting the local milk supply and suggestions for its im- 

 provement. It has elaborated, somewhat at the risk of prolixity, 

 the statement of its conclusion, being impelled to this course by the 

 many ramifications of the subject, and by its appreciation of the 

 lack of proper knowledge on the part of laymen generally not only 

 of the dangers to be apprehended and avoided in the use of milk, 

 but of the sanitary measures which are available for the purpose of 

 eliminating these dangers and reducing materially the distressing 

 and needlessly high rate of mortality resulting from milk-borne 

 diseases. The committee feels ample justification, therefore, in pre- 

 senting, as intimated, a somewhat more lengthy report than is cus- 

 tomarily submitted to a business body, narrating in succinct form 

 all the information of importance concerning milk which has come 

 to it in the prosecution of its inquiry. 



In presenting this information to the public the committee has, as 

 a rule, refrained as far as practicable from incorporating technical 

 matter and from rendering its report perhaps somewhat tedious by 



