THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 29 



into the conditions affecting the milk supply of the District of Co- 

 lumbia, the committee has proceeded to secure and to incorporate 

 herein for the enlightenment and benefit of the Washington public 

 such information concerning the subject of its investigations as may 

 be deemed of practical importance in the solution of the great prob- 

 lem of providing an ample supply of clean, pure, and wholesome 

 milk for this community. 



IMPORTANCE OF MILK AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD. 



Cow's milk, next to bread, states Dr. Mohler, is the most important 

 foodstuff of the people of the United States, and is used perhaps to 

 a greater extent in this than in any other country. This general 

 use is not confined to milk in its raw state and its "almost universal 

 employment as a substitute in the feeding of infants, but extends to 

 its varied combination in cooke'd foods. This abundant use is per- 

 haps due to the fact that milk contains all the essentials of a perfect 

 ration, namely, proteids, carbohydrates, fats, inorganic salts, and 

 water, and to the further fact that its facility of ingestion and com- 

 parative ease of digestion render it an important food for the sick 

 and convalescent. 



The essential importance of insuring to the community a supply of 

 pure and wholesome milk is readily realized when we consider the 

 fact that milk is more extensively used as an article of food than any 

 other animal product. It constitutes a portion of the food of almost 

 every person on practically every day of the year, and while, unlike 

 many articles of diet, it is consumed in most cases in an uncooked 

 state, it, as above indicated, enters very largely also into the cooked 

 foods, in many of which it constitutes the principal ingredient. Milk 

 should, therefore, when furnished for consumption in its raw or 

 cooked state, be of good composition and free from adulterants and 

 from artificial coloring matter. 



Dr. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, United State De- 

 partment of Agriculture, takes exception to the expression " raw " 

 milk, contending that the term " milk " means pure, fresh, clean, and 

 properly handled milk, and that the prefix " raw " is unnecessary and 

 discriminatory. It should be explained that the committee in pre- 

 paring this report has made use of the term as a matter of conven- 

 ience, to indicate milk in its natural state not subjected to pasteuriza- 

 tion, condensation, modification, or other treatment. It will be under- 

 stood, furthermore, that references to milk apply equally to cream, 

 save where such construction is obviously inadmissible. 



DEFINITIONS OF MILK AND CREAM. 



The only regulations governing the production and distribution of 

 milk and cream, under the power conferred by the Federal Constitu- 

 tion for regulating commerce with foreign nations and among the 

 several States and with the Indian tribes, are those contained in the 

 Standards of Purity for Food Products, 1 issued by the Department 

 of Agriculture in pursuance of authority conveyed by Congress in 

 the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906, as follows : 



(1) Milk is the fresh, clean, lacteal secretion obtained by the complete milk- 

 ing of one or more healthy cows, properly fed and kept, excluding that obtained 



Circular No. 19, Bureau of Chemistry, IL S. Department of Agriculture, 



