44 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



secure a proper water supply, drainage, ventilation, air space, floor 

 space, and cleaning of all dairies and dairy farms, and to secure the 

 isolation of cattle suffering from contagious disease. 



It is represented by the health department that this law. being a 

 departure from established precedents, was a more or less experi- 

 mental measure, and that experience has revealed certain defects, 

 which it has unsuccessfully endeavored to remedy by bills intro- 

 duced in Congress from time to time, all such efforts proving without 

 avail, owing to the active opposition of persons interested in the 

 production and sale of milk in the District. 



One can scarcely realize, however, the tremendous improvement in 

 the conditions and surroundings of dairy farms which has resulted 

 from the inspection provided by the act of Congress approved March 

 2, 1895. It is well within the recollection of the present generation 

 that insanitary barns and milk houses were commonly and typically 

 characteristic of most dairy farms in this section of the country. 

 Laborers on the farm were not only ignorant and careless in their 

 habits, but uncleanly and in some instances even suffering from dis- 

 ease. No endeavors whatever were made to maintain the cows in a 

 cleanly condition, and the resulting filthy character of the milk was 

 unavoidable. There were few, if any, facilities for heating or boil- 

 ing water for cleansing the utensils used in handling and transport- 

 ing the milk or for washing the udders of the cows or the hands of 

 the employees. The water supply was in many cases at an incon- 

 veniently remote distance from the barn, and no attempt was made 

 to avoid pollution or impurification from drainage or other sources. 

 The improvement in all these particulars has been a process of very 

 gradual accomplishment, and the importance of educating not only 

 the producer and purveyor of milk but the ordinary farm hand to 

 a proper recognition of the essentiality, from a hygienic viewpoint, 

 of maintaining cleanly conditions is generally appreciated by all 

 authorities on the subject of sanitary milk production. It may 

 safely be asserted that, without the intelligent cooperation of every 

 individual concerned with the furnishing of milk from the time it 

 leaves the cow until it is deposited on the doorstep of the consumer, 

 but little substantial progress can be expected in eradicating the 

 dangers which are ever present in milk. 



REGULATIONS FOR STABLING OF COWS. 



The annexed copy of the regulations of the health department 

 relative to the stabling of cows (Appendix Q) sets forth specifically 

 the present requirements of the department in this regard. 



INSTALLATION OF FILTRATION PLANT. 



With a view to removing the causes of the extraordinarily high 

 death rate from typhoid fever and kindred diseases in the District, 

 a filtration plant was installed (completed in 1905), as a result of the 

 recommendations contained in the medical society's report of 1894, 

 at a cost of approximately $3.400,000. It was expected that the 

 installation of this important service would appreciably diminish 

 the mortality resulting from such diseases, but strange to say there 



