THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT" OF COLUMBIA. 1Q1 



capacity for pasteurizing 100,000 quarts' of* miik iii o' lidurs/ and 

 manufacturing 100,000 pounds of ice in 24 hours, besides cooling all 

 the milk that comes to the plant. He estimates that a proper build- 

 ing for handling our local supply would cost $175,000, and the 

 machinery possibly $150,000, it being practicable to realize from the 

 manufacture of ice alone, he remarks, a profit of at least 4 per cent 

 on the whole investment, reducing the cost of pasteurization to a 

 "very trifling sum." 



The introduction of compulsory pasteurization, if applied to the 

 agencies furnishing milk to the District of Columbia, would, in the 

 judgment of the committee, necessarily result either in placing the 

 milk business in the hands of a few responsible parties or in initiat- 

 ing the practice among the small dealers of purchasing their milk 

 from pasteurizing agencies, instead of direct from the farmer as 

 heretofore. It is likely that, if pasteurization be required by law, a 

 number of additional efficient pasteurizing plants would be at once 

 installed under private auspices, both for pasteurizing milk for the 

 producer or distributer at a fixed charge and for collecting, pasteur- 

 izing, and distributing milk directly through their own respective 

 agencies. 



COST OF PASTEURIZATION. 



As to the cost of pasteurization, it may be quoted from a com- 

 munication received from one of the largest milk-producing agencies 

 in the country that it is cheaper to pasteurize and bottle milk in 

 the city in large plants than it is to bottle the milk ,in the country 

 without pasteurization. Pasteurizing machinery can, it is said, be 

 obtained from half a dozen or more concerns at a very low cost, and 

 where the work may be done properly under official supervision as 

 is possible in the city, the public receives the benefit of the purer 

 milk supply without a corresponding advance in the retail price. 

 The investigations of the committee lead it to believe that the entire 

 milk supply of the District of Columbia may be pasteurized when 

 adequate time has been afforded for installing a proper plant or 

 plants of ample capacity, at a cost of not more than 1 cent per 

 gallon. 



EFFECT OF PASTEURIZATION ON THE NUTRITIVE AND DIGESTIVE QUALITIES 



OF MILK. 



There is some difference of opinion as to the effect of proper pas- 

 teurization upon the nutritive and digestive qualities of milk, but 

 the prevailing view among the authorities consulted by the com- 

 mittee is to the effect that there is little or no prejudicial influence 

 in this respect. One of the persons consulted, however, alleges that 

 the vitality of the milk is destroyed and another that the nutritive 

 value is impaired by the destruction of the ferments or enzymes, 

 while yet another contends that pasteurization renders the product 

 less nutritive and harder to digest. 



MULTIPLICATION OF GERMS IN RAW AND PASTEURIZED MILK. 



While it is generally understood that harmful germs proliferate at 

 least as rapidly in pasteurized milk as in raw milk, recent experi- 

 ments by the Bureau of Animal Industry demonstrate that there is 



