132 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



removed in the separation of cream, to which he is entitled. It is a 

 matter of interesting information, however, that skim milk is begin- 

 ning to play an important part in the economic latter-day consump- 

 tion of milk. There are many farms throughout the vast territory of 

 the United States situated so remote from the centers of population 

 that the transportation of milk derived from their herds in its raw 

 state to available markets is utterly impracticable, the cost of trans- 

 portation and the length of time necessarily consumed en route 

 making it impossible to compete with the product of farms more 

 advantageously located geographically with reference to commercial 

 centers. For this reason an enormous amount of raw milk, after the 

 cream has been separated for butter making, has been fed to hogs and 

 other farm animals. This vast waste product, relatively speaking, is 

 now, by the process of aeration, being partially condensed or pow- 

 dered, making it profitable, on account of its reduced bulk and better 

 keeping qualities, for transportation to market. 



In favor of skim milk it may be supplemented that a much larger 

 number of bacteria are found in cream than in the bottom milk, one 

 sample of milk examined containing 500 times as many bacteria in 

 the cream. When milk is placed in the generally used centrifugal 

 separator, the great mass of bacteria rise with the cream, a lesser 

 number being carried down with the sediment. The intermediate 

 milk, therefore, contains markedly fewer bacteria per cubic centimeter 

 than the cream or sediment layers. 



XII. MILK PRODUCTS. 



A discussion of the local milk situation would be incomplete with- 

 out an allusion to the conditions affecting milk products, namely, 

 butter, buttermilk, cheese, ice cream, and oleomargarine. It has been 

 conclusively demonstrated that pathogenic organisms persist in these 

 products with virulence, often for many months, and that it is of 

 the utmost importance that milk employed in the preparation of these 

 products be clean and wholesome, and meet in every particular the 

 requirements demanded of milk in its natural state. Tubercle bacilli 

 concealed in butter, buttermilk, and other dairy products are dis- 

 tributed throughout these products in such a way as to insure their 

 ingestion by the consumer wherever the sale of milk from tuberculous 

 cows is permitted. 



CREAM. 



The same conditions affecting milk apply, generally speaking, to 

 cream, which is merely cow's milk with an excessive amount of fat, 

 the other ingredients being substantially the same in character and 

 amount as in raw milk. 



Cream is defined in the Standards of Purity for Food Products, 1 

 issued by the Secretary of Agriculture in pursuance of authority 

 given by Congress in the food and drugs act of June 30, 1906, as 

 follows : 



Cream is that portion of milk, rich in milk fat, which rises to the surface of 

 milk on standing, or is separated from it by centrifugal force, is fresh and clean, 

 and contains not less than 18 per cent of milk fat. 



* Circular ^o, 19, Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



