THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 357 



and it would pay them to give a few cents more for their milk instead of having 

 to walk some distance to get it. 



There can, of course, be no charity more deserving of support than that of 

 providing proper nourishment for babies. By all means let there be a fund, 

 supported either by public or private benevolence, to enable the poor to get the 

 milk which their children need. But a truer charity, one deeper and more far- 

 reaching in its effects, would be to provide milk for the young children of the 

 self-respecting wage-earning class at such a price as would at least pay for the 

 cost of production, but still make no exorbitant demands on people of limited 

 means. 



Modified milk delivered to the door of the consumer at cost price and a fund 

 to help the really needy to buy it; this I believe to be the ideal at which we 

 should aim. 



To take a definite instance of modified milk for purposes of estimating the 

 cost : 



Formula (Nathan Straus Laboratories) for infants from second to sixth month. 



Ounces. 



Full milk 18 



Water 16 



Lime water li 



Milk sugar 1$ 



The milk at the farm may be certainly assumed to cost not more than 16 

 cents per gallon. The cost of the above would therefore not exceed 



Cents. 



18 ounces milk 2$ 



1 ounces milk sugar 2 



Lime water and water (distilled) i 



Total 5 



Allowing 4 cents for compounding and bottling the above (in 6 bottles) and 

 for delivery and incidental expenses, the price would be 9 cents, as now charged 

 by the Straus Laboratories. 



This allowance would naturally not be sufficient where a special building had 

 to be rented, special managers engaged, a large boiler kept specially in operation 

 by a licensed engineer, and a large amount of ice bought, to say nothing of pay- 

 ing a high price for milk and providing for a special delivery to substations. 

 But where there was already an abundance of steam and ice, and all the oper- 

 ations were under the same management as the rest of the trade, there would 

 be great economy, and it is safe to say that the price of modified milk, delivered 

 to the door of the customer, would not be very greatly in excess of that now 

 charged by the Nathan Straus Laboratories. 



I remain, yours, very truly, HEBBEET P. CABTEB. 



APPENDIX I. 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED AT HEARING BEFORE DISTRICT COMMISSIONERS, 



1910. 



DB. MELVIN'S TESTIMONY. 



Dr. Melvin testified as follows : 



For several years the Department of Agriculture has been endeavoring to 

 ascertain the approximate percentage of the tuberculosis that exists among 

 cattle in the various sections of the United States, and we had previously made 

 a great many tests in and about Washington and other sections. 



In doing that it was determined that tuberculosis did exist to considerable 

 extent in the District. The test showed that 1,701 cattle were tested with tuber- 

 culin. Of that number 319 responded, and there wefe two held as suspects for 

 Subsequent testing at a later date, usually from two to three months. The 

 total reimbursement to owners was $13,855.10, for 305 cases. The average 

 loss to owners was 27.65 per cent of the value of the destroyed stock. 



