THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 369 



Answer. I do not believe that it has yet been demonstrated that the feeding 

 of fresh sweet brewer's grains has a prejudical effect upon the milk of animals 

 so fed. Attention is invited, however, to the preceding answer. 



4. With what average frequency are inspections of dairies and dairy farms 

 made by the health department? 



Answer. By the term " dairy " is understood a place where the sale of milk 

 and milk products is the principal part of the business carried on. There are 

 in the District of Columbia 60 such places, independently of those located on 

 dairy farms; those located on dairy farms are inspected as a part of the 

 dairy farm and therefore are not included in the following statement of aver- 

 age frequency of inspection of dairies. The dairies of the District of Columbia, 

 independent of those located on dairy farms, were during the year ended 

 June 30, 1910, inspected on an average of 23.6 times. The dairy farms supply- 

 ing milk to the District of Columbia were during the same year inspected on 

 an average of 3.79 times each. 



5. Is there any need for more inspectors under the present regulations? 



Answer. The number of inspectors of dairy farms should be increased. Be- 

 cause of the distance between dairy farms in outlying districts, a considerable 

 part of the time of any inspector is consumed in going from his headquarters to 

 the various farms and from farm to farm. The proportion of his time that is 

 practically lost in this way is, of course, increased in proportion as the size of 

 his territory is increased, and with the large territories that individual in- 

 spectors now have to cover a very large part of their time is lost in going to 

 and fro. At least one new inspector is urgently needed, and more could be 

 used with advantage. What, however, is most urgently needed is a competent 

 officer of the health department to devote his entire time to the supervision of 

 the food-inspection service. No salary has ever been provided sufficient to tempt 

 into the service any veterinary surgeon or graduate of a dairy school willing 

 to give up his entire time to the work of the office, as proper supervision of the 

 food-inspection service practically requires. The men who have been assigned 

 to this work have been, therefore, men not specially qualified or trained, and 

 however willing they may have been to discharge the duties of their office, 

 they have not always been capable of doing so when put to the test. As an 

 illustration of the difference between the situation in Washington and else- 

 where, it may be stated that New Orleans pays its chief food inspector $200 a 

 month and allows him time for a reasonable amount of private work. The chief 

 food inspector in the city of Winnipeg receives $2,000 a year. The most that 

 the District of Columbia has ever paid for this service is $1,200 per annum. 



6. What number of additional inspectors will probably be required if a low 

 bacterial content, the tuberculin test, and compulsory pasteurization be required? 



Answer. It is impossible to answer this question with any degree of accuracy. 

 Four additional employees, for instance, would be sufficient to supervise from a 

 bacteriological standpoint the milk supply of this District in a very satisfactory 

 way. One additional inspector, however, would very much improve the present 

 service, and two would improve it in proportion to the increase in the number 

 of employees. While an increase in the number of employees assigned to the 

 supervision of the milk supply from a bacteriological standpoint would not do 

 away altogether with the necessity for the inspection of the farms, yet if it 

 were permitted to fix an arbitrary bacteriological content and to insist that 

 milk shipped into the District for sale or sold within the District show no 

 greater number of bacteria than that allowed the necessity for the supervision 

 of dairy farms would be very much reduced. A farmer or a dealer in milk can 

 not produce and market a milk containing a small number of bacteria unless 

 his premises and his methods are what may be designated as sanitary. A bac- 

 teriologist examining the milk as it reaches the city and as it is offered for sale 

 can tell quite as much regarding the conditions under which it has been pro- 

 duced, from a general sanitary standpoint, as can the inspector on the farm. 

 The bacteriologist can not, however, determine as accurately as can the inspector 

 on the farm the condition of the dairy cattle, nor can the bacteriologist pick up 

 as well as can the inspector who visits the dairy farm information concerning 

 the presence of contagious diseases in the families of milk producers. It must 

 be borne in mind, of course, that the isolation of disease germs in milk is exceed- 

 ingly difficult, with the possible exception of the isolation of tubercle bacilli, 

 and that the isolation of tubercle bacilli is a slow and somewhat expensive 

 process, which can not well replace the physical and tuberculin testing of the 

 dairy cattle. If all tuberculin testing is to be done by employees of the District 

 government, three additional veterinary inspectors should be provided, for the 

 present at least, when there is a very large number of untested herds to be 



82444 S. Doc. 863, 61-3 24, 



