SPECIAL PURE MILK METHODS 365 



work, and ensuring that essential details are not overlooked, 

 score-cards are most useful. Indeed their chief difference from 

 the forms of recording used in the better-administered districts 

 in this country is in the fact that numerical scores are given 

 for each condition, instead of the results of the inspection being 

 embodied in writing. The numerical score method is advan- 

 tageous, but from its very facility is liable to error on the part 

 of an incompetent or careless inspector. Also, unless all the 

 inspections are carried out by the one man, scores will not be 

 strictly comparable, as standards of efficiency vary greatly. 

 On the whole, however, the use of score -cards as an ad- 

 ministrative method of marking and recording the condition 

 of dairies is to be strongly recommended. 



(&) The distinctive and essential feature of the American 

 score-card is really its publication (however carried out), 

 and most of the improvements which have been effected 

 by its use appear to be due to the stimulus of publication. 

 The farmer improves his cow-sheds and his methods because 

 low marks are prejudicial to him commercially. Eastwood, 1 

 who studied the system at work in America, writes, in refer- 

 ence to the system in Ithaca : 



The scores are published periodically in the local paper, are 

 keenly discussed, and stimulate the rivalry of the farmers. The 

 prospect of scoring more marks will induce a farmer to keep his 

 cows clean, clip the hair about the udder, and attend to other 

 details, far more effectively than discussions of bacterial content or 

 the general requirements of a pure milk supply. The special 

 feature of the system is that it stimulates improvement by voluntary 

 enterprise and without resort to coercion. When the inspector 

 knows his business, and gains the confidence of the farmer, he 

 rarely has to resort to the threat that the licence will be withdrawn 

 unless improvements are effected. The farmer endeavours to reform 

 because a bigger score means an increase of his reputation amongst 

 his neighbours, and a possible expansion of his custom. 



The publicity of the marks scored is, however, alien to the 

 way public health work is carried out in this country. The 

 whole framework of our administrative work is based upon the 

 fact that the results of inspections, etc., are private between the 

 inspector, his superior officers, and his authority, and only 



1 Report to the Local Government Board, 1909, p. 72. 



