262 MILK 



milk and to insufficient washing of utensils, but not infrequently 

 it is due to faulty transportation facilities. It is fortunate for 

 the milk-consuming public that, as a rule, the micro-organisms 

 in milk are harmless. If this were not true the consequences of 

 drinking milk would be far more serious than they actually are. 

 When we consider that the average daily consumption of milk by 

 each individual in the United States is about two-thirds of a pint, 

 without counting the enormous amount of butter, cheese, and 

 other dairy products consumed, it is amazing that disease is not 

 more frequently spread through the milk-supply than actually 

 seems to be the case. 



According to Alvord there were about 17,000,000 dairy cattle 

 in the United States at the close of the year 1895. Of these 

 17,000,000, about 11,000,000 cows were primarily butter producers, 

 1,000,000 cheese producers, and the milk of 5,000,000 was con- 

 sumed by the families of their owners, or on the farms where 

 produced, or was sold to be consumed as milk, either fresh or con- 

 densed. These estimates are tabulated by Alvord as follows: 



PRODUCTION OF MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1895 



Number of Rate of Total Rate of Total value, 



cows. Product. product. - product. value. 



11,000,000 Butter 125 pounds 1,375,000,000 Ibs. 20 c. $275,000,000 



1,000,000 Cheese. 280 " 280,000,000 " 8 c. 22,400,000 



5,000,000 Milk 350 gallons 1,750,000,000 gals. 9 c. 157,500,000 



These figures give an idea of the amount of milk and dairy 

 products consumed by the population. The actual amount at 

 the present time is, of course, much greater, and the rate of con- 

 sumption has probably increased. The consumption of cheese 

 especially is larger in proportion to the population today than it 

 was heretofore. 



There are many figures available as to the number of bac- 

 teria present in market milk. Rosenau found in Washington, 

 D. C., in the general milk-supply 11,270,000 bacteria per cubic 

 centimeter in the summer of 1907, and 22,134,000 in the summer 

 of 1906. Park counted from 300,000 to 5,000,000 in the milk of 

 New York City, and Sedgwick and Batchelder determined the 

 average number of bacteria per cubic centimeter in the milk of 

 Boston 4,500,000. Jordan and the writer examined market milk 

 in Chicago, with the following results : 



Average number per cubic centimeter during April, 1904 9,361,000 



Average number per cubic centimeter during May, 1904 10,071,000 



Average number per cubic centimeter during June, 1904 18,924,000 



No. of samples below 50,000 4 * 1 .4 per cent. 



No. of samples 50,000 to 100,000 10 3.5 " 



No. of samples 100,000 to 1,000,000 89 30.0 " 



No. of samples 1,000.000 to 20,000,000 138 47.5 " 



No. of samples over 20,000,000 47 16.0 " 



