No. 4.] CLEAN MILK. 427 



36.03 per cent; 1890, 32.89 per cent; 1895, 34.73 per 

 cent ; 1900, 32.13 per cent ; and 1904, 28.87 percent. New 

 York and Philadeli)hia show similar improvement. 



There can be no doubt Imt that this change for the better, 

 shown by these statistics, is in no small degree due to the 

 improvement of the farm conditions, the wisdom of our laws 

 and health regulations, and the educational etforts which have 

 been put forth by interested persons. 



When, as a result of the evils ensuino; on the feeding of 

 distillery slop, etc., to dairj^ cows, and the inhumane and 

 unsanitary housing and care of such cows, the mortality of 

 young children was from 40 to 50 per cent of total deaths, 

 the conditions were nmch worse than now. Indeed, at no 

 period in our history for the past hundred years has the 

 death rate of children under five years of age in the city of 

 Boston been so small as it is at the present time, and never 

 before during all that time has the milk been delivered in 

 our cities in such good condition as it is to-day. Never 

 before could buyers feel the assurance that they were getting 

 so good, pure and clean an article of milk or cream. 



As another illustration of the fact that things are not as 

 bad as they are sometimes painted, last winter one of our 

 most up-to-date milk contractors had the milk from the en- 

 tire number of farmers, 119, furnishing him milk from a 

 single town, examined for bacteria, and found that only 21/^ 

 per cent were outside the Boston requirements, and 83 per 

 cent were below one-tenth of these same requirements. 

 This may be taken as a fair illustration of things as found 

 in a community of intelligent milk producers. 



Scare-heads and sensational articles in the papers relating 

 to the finding of filthy conditions in isolated dairies, thus 

 magnifying the condition as a whole to make it appear in- 

 versely to what it is, are to be deplored, especially in so far 

 as they frighten people against the use of milk. Milk is of 

 such immense value as food, and is so cheap as compared 

 with the same amount of nutriment in other forms, that its 

 use should be encouraged as nmch as possible. But, good 

 as present conditions are, we want better. 



I like to encourage the average milk producer, — he of all 



