8 



a man can outdo his clean neighbor who does not think ice so 

 essential. Thus it is that a great many features may enter the 

 count to vitiate its significance or value. When used properly, 

 when safeguarded and when properly interpreted it provides 

 a most valuable test for milk. It should not be employed 

 arbitrarily but as an indicator. 



The cooling of milk and the maintenance of a low tempera- 

 ture need no comment. It is desirable for clean and dirty 

 milk and will stop germ multiplication in each. The colder, 

 even to 32° F., the better, but there is a practical difficulty. 

 Every milk producer cannot have ice at the present time; 

 accordingly, 50° F. is usually too low for cold well water 

 which can be provided for cooling. It means much, therefore, 

 to maintain milk at 50° F. when the well water constantly 

 freshly pumped registers only 52° F. I therefore take issue 

 with a measure which will work a hardship when the differ- 

 ence to a clean milk producer is insignificant. 



The milk producer has so much to bear that I suppose it is 

 only adding insult to injury when all the faults of the con- 

 sumer are placed on his shoulders. Only a milkman can tell 

 you the many experiences which he has with customers. He 

 cannot say anything. So far as I have been able to gather facts 

 at first hand, the consumers are as derelict in caring for 

 milk as the producer, and are more concerned about the extra 

 penny put into pure milk production than pure milk itself. 

 In a certain town there were two milk distributors as well as 

 producers. They were extreme types, thus making a good 

 illustration. The one was a leading citizen and a very pains- 

 taking man ; the other was a dirty, indifferent man, almost a 

 vagabond. Practically all the people in a village of about 

 1,000 inhabitants had, as consumers, at one price, the same 

 clean milk ; a difference of 1 cent, brought about by the untidy 

 man lowering his price, turned the tide ; 2 cents acted so com- 

 pletely that the clean man went out of business in disgust, 

 simply because to sell at a lower price would mean financial 

 loss. The consumer has a part to play, for milk is a necessity 

 and milk producers are going out of business rather than con- 

 tend under adverse conditions. 



