THE GRADING OF MILK AS A SUBSTITUTE 

 FOR DAIRY INSPECTION. 



CHARLES E. NORTH, M.D., DIRECTOR, THE NORTH PUBLIC HEALTH 

 BUREAU, NEW YORK CITY. 



The title refers to the control of public milk supplies through 

 legislative enactment. Dairy inspection is a function provided 

 for in most State and municipal milk laws, and its general pos- 

 sibilities and activities are familiar to all who are engaged in 

 the milk industry or in official control of the same. Irrespec- 

 tive of the standards, whether by the use of score cards or 

 otherwise, dairy inspection assumes that inspectors acting 

 under the direction either of State or municipal departments 

 will periodically visit certain dairy districts and report on the 

 sanitary conditions which they observe on dairy farms or in 

 the stations established by the industry for shipping or receiv- 

 ing milk. In this work the emphasis is laid on the dairy and 

 the external appearances which can be observed, not only with 

 respect to buildings and equipment, but with respect to the 

 methods used by dairy employees. Such inspection gives no 

 consideration to the product itself, which may be termed the 

 net result of the work of the dairy industry. 



In contrast with this, a new form of legislation has been 

 devised which may be summarized in the expression, "the grad- 

 ing of milk." This grading refers to the separation of the 

 product into several grades, according to the sanitary char- 

 acter of each. It is recognized that there may be innumerable 

 degrees of excellence between the most unsanitary and the most 

 sanitary milk produced, but for practical purposes it is suffi- 

 cient to establish arbitrarily only two or more such divisions. 

 The merits of the grading system do not appear until one fully 



