HANDBOOK OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. 6 t 



there is still ample opportunity within our borders for the 

 successful operation of dairies devoted to the production of 

 high-grade butter. 



In the meantime the purely industrial and commercial 

 population had rapidly increased, and milk contractors of 

 New York, Boston, and Providence sought some of their milk 

 supply in this State. As the demand for milk increased, the 

 interest in butter production subsided. In the midst of this 

 transition the well-known record of Connecticut men to be in 

 advance is being well sustained. The deductions of bacteri- 

 ologists are being introduced as rapidly as the consumers of 

 milk will approve and support, and the output of hygienic and 

 sanitary milk is rapidly becoming established. 



In reference to the actual control of the hygienic quality 

 of milk, credit must be accorded to a Connecticut dairy as 

 occupying the most advanced position. The proprietor of 

 one of our dairies conceived the benefits derivable from the 

 daily bacteriological examination of milk produced to estab- 

 lish the care and efficiency of the labor bestowed in its pro- 

 duction. For this purpose a bacteriological laboratory was 

 equipped at the farm and has now been operated nearly two 

 years for the daily examination of milk. 



Our knowledge has been deficient regarding the relation 

 of milk to the public health, but at the dawn of the twentieth 

 century we are emerging from some of the fallacious tradi- 

 tions which have attended milk production, and are just en- 

 tering an era of greater possibilities and activities than was 

 ever accorded our progenitors. 



