36 



to cows huddled together in close unsanitary stables, usually in or near 

 the large cities. The result of this was a quality of milk which wi'ought 

 havoc among the consumers. The mortality among children under five 

 years of age in the cities of New York and Philadelphia in 1814 was 

 around 25 per cent., and in Boston was ai'ound 30 per cent, of the total 

 deaths. As the distillery business developed, bj' 1840, among children 

 of like age in New York and Philadelphia the mortality had reached 

 over 50 per cent, of the total deaths, and in Boston was over 40 per cent. 

 These figures were held with more or less variation for a number of 

 years. The report of the board of health of the city of Boston for 1904 

 shows the gradual imijrovement during the last thirty years in the care 

 and feeding of children in that city by the following mortalitj' figures: 

 1875, 43.84 percent.; 1880, 39.26 per cent. ; 1885, 36.03 per cent. ; 1890, 

 32.89 per cent. ; 1895, 34,73 per cent. ; 1900, 32.13 per cent. ; and 1904, 

 28.87 per cent. New York and Philadelphia show similar improvement. 



There can be no doubt but that this change for the better, shown by 

 these statistics, is in no small degree due to the improvement of the 

 farm conditions and the wisdom of our laws and health regulations, and 

 the educational efforts which have been put forth by interested persons. 



When the regulation of the evils ensuing on the feeding of distillery 

 slop to dairy cows, and the inhumane and unsanitary housing and care of 

 such cows, and the mortality of the young children was from 40 to 50 per 

 cent, of total deaths, the conditions were much 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 con- 

 tractors had the milk from the entire number of farmers, 119, furnishing 

 him milk from a single town, examined for bacteria, and found that 

 only 2h per cent, were outside the Boston requii'ements and 83 per cent, 

 were below one-tenth of these same I'equirements. 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 find- 

 ing of filthy conditions in isolated dairies, thus magnifying the condition 

 as a whole to make it appear inversely 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 much as possible. But good as present conditions 

 are, we want better. 



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

 my sympathy. For years I was one myself. I am not going to decry a 

 separate stable for the cattle, or the wing attachment to the hay barn. 



