32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



would cost nearly or quite $1. If, in addition to the cost of 

 feeding cows and caring for them and their products in a 

 very ordinary way, there should be added the cost of clean- 

 liness of healthy cows, proper equipment and clean methods, 

 who can justly complain ? 



Fortunately, the price of cleanliness plus the bare cost of 

 production and distribution need not be so great as to impose 

 any hardship on the consiimer. He may not then, as now, 

 when he buys milk, be able to get a full dollar's worth of food 

 material for HO cents, but he will be able to buy milk, and 

 clean, safe milk, too, at bargain prices. 



Fundamentally, there is no good reason why the milk prob- 

 lem from the sandpoint of the producer, the dealer and the 

 consumer should not be solved in a practical way and on an 

 equitable basis, for so long as the actual food value of milk 

 that can be purchased for a given sum remains higher than 

 that of most foods, just so long will there be an opportunity 

 to meet an increased cost of production, and, from a sanitary 

 standpoint, to improve the supply without undue hardship 

 to the ultimate consumer. 



llr. Smith. The subject is now open for discussion. 



Mr. Geokge Alrkee. I desire to have a personal word 

 with the members of the Board of Agriculture. You are 

 doubtless aware that a meeting was called on the 25th of 

 September by the Iloston board of health for the purpose 

 of arranging some plan by which the milk producer in ]^ew 

 England could come directly in contact with the consumer. 

 Having given the matter some considerable thought, I was 

 induced to make a proposition to the mayor of Boston for 

 two reasons: first, that my dairy might be re-established; 

 and second, to assist in the solution of that great question. 

 My proposition was, fii-st, to determine as to whether or not 

 this much-mooted question of purity cut any figure at all, so 

 far as the consumer was concerned, in influencing the price 

 which he or she might be willing to pay for milk. I there- 

 fore made some self-imposed conditions which I believe will 

 never be imposed by any regulating board in Massachusetts. 



