60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



milked last night and this morning. Do you take a longer 

 time than that to get your milk supply to Boston? 



Professor Sedgwick. That is true of some of the New 

 York milk. Some is a great deal older. I was assured by 

 Inspector Martin of the Board of Health in New York, a very 

 able man, that a great deal of the milk that gets to New York 

 at midnight is night's milk and this morning's milk. I do 

 not know what per cent. Obviously not nearly the whole 

 of it. But the Boston milk delivered at the same time 

 to-morrow morning arrived in Boston this mornino; at ten 

 o'clock, and some of it was this morning's milk, some last 

 night's milk and some of it still older. Mr. Whitaker will 

 correct me if I am wrong. 



Mr. Whitaker. I would like to ask one question which 

 perhaps is not exactly in Professor Sedgwick's line. Would 

 not an afternoon delivery in daylight tend to throw daylight 

 on some of the methods that are not now in sight ? If the 

 milk was delivered by daylight instead of by night, the 

 chances for the hired man to adulterate it would be less. 



Professor Sedgwick. I think the question is answered in 

 itself. The contractors' reply would be that it is essential 

 to the present system that the work should be done in the 

 night, because if the man who goes with the wagon were to 

 suffer any interruptions, if he were to stop and talk with the 

 servant girls, or some one in another wagon (not a milk 

 wagon, for there is supposed to be no other), he would not 

 be able to deliver the milk, and I suppose their profits would 

 fall off and the price of milk would rise. Grave consequences, 

 according to this contractor, would follow. I think it would 

 be a good plan, but it would look a little queer to see wagons 

 going around in the middle of the afternoon, and we should 

 have to get used to it. The milk I buy comes to the house 

 about eleven o'clock in the morning, but I would just as soon 

 it would come at three or four in the afternoon. 



Secretary Sessions. There was an effort made a few years 

 ago to require the contractors to clean the cans before send- 

 ing them to the farmers. I remember at the hearing the plea 

 of the contractors was that it would be a great trouble to 

 them, that it would disarrange their business and require them 

 to keep another man, and the final result would be that they 

 would have to reduce the price they paid the farmers at least 



