56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The Reasonableness of Clean Milk. 



To lay aside all sentiment, for love can neither be measured 

 nor weighed, the naked truth remains that our children are 

 the highest priced domestic stock we have, and that their 

 quality and often their lives are continually threatened by the 

 poor quality of milk fed them ; and that it is cheaper in dol- 

 lars and cents to keep them well on clean food than to try to 

 make them well on drug-store dope. 



The cost of producing such clean milk is considerable, as 

 will immediately be argued. Just how much more cost is 

 added because of the extra labor involved in producing a clean 

 rather than a common article will always be very variable, 

 and is hard to state with any high degree of accuracy, but 

 that such ad(le<l cost is more than the present profits in the 

 industry is painfully certain. It requires a greater expen- 

 diture for equipment, and a constant and much greater ex- 

 penditure for labor, besides a considerably more thorough 

 education in the business, which may cost more dollars to ac- 

 quire. I maintain, however, that the extra cost of producing 

 clean milk, when added to the present cost of producing plain 

 milk, does not cause the resulting product to be as expensive 

 a food, even for the adult, as other foods of similar value ; 

 and too, when our people come to a full understanding of this 

 matter, and will cease demanding a milk rich in fat regard- 

 less of how rich it may also be in dirt, and will demand clean- 

 liness instead, the extra cost of such cleanly production may 

 be partly compensated by a lessened fat content, and thereby 

 work a double benefit, for the milk as food for children will 

 be more valuable because of the absence of both some fat and 

 much dirt. 



Adults. — Too often milk is thought of as a drink, as a 

 mere beverage, although we know, when we stop to think of 

 it, that such vegetables as the carrot, parsnip, cabbage and 

 pumpkin all carry a higher percentage of water than does 

 ordinary milk; or, in other words, 100 pounds of milk has 

 more dry matter and mnch more actual food in it than 100 

 pounds of carrots and parsnips. 



