CHAPTER XXXVI 

 MARKET MILK 



By market milk is meant that milk which is consumed in 

 the form of milk, chiefly in cities and towns. 



The importance of this phase of the dairy industry has not 

 been fully appreciated by the producers of milk, by the con- 

 sumers, or by the state institutions giving instruction in the 

 various phases of dairy husbandry. From government figures it 

 appears that 421/) p er cen t f a ]j the milk produced by the nearly 

 twenty-two million dairy cows in the United States, is sent to 

 town to be used as milk, cream or condensed milk, the remaining 

 57 1 /. per cent being made into butter (45%), ice cream (6%) 

 or cheese (4%). Just what portion of the 42!/o per cent used 

 as market milk is sold as cream and what portion as milk has not 

 been shown, but from figure® at hand it would seem that more 

 than half of the fat sold in the two has been sold in milk. Conse- 

 quently, therefore, about 30 per cent of the total milk flow finds 

 its way to the consumer as milk. Although this quantity would 

 give to each individual less than a pint a day it is well known 

 that adults, as a rule, consume small quantities of milk, and that 

 the major portion purchased in homes is. used as food for infants 

 and young children. In this connection it is more than of in- 

 terest to note that fully two-thirds of the 2,250,000 infants in 

 the United States, or 1,500,000, are being raised wholly, or 

 very largely, upon the milk of the cow rather than at the breast. 

 The likelihood of death during the first year of infants so reared 

 is also known to be about nine times as great as those nourished 

 on mother's milk. It is evident, therefore, that the proper pro- 

 duction, care and use of the 30 per cent used as infant food is 

 of more vital consequence that the remaining 70 per cent which 

 is being consumed by adults as cream, butter or cheese. Since 

 this minor quantity is of major value, measured in consequences, 

 every milk producer should know more exactly what the conse- 

 quences of inferior milk are. It, has been demonstrated that 



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