1909 MILK COMMISSION. 



Per cent. 



Water 87.2 



Butter fat 3.7 



Casein 3. 



Milk sugar 4.9 



Albumen 5 



Ash , 7 



Cow's milk especially constitutes the food of infants because it more closely re- 

 sembles mother's milk than the milk of any other animal, with the possible excep- 

 tion of the goat. But, unfortunately, milk has also been found to be one of the 

 best mediums for the. development and dissemination of germs, tuberculosis, 

 typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, being chief of the diseases which scien- 

 tists have found to be conveyed by milk. Hence, while certain bacteria have proved 

 of tremendous advantage in the making of cheese and butter, other bacteria have 

 rendered the utmost vigilance essential in preserving milk in its natural purity. 

 While milk is not often absolutely germless when it comes from the cow, experi- 

 ments have proven it to be almost so, providing, of course, that the cow is healthy. 

 Hence, since legislation follows the scientist, legislative bodies everywhere have 

 directed their attention to devising plans for safeguarding the milk supply that 

 the health of their people might be protected as well as their prosperity advanced. 



INTEREST OF THE CONSUMER PARAMOUNT. 



In undertaking, therefore, the enquiry of this question, it seemed to your 

 Commission more a matter for personal observation than the taking of evidence. 

 Being represented as most in need of attention, the supply of milk for human 

 consumption has received chief attention. The menace of milk being measured 

 to a large extent by the length of time elapsing between the time it is 1 drawn and 

 consumed, the problem resolved itself into one primarily affecting large centres 

 of population. Here two courses were open: one consisted in making detailed 

 examination of the conditions prevailing at each dairy farm and each distributing 

 plant and bacteriological tests of the milk of each city. Such an exhaustive 

 enquiry we did not conceive to be either practical or necessary. We were approach- 

 ing the matter from the Provincial standpoint, not from the standpoint of any 

 individual city or town. A study of the by-laws of each municipality, a general 

 observation at first hand of conditions prevailing under such by-laws, a knowledge 

 of laws and conditions in other countries and some attention to the scientific side 

 of the question these things seemed calculated to enable us to devise a provin- 

 cial policy under which the various municipalities 1 could secure a safe milk supply 

 for their people. Accordingly, this was the line of enquiry adopted. 



The subject we found was many-sided. It involves 1 the practical knowledge 

 of the farmer in the breeding and feeding of cattle and the handling of milk; the 

 organizing and executive talent of the retailer; the hygiene of the sanitarian; the 

 science of the bacteriologist, the veterinarian and the medical man, the safeguards 

 of the health officer and the legislative powers of municipalities. Each of these 

 speaks" in a technical language more or less its own. While giving due weight to 

 all interests, this report is drafted, not as a technical treatise, but with a view 

 to the interests and understanding of the consumer, the average man who knows 

 little about the difficulties of dairying or the intricacies of bacteriology, but who 

 knows he warit.s clean, wholesome milk and who thinks 'he ought to he able to 

 get it. 



