CHAPTER I. 



Being a Statement of the Formation of the Commission, the 

 Importance of the Subject from the Standpoint of Health and 

 Commerce and an Outline of the Plan of Enquiry. 



Hon. J. S. Duff, Minister of Agriculture, Toronto, Ontario. 



We, the members of your Milk Commission, hereby beg leave to submit our 

 Report. 



At the outset, we take the liberty of recalling to your mind the circumstances 

 surrounding the instigation of the enquiry on which we have been engaged during 

 the past few months. The ever increasing and world-wide attention which has been 

 devoted to the question of safeguarding the milk supply in recent years found ex- 

 pression on the floor of the Ontario Legislature at its Session of 1909. On the first 

 of April, W. K. McNaught, member for North Toronto, seconded by J. R. Dargavel, 

 member for Leeds', moved that a Commission be appointed to investigate "the 

 methods whereby clean, wholesome and sanitary milk is being successfully supplied 

 to consumers in this or any other country and to make a report." This resolution 

 was accepted by the Government and unanimously passed by the Legislature. In 

 accordance therewith an Order-in-Council was approved on the fourteenth day 

 of May, naming the Commission and setting forth their instructions as follows: 

 " To enquire into the conditions and methods whereby milk is now being pro- 

 duced, cared for and supplied to the people of the Province for domestic consump- 

 tion and manufacturing purposes; to investigate the methods whereby clean, 

 wholesome, sanitary milk is being successfully supplied to consumers in this or 

 any other country, and to make a report as to their findings in the matter, to- 

 gether with such recommendations as may be considered advisable." 



MILLIONS INVOLVED IN DAIRY INDUSTRY. 



A preliminary word may be said as to the vast importance of the milk ques- 

 tion judged both from the standpoint of commerce and of health. According to 

 the latest available figures there are 1,200,000 milch cows in the Province. That 

 in itself represents an investment of approximately $40,000,000, not including the 

 value of the stables, milk houses and other equipment. In 1908, there were 1,177 

 cheese factories and 97 creameries, to which were delivered 166,103,975 gallons 

 of milk. This was made into 120,624,436 pounds of cheese and 9,895,109 pounds 

 of butter, representing a value of $13,106,919 and $2,355,170, respectively, aggre- 

 gating $15,462,089. In addition, there is the large quantity of butter made on 

 the farm and sold direct to the market, of which no estimate can be made. Then, 

 there is the milk which is sold for immediate human consumption, and almost 

 every person uses milk in some form or other and to greater or lesser extent. On 

 the basis of figures furnished by some Ontario cities, it is estimated that 36,464 

 gallons are used per day in the eighteen cities of this Province, with a combined 

 population of 687,814, At an average of 13 cents per gallon, this means $1,630,216 

 to the dairy farmers supplying cities each year. As 26 cents a gallon is a moder- 

 ate estimate of the amount paid by the consumer, it will be seen that the city 

 milk supply represents another $1,630,000 annually to the vendor and middleman. 

 At the same ratio for the entire Province, supplying milk would mean an annual 

 revenue of $6,120,320 to the producer, but as the consumption in rural districts 

 very greatly exceeds the average in the city, the sum must be placed far in excess 



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