UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



jiW5-'^>-a. 



ULLETIN No. 356 



Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 A. D. MELVIN, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



March 7, 1916 



MILK AND CREAM CONTESTS. 



By Ernest Kelly, in Charge of Market Milk Investigations, and L. B. Cook and 

 J. A. Gamble, Market Milk Specialists, Dairy Division. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



National contests 2 



How contests are conducted 4 



Educational features 11 



List of exhibitions 12 



Page. 



Average scores of recent contests 15 



Benefltsof milk contests to dairymen 17 



Extracts from letters 18 



Suggestions for production of contest milk. . . 19 



INTRODUCTION. 



Among those engaged in the production of sanitary milk there is 

 an axiom that '^ education accomphshes more than legislation." To 

 a certain point law can be applied; glaringly insanitary conditions 

 and willful wrongdoing can be severely dealt with, but after a certain 

 degree of cleanliness has been reached much of the subsequent 

 improvement must be based upon the. incentive offered the producers 

 to go to more trouble and expense to improve the product. 



For the purpose of teaching producers the fundamentals of clean- 

 milk production, as well as offering them an incentive, the plan of 

 holding milk and cream contests was devised. On February 14-24, 

 1906, during the National Dairy Show in Chicago, 111., the first milk 

 and cream contest was held. A tentative score card was devised 

 for rating the samples, and from time to time, as defects were demon- 

 strated, this card has been modified. From the beginning rapid 

 progress has been made and in the nine years from February, 1906, 

 to February, 1915, 87 such contests have been judged by members 

 of the Dairy Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



In March, 1907, with the belief that these contests would aid 

 greatly in improving the milk supply of a city, the first city milk 



Note. — This bulletin is of interest to dairymen generally, and especially to those who are engaged in 

 improving the output of their establishments. 

 22097°— Bull. 356—16 — -1 



