44 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDIES 
value, upon cleanliness and upon the germ content as affecting 
keeping quality and also as an index of healthfulness. 
After 1900 in milk inspection work attention was shifted 
from the city to the country. This shift was made possible 
by the development of the dairy score card.** The dairy 
score card was originally an attempt to assign such values 
to the equipment and methods employed in the dairy that the 
resulting score would give a correct index of the general 
desirability of the dairy. A dairy scoring 100 would be one 
in which all items were ideal. The score of actual dairies 
varied greatly but ordinary producing dairies had an average 
score of less than 50% which at once suggested that they were 
open to considerable improvement. 
There is little question but that the quality of milk is deter- 
mined by two general factors, heredity and environment; the 
former determines the food value of the milk and the latter 
controls healthfulness, cleanliness, and keeping quality. The 
score cards paid no attention to the food value of the milk 
but took account of the environmental factors. 
While Cairy svore cards were originally designed as 
measures of the general desirability of dairies, as such it is 
easy to sce how in the absence of better standards the dairy 
score was taken by health officials as an index of the quality 
of the milk produced from the dairy. The application of this 
new mcans of rating and improving milk supphes seemed so 
fascinatingly simple that the New York City Department of 
Health was given an initial appropriation of $100,000 with 
which to begin the system of farm inspection. 
The keen interest in this form of farm inspection lasted 
about a devade. During this time it was shown that when the 
dairy score became of financial importance to the producer, 
either because he was offered a bonus for high scores or be- 
cause he would be excluded from the market if his score was 
4tWm. C. Woodward, Ann. Rept. of the Health Officer, Dist. of Colum- 
bia, 25 (1903-4), p. 27, 1904. Another card independently proposed by 
Dr. R. .A. Pearson, Feb. 25, 1905. 
42 Geo. M. Whitaker, The Extra Cost of Producing Clean Milk, Ann, Rept. 
of Bureau, 26 (1909), pp, 119-131, 1911. 
