GENERAL CONSIDEBATIONS 15 



the part of the producer will often furnish us a better milk 

 than can be obtained through the prodding of board of 

 health inspectors. 



The following course of events is not an unusual one : A 

 careful and conscientious individual enters the milk busi- 

 ness fully alive to the possibilities. He is painstaking, and 

 scrupulously puts into practice all that has been taught 

 him. One daysomething goes wrong; a slip occurs; the milk 

 nevertheless is sent to market and is consumed as usual. 

 Nothing out of the way takes place; no one gets sick; no 

 one dies as a consequence. This little experience naturally 

 makes the individual think that the dangers have been ex- 

 aggerated. Time wears on and other lapses occur; again 

 without direful consequences. Conscience is thus dulled 

 and there is now danger of going to the other extreme, 

 namely, underrating the danger. Slipshod methods may go 

 on without menacing health or life for years, but some day 

 the catastrophe occurs. The volcano gives no warning of 

 its eruption. 



Cooperation 



Competition is not the life of trade in the milk industry. 

 Competition accounts for a certain amount and kind of 

 "life" in milk — namely, bacterial life. In other words, 

 commercial competition hurts the quantity and the 

 quality of the milk supply. Cooperation is the watch- 

 word. 



In every discussion of the milk question, either at na- 

 tional, state, or local societies, at farmers' granges, at sci- 

 entific meetings, etc., one thing is unanimously urged and 

 that is cooperation. Even the Federal Government ap- 

 proves and insists upon cooperation as one of the neces- 

 sary reforms in the milk industry, but as soon as the 

 dairymen get together an action is brought against them 

 for combination in restraint of trade; even the same thing 

 has taken place with the farmers. 



