CLEAN MILK 167 



consumption of milk. It is also helpful, in that it gives a 

 reason for increasing the price of milk. The consumer is 

 not apt to begrudge one or two cents more a quart for milk 

 from a dairy scoring eighty or ninety per cent. 



One of the first questions to arise where the score-card 

 system is introduced is. What shall be the lowest average 

 which a dairy may score and still be permitted to sell milk? 

 No specific limit can be stated which will apply generally, 

 for the reason that the averages depend upon the partic- 

 ular score card that is used, upon the value of the various 

 items upon the score card, upon the general tenor of the 

 inspection as to laxity or strictness, and many other fac- 

 tors. As a general proposition it may be stated that dairies 

 that score above ninety on a basis of one hundred per cent 

 are establishments in the pink of condition where every 

 known sanitary requirement is carried out with scrupu- 

 lous care. These are the model establishments. Dairies 

 that score between eighty and ninety are good, high class, 

 and sanitary in almost all particulars and equipped to 

 produce clean, safe milk. Dairies that score between 

 seventy and eighty still belong to the reasonably good and 

 clean class, and the milk they produce may be accepted 

 for general market purposes. As soon as a dairy scores 

 below seventy, it begins to come into the doubtful class. 

 Below sixty, something is radically wrong, and dairies 

 scoring under fifty should, under no circumstances, be 

 allowed to send their product to the market. Mr. Weld 

 states that the average score of the certified dairies scat- 

 tered over the entire country is about 91 points out of 

 a possible one hundred. The average score of the dairies 

 connected with a dozen agricultural colleges and experi- 

 ment stations was found to be about 72 points. Mr. Weld 

 also reports that the Department of Agriculture at Wash- 

 ington has on record the score of about 30,000 dairy 

 farms which were inspected diu"ing the year 1910, and 

 these averaged between 51 and 52 points. 



