FROM FARM TO CONSUMER 249 



to the situation. With milk, as with almost everything 

 else, we get what we pay for; no more; sometimes less. It is 

 cheap to buy good milk; it is expensive to buy bacteria 

 and dirt. 



Milking the cow — resemblance to a surgical operation 



The day has long gone by when any member of the house- 

 hold or one of the farmhands runs over to the barn in the 

 morning and again in the evening to milk the cows, without 

 any special preparation or precautions — in a dirty barn 

 where the cows are kept with horses, with a lean-to for 

 the chicken roost and a manure pile outside the door, and 

 the pig-pen near by. Perhaps the water comes from 

 a shallow well a few feet from the privy, with every 

 chance of becoming contaminated; there are no facilities 

 for heating water to cleanse the milk pails and cans, no 

 milk room, insufficient means for cooling milk, and a gen- 

 eral lack of facilities. These old-fashioned methods may 

 satisfy the personal needs of the small farm where milk is 

 only a by-product and the yield is all used upon the prem- 

 ises, but just as soon as the milk is shipped to village, town, 

 or city, another responsibility enters that cannot be ignored. 

 The domestic arrangements must be kept separate from 

 the milk industry. Therein lies one of the chief dangers of 

 infecting the supply. The milker must be cleanly in his 

 habits, and should be intelligent enough to understand 

 what it is all about. Above all, the milker should be con- 

 scientious enough to wash his hands, and use the same care 

 at four o'clock of a winter's morning, when no one is look- 

 ing, as he does on a bright summer's afternoon in the pre- 

 sence of a gallery. 



It is the general practice to have a man milk for only a 

 few hours each day, as it is commonly believed that it is 

 not possible for any man, however strong, to continue the 

 muscular effort required for a longer period of time. It is 

 also the common practice to require the milker to perform 



