FROM FARM TO CONSUMER 255 



economic use of his surplus. The large contractor finds it 

 profitable to make by-products, such as butter, cheese, 

 buttermilk, casein, milk sugar, etc. Also, he can dispose 

 of skim milk and whey to better advantage than the small 

 dealer. From the standpoint of human nature it is perhaps 

 better to place all our eggs in one basket and then watch 

 that basket. The sanitary conscience of a large contractor 

 is in the public eye and he can ill afford not to comply with 

 the requirements of progress. In Boston the large con- 

 tractors have been forces for good in favoring constructive 

 legislation, in fostering research, in educating both the 

 public and the farmer, and in other useful ways. 



When the large dairyman effects economy at the expense 

 of eflSciency he will usually find it to be an expensive pro- 

 cess in the end, if not a dangerous one. The narrow margin 

 of profit at which the milk business is carried on demands 

 careful economy at every step. Thus drip machines have 

 been devised so as to obtain the last drop of milk left in the 

 cans after the contents have been poured out. This saving 

 corresponds to the thumbing of egg-shells in order to save 

 the egg-white that adheres to the shell. No serious objec- 

 tion can be had to these practices if carried out in a cleanly 

 manner, but sometimes the saving of money results in the 

 losing of quality. Thus I have in mind complicated regen- 

 erators in which the warm milk is utilized to heat the on- 

 coming cold milk. The cold milk in turn cools the warm 

 milk, thus saving so much steam and ice. These regener- 

 ators work entirely satisfactorily from a physical and 

 economic standpoint, but are complicated, difficult to 

 clean, and are apt to add bacteria to the milk. 



Care of the milk in the household — the responsibility of the 

 consumer 



The farmer is inclined to hold the consumer responsible 

 for the troubles which the consumer complains of. When 

 milk sours, when sickness occurs as a result of using infected 



