180 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



machines, are as yet in the experimental stage. In 

 short, the production of pure milk is up to the pres- 

 ent a laboratory achievement, not an industrial and 

 commercial result, ripe for collective ownership and 

 control. 



In many of our smaller towns and cities, and in 

 rural districts, a considerable proportion of the milk 

 used is a home product, many families keeping cows 

 for their own service. In such cases, as a general 

 rule, the conditions under which the milk is produced 

 are even worse than are common in the commercial 

 production of milk. Adulteration and the use of 

 preservatives are, naturally, practically never known 

 when people own their own cows: but the stables 

 are often filthy in the extreme; the animals are not 

 well cared for, are specially subject to tuberculosis 

 as a result of being badly housed; the equipment is 

 often of the poorest kind, and the ignorance of milk 

 hygiene so great that the contamination of the milk 

 to an unusual extent seems to be almost inevitable. 

 Furthermore, there is practically no inspection of 

 the milk produced in these cases, no check upon the 

 quality either as regards the content of fat or of pus 

 and dirt. The most thoroughgoing advocates of the 

 municipalization of the milk supply would not, pre- 

 sumably, go so far as to insist upon the suppression 

 of this private production for home consumption, so 

 that their plan would still leave very serious avenues 



