184 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



milch cows upon its own farm and supplies its hospitals 

 and asylum, in addition to which it sells milk and 

 butter to the value of something like $12,500 per 

 annum.* The city of Reading conducts a dairy farm 

 in connection with its sewage farm,' as also does 

 the city of Birmingham, which sold in 1903-1904 

 over sixty thousand gallons of milk, valued at about 

 $9470." These English cities have, it seems to me, 

 begun at the right end. Instead of attempting the 

 impossible task of municipalizing all the milk trade, 

 they have started by supplying their own wants and 

 selling only the surplus. The result of these ex- 

 periments has been that, in addition to securing 

 a safe and wholesome supply for the municipal and 

 other hospitals and similar institutions, they have 

 provided private producers with a useful object 

 lesson, a standard of cleanliness and scientific, methods 

 of the highest value. 



No matter how carefully drawn the contracts 

 which our public institutions make with farmers 

 and milk dealers may be, nor how honest and com- 

 petent the system of inspection employed, these 

 are not sufficient. They have not proved sufficient 

 either in this country or in Europe. All the processes 

 involved in the production of the milk used in such 

 important institutions ought to be under such direct 

 control and supervision of the sanitary authority 

 as is impossible, except at a ruinous and needless 



