288 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



as in production. The small farmer and the small 

 retailer must go ! 



The amount of work performed by these city inspec- 

 tors in New York is enormous. Figures give a very 

 inadequate idea of the work, though the fact that they 

 make annually something like one hundred and six- 

 teen thousand inspections is impressive. Still, it is 

 recognized that work is inadequately done, and the 

 constant cry is for more inspection — for more money 

 and more men. Sometimes the cry is raised that men 

 should be taken away from the country work and used 

 in the city, but those who raise the cry have never 

 taken the trouble to understand the situation. Noth- 

 ing could be more foolish than to lessen the rigidity 

 of the inspection at the farms and creameries. So 

 long as our milk supply continues to be produced as at 

 present there will always be the necessity of a very 

 costly system of inspection. 



To realize the great importance of the country in- 

 spection one has only need to consider the case with 

 which the outside work of the New York Health 

 Department practically began. It occurred toward 

 the end of 1904. One of the inspectors went into 

 a creamery and found the manager in the act of adul- 

 terating the milk. In the centre of the creamery 

 there was a well which acted as a cesspool for the 

 drainage from a badly broken and filth-saturated 

 floor. Off from the main room of the creamery, in 



