PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION 153 



-pect the farmer to carry out all the necessary details of cleanliness 

 unless he can really afford to do so. The actual price at which 

 •certified milk retails varies in various cities from eight to thirty 

 ■cents per quart. Rich milk, as milk containing five per cent, fat, 

 should bring a higher price, though it is not preferable for infant 

 food — rather the reverse, as we have noted. 



In this vicinity there has been an attempt to employ one farm 

 as a bottling station in which the utensils of all the farms are 

 washed and sterilized and to which milk, which has been milked 

 ■and cooled at neighboring farms, is brought. AVhen the milk was 

 supplied by the farm doing the bottling, and one other about a 

 mile away, the result was very good. The highest number of 

 bacteria in the milk bottled from these two farms was 17,000 per 

 cubic centimeter during six months. Pressure being brought to 

 bear to increase the milk supply, several more farms were taken 

 into the combination with disastrous results. This unfortunate 

 outcome was largely due to the fact that the owners of the farms 

 which were taken into the combination last had not time given 

 them to arrange their barns and milk-rooms properly, and had 

 not got into the routine necessary to produce clean milk. Whether 

 an arrangement of this kind for producing certified milk is wholly 

 practicable is somewhat doubtful. There are so many more op- 

 portunities for contamination of the milk with dirt and germs. If 

 a like attempt is elsewhere undertaken, the milk from each farm 

 should be examined once a week before bottling it and mixing- 

 it with milk from the other farms, to ascertain the number of 

 bacteria and the amount of fat in the milk. The plan has the 

 advantage of bringing several farmers to a higher standard than 

 would otherwise be possible, and enables the farmer who supplies 

 all the dairy apparatus to make a more economical use of his plant. 



The central plant, at which all milk pails, strainers, cans and 

 other milk utensils are washed and sterilized before each milking, 

 may be a creamery. Farmers should deliver milk within an hour 



