ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 141 



rier. They have learned that certain diseases of animals may 

 be transmitted to the consumers of their products, and that the 

 diseases of the laborers in a dairy may be carried in the same 

 way. And these fears are emphasized by the not infrequent re- 

 ports of outbreaks of diphtheria or typhoid fever, said to have 

 been started from infected milk, or by the occasional action of a 

 Board of Health or Milk Inspector in quarantining a certain sec- 

 tion of country from which comes a considerable part of a city's 

 milk supply, on account of a disease reported to be prevalent 

 there among the cattle. The fears sometimes develop into wide- 

 spread alarm and there is a great decrease in milk consumption. 

 Many persons who can get along without milk stop it entirely, 

 others use the smallest amount possible. The dairymen have 

 large surplusses on hand and are great losers. Usually as the 

 scare subsides the amount of milk used increases but the harm 

 cannot be wholly overcome. It is unfortunate that there is some 

 foundation for such apprehension. Milk has been the means of 

 conveying disease to its consumer, but pure milk has never done 

 so; it has always been milk that was contaminated in some way 

 which might have been avoided. This fact seems simple enough 

 but it is somehow as easy to forget it as it is to see its truth. 



Another cause of the small consumption of milk of equal and 

 perhaps greater importance than the one last named, is the 

 difficulty which many city people have found in getting a pure, 

 clean and satisfactory article at all times. We know too well 

 that all the milk sent from the farm is not what it should be. 

 Some of it is not clean and there is just enough such milk to do 

 great harm in the market. Impure milk and dirty milk are the 

 bane of the city milk business. An English paper expresses the 

 condition of a part of the milk served in their market by saying, 

 ' * The Briton drinks a glass of milk as nearly as he can to the 

 bottom; but is warned off by a sediment which the naked eye 

 can detect, and which produces a shudder." The same might 

 be said of some that is sold in our cities. When a sensitive 

 person has drank a few glasses of such milk he is usually ready 

 to give up milk as a beverage. We commonly meet persons 

 who have become so disgusted in their attempts to make milk a 



