UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 585 
Contribution from the Bureau of Animal Industry 
A. D. MELVIN, Chief, and the Bureau of 
Chemistry, CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief 
Washington, D C. V October 18, 1917 
A GUIDE FOR FORMULATING A MILK ORDINANCE. 
PREPARED IN THE DAIRY DIVISION OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY 
AND IN THE BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY. 
For the proper safeguarding of the milk supply of a community 
a suitable and enforceable law must first be enacted. In general this 
law must cover three distinct phases: First, fraud; second, disease; 
and third, cleanliness in the production and handling of milk. One 
of the most important considerations must be the reasonableness of 
the law. A law which works a special hardship on a legitimate in- 
dustry is not reasonable, and a law so stringent that it can not readily 
be enforced will defeat its own ends. 
A study 1 of the milk ordinances of a great many cities, large and 
small, shows that there is a great diversity of opinion among the law- 
makers and their advisers as to what constitutes a proper milk ordi- 
nance. There is certainly a great lack of uniformity among the 
laws, some of which are entirely out of date. Many of them seem to 
be transcripts of ordinances in force in other cities, placed in the 
municipal series of laws without regard to local conditions. Some of 
them contain provisions which are unnecessary and unreasonable and 
which can not be enforced. * 
There has been a constant demand on the Dairy Division of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry by municipal authorities for some form 
of milk ordinance which will best meet the requirements necessary 
to obtain a good, clean, safe milk supply, and which can be used as a 
guide for local communities. 
In a strict sense it is impossible to frame a milk ordinance, with 
its definitions, standards, and requirements, which will be suitable 
for all communities. On the other hand, a general skeleton form 
may be made that can be used as a framework upon which to build 
a finished, practicable, operative law. No local lawmaking body 
should attempt to draft a milk ordinance, with its standards, grades, 
and requirements, unless it is entirely familiar with local dairy and 
milk conditions, as well as with the purposes and intent of such an 
ordinance. A special study by competent authority should be made. 
1 Report of the Committee on Statistics of Milk and Cream Regulations of the Official 
Dairy Instructors' Association, printed in vol. 1, No. 1 (May, 1917), Journal of Dairy Science. 
4565°— 17 
