SANITARY INSPECTION AND ITS BEARING ON CLEAN MILK. 
By Ed. H. Webster, 
Chief of Dairy Division , Bureau of Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture. 
In discussing this subject it will be assumed that the herd is in per- 
fect condition as regards health, that there are no persons employed 
in or about the dairy suffering from any communicable disease, and 
that the water supply has been examined and found pure. This 
assumption is made with the understanding that if any of these con- 
ditions are not complied with the milk will be debarred from the 
market, or under certain prescribed regulations be allowed sale after 
pasteurization. 
CLEAN MILK. 
It is evident that in nature’s scheme for the nourishment of the 
young milk was never intended to see the light of day, and if suckled 
from a normal, healthy gland is the perfect food for the offspring. 
In this natural method of nourishment there is little possibility of 
contamination from outside sources. As soon as the artificial method 
of drawing milk is resorted to there enters a whole set of conditions 
entirely new and different. The milk then comes in contact with the 
air, the vessel into which it is drawn, and with particles of dirt from 
many sources. 
The problem of securing clean milk — i. e., milk as near as possible to 
the condition as it exists in the udder — is the problem of dairy sani- 
tation. To put it in another way, it is the problem of reducing con- 
tamination from all outside sources to the least possible factor. 
WHAT IS CONTAMINATION. 
If the mere presence of solid particles of dirt so frequently found 
in the milk were the only damage wrought, the question would resolve 
itself into the simple operation of straining or passing the milk 
through a clarifier. The presence of solid dirt is, however, an indica- 
tion of much more serious conditions. Bacteriology teaches that 
( 559 ) 
