Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co, 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New-Yorker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
VoL. LXXVI. new YORK, MARCH 31, 1017. \o. 4 t23. 
An Example of “Barn Scoring” 
Rather Bored by the Health Board 
KQUIREMENa’S FOR GRADTXO.—It would 
.seem that something should be done towards 
the betterment of the methods used by tlie New 
York City Board of Health in scoring the barns and 
dairy herds of the dairymen furnishing milk to said 
city. Tliis score card is made up of 52 rul(‘s or 
(piestions, which are nothing less than rigid laws, 
GS% of which every dairyman sending milk into 
the city is obliged to live up to or take 10 cents less 
per hundred jwunds for his milk. This scoring of 
6S points or better is Grade “B” milk. Or if he 
fails to live up to 40% of tliese laws he is obliged 
to keep his milk at home. Milk between 40% and 
08% is known as Grade “C” milk. This is in face 
not the case. However, that makes no difference, 
and the in.spector go(‘s right ahead and fills out the 
questions, answering them himself: guessing at 
many of them and consequently making wrong <>n- 
tries. 
.V CAKE IN POINT.—On ,Iune 24, lOlo, a New 
York City inspector visited my barn. I was in the 
back field at work, at the time. Although he was 
told by my wife where I wa.s, apd lu* ouild also 
see me, he nnide no effort to intendew me. (Jet¬ 
ting from my wife my name and number of cows 
he bid her good-day and proceeded to inspect the 
barn (and cows?). My pasture is so situated that 
it is practically impossibh^ fo]’ me to drive my cows 
to the barn every night and morning to be milked, 
so I milk tho.se cows at the pasture, which, by the 
way, is something like half a mile from the barn. 
42.—Wall and ledges are not free from dirt 
and cobwc'bs . Zero 
40.—Matuire not removed to field daily. Zero 
48,—Milking stool.s are not clean.. Zero 
•“>().—Cows have not been tuberculin tested and 
all tuberculer cows rcnioveii. Zm-o 
ol.—Cows are all in good flesh and rontlition 
at time of inspection. 2 Points 
o2.—Cows are all free from clingin<j dirt and 
manure . 4 Points 
f>.3.—Tvong hairs are not kept sl>ort on udder, 
flank, belly and tail . Zero 
•">4.—Udder and teats of cows .ire not thor¬ 
oughly brushed rnd wijied with a clean 
damp cloth bofu.e mflking. Zero 
oO.—Milking is done with a dry hand. 2 Points 
57. —'Fore milk or first few streams from each 
teat is discarded. 2 Points 
58. —-Clothing of milkers is clean. 4 Point 
5!).—Facilities for washing hands of milkers 
are not provided for in cow barn or milk 
house . Zero 
All of the above .statements were made by thi.s in- 
Two Lewis County, N. Y. Ayrshires. Rosbioom 2d to Left; Daisy of Sunnymede to Right. Fig. 195 
of the fact that the dairyman has absolutely no 
voice in the construction of the.se laws. This comes 
pretty near to being “taxation without representa¬ 
tion,” something which, I always supposed, a 
bunch of fair-minded men knocked out back in 1770. 
UNSATISFACTORY INSPECTION.—And to add 
to this already bad state of affairs the producer 
must be subject to an interview by an inspector 
who, (as long as he has passed the civil service 
rules, which are also largely made by the above 
named Board of Healtli), no matter whether he can 
tell a cow from a sheep or a straw stack from a 
manure pile, he has the authority to enter your 
premises and demand whether you have lived up to 
these 52 laws. These questions are so worded that 
in order to be properly filled out by the inspector, 
the dairymen must be present but, ofttimes, such is 
Con.seipiently the entire herd is in the pasture from 
the time I turn them out in the Spring until I bring 
them back in the Fall. A pasture certainly is a 
clean place, and surely has as much light and ven¬ 
tilation as any barn, and nothing but the dairy 
herd is kept in my pasture. Yet this inspector cuts 
me down on ventilation and gave me a zero mark 
because I have “live stock other than cows in 
barn” and my cows for the five or six Summer 
months are never nearer than 120 rods of thi.s barn. 
Can there be anything more unfair tlian this? But 
wait, read on. This same inspector goes on filling 
out this score card of laws as follows, the same 
coming under the head of “Methods”: 
41. —Ceiling is free from hanging straws 
and cobwebs . 3 Points 
42. ^—Window panes not washed and kept 
clean . Zero 
spector notwithstanding the fact that at wo time 
during his visit at my farm was he nearer than 100 
rods of me, the only one that could answ'er some 
of these required statements, or within 120 rods of 
luy entire dairy herd. 
MEREI..Y (lUEKKWORK.—Some of these state¬ 
ments, rules or laws, whichever one wishes to call 
them, he gives me credit for. and others not. He 
was just .simply gue.s.sing at them. On this particu¬ 
lar score I got a mark of 58 points of the required 
08 nece.ssary to make Grade “B” milk. Previous to 
his visit I was getting “Grade B” price.s, or 75%, 
but after his report went in, as above stated, I was 
cut 10 cents jier hundred pounds. 
CARELEKK SCORING.—I would like to have 
some member of the New York City Boai-d of 
Health explain to me how this inspector could look 
