2 
STUDIES OF USE OF MILK. 
or 10.7 per cent, are getting fresh milk in combination with other foods: and 49, or 
14.5 per cent, are sharing the meals provided for the older members of the family, 
which may or may not include milk in the preparation of other foods. Eight of the 
children, or about 2.4 per cent, are receiving condensed milk. 
New Orleans families purchase an exceptionally large amount of canned milk. 
The average weekly purchase of the families studied was 3.4 cans, as compared with 
1.6 cans in Baltimore and 0.74 in Washington. This large purchase is undoubtedly 
due in part to the fact that fresh milk is expensive and hard to keep in the hot cli¬ 
mate of New Orleans, and in part to the fact that mothers do not fully realize the 
superiority of clean.milk over any substitute that may be provided. 
While the families studied represent only a small proportion of the New Orleans 
families having little children, they may be considered a representative group. 
Most of the parents are of native birth. In only 17 families are the parents foreign 
born, and in only 5 are they negroes. Although no definite information was received 
concerning incomes, the families are of about the same economic status as those 
included in the Washington study, where more than three-fourths of the families 
were living on $20 a week or less. Like the Washington and Baltimore mothers, 
however, the New Orleans mothers included in the study may be considered as per¬ 
haps a little more aware of the importance of milk for children than the average mother 
in similar circumstances, who has not had the benefit of the advice of visiting nurses 
concerning the diet of her children. 
To the influence of the nurses of the Child Welfare Association may be traced the 
very slight decrease in the amount of milk purchased by the New Orleans families 
studied, in spite of the marked increase in milk prices. Milk costs from 13 to about 
20 cents a quart in New Orleans, the general range being between 15 and 18 cents. 
Although these prices represent a considerable increase over last year's prices, the 
decrease in 1918 in the amount of milk purchased by the group studied has been only 
4 per cent. The number of families receiving no milk has decreased from 92 in 1917 
to 88 in 1918. Fi^■e of the families who last year were getting no milk are being pro¬ 
vided with free milk this year, however, and two are receiving milk at reduced prices. 
In all, six' families this year as contrasted with one family last year are getting free 
milk, and 19 families this year as against 11 families last year receive milk at a 
reduced price. 
Of especial interest is the fact that, in spite of increasing milk prices, a tendency is 
shown to purchase milk of a better grade. The New Orleans mfJ.k ordinance requires 
only that milk sold at retail in less than 5-gallon lots shall be in sealed containers and 
shall have a butter-fat content of 3.5 per cent. Inspected milk produced under the 
supervision and approval of the milk commission (an organization of interested citi¬ 
zens) is, however, available; also pasteurized milk, which is furnished by some dis¬ 
tributors on their own initiative, though pasteurization is not required by law. Last 
year inspected milk formed only 22.6 per cent of the total amount of milk purchased 
by the families studied, while this year it forms 28.3 per cent. Although the purchase 
of milk that is neither pasteurized nor inspected has been reduced from 55 per cent 
of the total milk purchase, it still constitutes more than half (52.7 per cent) the total 
purchase. The families studied have decreased their purchase of pasteurized niilk, 
the most expensive grade, from 20.9 per cent in 1917 to 17.6 per cent in 1918. 
The New Orleans study, like the other studies in the use of milk, demonstrates the 
need for public action jn placing clean milk within the reach of every family having 
little children. There is cause for grave concern in the fact that 41.7 per cent of the 
New Orleans familie.s studied are getting no milk at all for their children. That this 
proportion, in the face of high milk prices, is not greater may be attributed to the fact 
that many of these New Orleans mothers are sufficiently aware of the importance of 
fresh milk as a food for children to make sacrifices to keep it in the diet of their children., 
« * • « 
fEB 12 1919 
