digest it when a little lime water is added, if it does not suit them without it.

For infants milk is the important food. Until they are twelve or thirteen months old it should be the only food. It is essential, therefore, that the milk supplied be of good quality, and from healthy, well-fed animals. Unfortunately, however, it is true that the deaths of many children from cholera infantum and kindred diseases are due to injurious milk.

According to the secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, deaths from diarrhoeal diseases are much more frequent among bottle-fed children than among those fed on the mother's milk. He estimates that ninety per cent of the deaths among children were of those fed on bottle milk. A similar estimate is made by New York authorities.

Since infant mortality is a direct loss to the State, as well as a personal grief, communities are waking up to the necessity for a careful investigation of causes, and for stringent regulations as to the purity of the milk. The deterioration in the milk of late years is due largely to the change from the clean, intelligent dairy woman who cared for the milk, to the hired, irresponsible laborer who has no sense of cleanliness.

The ordinary cow barn is filled with dust and filth, and in the summer with flies, all contributing possible disease-bearing organisms. Among these are certain bacteria which find an especially congenial home in milk and multiply rapidly, causing the so-called lactic

1 For the question of the control of the milk supply, see Farmers' Bulletin No. 42, Office of Experiment Stations; also Bulletin No. 20, Bureau of Animal Industry.

fermentation; that is, the milk sugar undergoes decomposition, whereby lactic acid is formed and the milk becomes sour.

Inasmuch as it has been proved that milk can act as a carrier of infection, the utmost care should be taken in the dairy to render it impossible for the milk to be exposed to any kind of impurities.

Another potent cause of poor milk is the concentration of consumers in the cities, necessitating the transportation of milk from greater distances, so that it is of greater age. Hence has arisen the practice of adding preservatives to offset the lack of cleanliness.

But greater danger to health comes from the use of milk produced under improper conditions, and from diseased or wrongly fed cows, than from any substances added to the milk- unless the water taken from a foul well is used.

The most frequent method of adulteration is by the addition of water, which reduces the nutritive value for the same volume of milk.

Other adulterants are coloring matters, added to give the requisite yellowness, and various chemical preservatives to prevent souring.

The common belief that much of the milk sold is a mixture of chalk and water is quite unfounded.

It is a wrong to sell watered milk, but it is a greater wrong to use foul water to dilute the milk. The pollution of the milk by means of the swill-fed cow is not nearly so prevalent as formerly, for a much closer watch is kept by the inspector.

Since cream, which brings a higher price than milk,

has come into general use, "topped" milk is not uncommon. Thus, by loss of the fat, the nutritive value is again reduced, and inanition of the child is the result.

While skim milk, if sold as whole milk, must be considered an adulterant, it has in itself a definite food value. Whole milk and skim milk contain practically the same amount of protein, but the former costs at least twice as much. "As a source of protein, therefore, the skim milk is twice as economical as whole milk. On the other hand, the fuel value of skim milk is practically but one-half that of whole milk, so that a given amount of energy is given for the same price, either in whole milk or skim milk." 1

Of practically the same composition as skim milk is buttermilk, which is the liquid left after separating the fat of the cream in butter making. To many persons this is a more agreeable beverage than either whole milk or skim milk.

The housewife should note certain evidences of good and bad milk: (1) There should be no sediment of dirt on standing. (2) There should be about one-sixth the total depth of cream-the narrowing neck of a bottle may make it seem even more. The milk should keep sweet twenty-four hours, and when it tastes sour it should separate into curds and whey, not be simply a uniform white mass, as is likely to happen when soda is used to keep it.

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Dairy and Food Commission of the State of Wisconsin gives the following test as "a practical means of tracing the source of

1 Farmers' Bulletin No. 72, Office of Experiment Stations.

tainted conditions in milk. The test is made by adding rennet to milk; after curdling, the curd is cut into small pieces, thus allowing the whey to separate as in cheese making. The drained curd is then incubated at about blood heat to facilitate the rapid growth of gas-forming bacteria. Organisms capable of forming a gassy curd are thus able to overcome the lactic bacteria, so that within six or eight hours the presence of possible taints may be demonstrated. Taints caused by other than gas-forming organisms may also be detected by this forced development. Curds made from good milk occasionally show large, irregular, so-called mechanical holes, due to the lack of pressure on the curd particles, while poor milks contain innumerable small pin holes and possess a decidedly bad odor."

Many States have commissions to investigate the conditions of dairies and creameries and to publish an analysis of the results. The following from a report of the Wisconsin State Commission shows the care with which such investigations are pursued:

"Date,

or cooperative,

ager,

; name of creamery,
; location,

; post-office address,

-; proprietary

; owner or man; name of operator,

; he has not attended dairy school at ; number of patrons, ; number of pounds of milk daily,

; number of pounds of butter daily,; loss of fat in skim milk, .20 per cent; skim milk was divided by automatic weigher; there were no screen doors or windows; cream hauled to daily; drainage underground a distance, then to open ditch along the road; some bad odor in creamery; location and condition of

skim milk tank upstairs, not clean; condition of building, fair; the building is painted outside; condition of apparatus, poor; condition of surroundings, fair; condition of patrons' milk cans, fair; condition of milk in cans, good. Remarks: A general lack of cleanliness in this place."

An example of bad conditions may be taken from a town in Massachusetts whose milk supply is said to increase fifty per cent in summer, owing to the influx of summer visitors. Of 160 dairies examined, twothirds were found with conditions to which it was necessary to call the attention, not only of the owners, but also of the Board of Health.

There were 100 cow barns needing a general cleaning and whitewashing. In seventy-seven cases the cows were in such dirty condition that their milk could not be drawn without becoming contaminated with detachable filth. In forty-four barns there was an accumulation of manure which required removal, and forty-five cow-yards contained large pools of liquid manure. In one case the owner bedded his cows in horse manure. In four barns the privy was situated directly behind the cows, and in one the floor was made to serve as a privy.

The Illinois Experiment Station has issued an excellent bulletin (No. 91, December, 1903) on preventing the contamination of milk.

The Storrs Experiment Station of Connecticut in June, 1906, issued Bulletin No. 42, considering the quality of milk as affected by common dairy practices.

Encouragement to produce good milk is needed instead of a cry against bad milk.