The Portland daily press., 1897-06-10
A Farmers View of 1t.
To the Editor of the Press:

To the Editor of the Press:
One would think by reading the items
which are going the rounds OF the news
papers that the men who produce milk
for the city of Portland were anxious to
keep poor, diseased COWS and that they
wanted to sell tubereulous milk and moth
ing else. Now any fair minded person
must know that it is for the farmers in
terest to make his stock compare with the
best for there is competition in every
Ghlng-farming interests as well as trade
- and the man who makes poor milk on
MS farm gets badly left. The scare has
done more harm financially to the farmer
anu m1lkmen this spring than long
continued drought in summer could pos
slbly do. Whether this panic was started
IN good faith or by some person who
thought there was q fat job in view, it
mas done mischief enough Why it need
TO Dc stirred so persistently is mystery
to us all unless there is a cat in the meal
somewhere. Why was that Blue Hill lie
put IN the papers day after day if someone
did not have an object in frightening peo-
pie into thinking that they would surely
die of consumption il they drank, because
COWS have lung troubles now Just the
same as they have hal ever since they
came out OF the ark-perhaps that is
where they got their first cold
We believe in fair play. Nor is it right
for the Board Of Health to oblige the
farmer to pay as many dollars as he has
COWS for the purpose of subjecting them
to test which the best scientists of this
country and of Germany have pronounced
uncertain. 1t has been proved that a
COW may be badly diseased and still not
react under the tuberculin test. There
are ways and ways of evading even SO
subtle an agent as tuberculin 1t is uni
versally conceded that the use of tuber
culin makes an animal more susceptible
to the disease and COWS, which have been
shown to be free of all signs of tubercu-
losls, have upon second test shown
themselves well advanced in the dreaded
disease. In the human family consump-
ton has always been terrible scourge
but has the per cent of deaths from that
disease increased or decreased? Good
authority says that the percentage is
much less than it was years ago. What
has brought this about? A more general
knowledge of the rules of hygiene. Ply
slclans say now that the disease itself is
not hereditary but that the child inherits
predisposition to the disease. Others
still cling to the old idea that it is heredi-
tary but if that be true why does not eve
ry one whose grandfathers and grand
mothers died of the old fashioned form
show symptoms of the same disease?
Some people seem to be trying to prove
| IN the newspapers that only by the use
OF milk can tuberculous bacilli be intro
duced into the human system but | will
take my chances on milk in preference
to paper soled shoes on damp day or
crowded, vile smelling street car. More
children die of pulmonary troubles be-
cause their mothers want to show off
their pretty clothes by taking off the fan
nels which they wear every day and let
ting the poor children go round shivering
in gauzy fiulnmery: Why. dom the Port
land Board of Health order the mothers
to keep their children in fannels from
birth till they reach the age of discretion
for fear of lung diseases?
A PRESS editorial Monday says that
If it is reasonable for the farmers to want
feed stuffs subjected to chemical analysis,
it would seem to be quite as reasonable
that milk should be tested and that the
farmers should be the last persons to find
fault. Suppose that we grant the reason
ableness, but who pays for testing the
feed stuff? The farmers to. be sure in in
creased prices.
Now If the Board Of Health are so anx4
tous to have all COWS subjected to the tn :
berculin test, they should hire veterinary
and send him round to do the job if they;
have the right to take the matter out Of.
the hands of the cattle commissioners,
else they should be willing to pay higher
for tested milk. 1 would be willing to,
wager that if one of the milkmen in Port
land were to carry in his cart milk from
both tuberculin tested and physically
tested cows, 80 per cent of his customers
would take the latter at cents quart
in preference to the tuberculin tested at
cents.
What is the City Milk Inspector for if
it isn't to report suspected cases? There
is not a farmer in the county or state
who is unwilling to have any suspected
animal tested fairly. We all want to
know the best way of doing things-best
for the consumer as well as the producer.
Why is there SO little said of sterilized
mi1kP Why doesn't the Board of Health
pass an ordinance that every family using
milk shall buy sterilizer and use it?
But honestly would it not be safer for
those who are afraid of contracting dis
ease from milk to use sterilizer; for
milk which starts pure from the farm,
air of a city cellar, may be full of disease
germs.
The farmers are anxious that every
precaution should be taken for the pro-
duction of pure milk and they are willing
to listen to anything that is common
sense but not to such a prejudiced, one
- III l..