New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-16
MILK PERMITS REVOKED.
BIG BUSINESS STOPPED.
Dr., Darlington Acts on Evidence
against Metropolitan Company.

On account Of the general unsanitary condi-
tions of an upstate dairy from which the con-
Germ receives part of it's milk supply. the De-
partment of Health yesterday revoked the per-
mits of the Metropolitan Milk and Cream Com
pany which for the last twenty years has been
in business at Jefferson Market. Evidence was
obtained by special inspectors of the depart
rnent who are now travelling through the coun-
ties from which New-York receives its milk
supply. This is the first to result from the
inspection There likely to be others. II
was told exclusively in The Tribune a few days
ago that the permit of a milk firm in
danger
The action of the department in revoking the
permits of a large company is unusual, and is
an indication that there will he no further tenn
toriziEg in impure milk cases. Heretofore the
procedure has been to destroy impure milk and
fine the dealer. The fine was paid. and business
went on usual. The METROPOLITAN people were
not taken into court They cannot do business
until they get new permits
On December 2 Charles II. Kilburne, State
milk inspector. detailed to the NewYork De-
partment of Health, and William E. Burton.
food inspector, went to Blooming Grove. Orange
County where they visited the dairy owned
and operated by the Metropolitan company.
They found many Objectionable features
stone was dilapidated and many of the bricks
were broken. There puddles of dirty
water in places and the opening through which
the drainage should flow was broken or stopped
up. The ground back Of the creamery was
saturated with filth. Even when the ground
was frozen it gave offensive odor
The inspectors found dirty water in the milk
room tanks, and that the water used in wash
ing the taken from a spring in the
centre Of the building. The spring is eight
feet deep, and the inspectors think It probable
that the drainage finds its way into it, A horse
was stabbed in one of the rooms of the dairy.
In one room the inspectors found a number
of suspicious bottles Analysed at the depart
ment headquarters, the contents of one showed
a percentage of formaldehyde. ten gallon
keg also gave off a formaIdehyde odor Back of
the creamery there We're many empty bottles
which the inspectors declare had contained pre-
serving liquid
An Erie milk train arrived while the inspec-
tors were there. They found eleven cans marked
butternilk, which aroused their suspicion rba,,
tested the milk and discovered that # was
SKINNED milk, with water added Ry taking an
express train Kilburne and Burton beat tho
mix Train 10 Jersey City There they identified
.'' cans from Blooming Grove and saw them
loaded on the truck of dairy companv Eortn-
nine other cans, also labelled b,+ta,.,,u,
h
containing SKINNED milk were loaded on tba
same truck These were tagged at 7, C,,I,,oro
Jersey city The inspectors crossed On tho
same ferryboat with the milk wagon and on
reachlhg this side seized and destroyed the load
of sixty cans
Inc permits were taken away Yesterday az
ter the Board of Health had held an exacu+iyo
'eSSioil' ana the ten wagons which the company
operates VIII have 10 be idle today and remain
so uhlll the company gets new permits Stems
to do this were taken at once An attorney, for
the company called at the Health BOARD o,d
said that the company would not use the Bloom
ing Grove dairy until 1t had been put In a con-
htloh that was satisfactory to the department
He asked that the company be permitted 10 do
business with milk obtained from other sources
TO impress the attorney with the seriousness
VI 'he charge against the company, DIR. Oar
lington sent for bottles of preservattve and COL
ortng. He also sent for the file OF weekly death
reports. He called attention to the increase I'm
the number of deaths from intestinal diseases
He pointed out the percentage of the death rate
among infants under one year old The COM
pany's request TO resume business was not
granted.
Tribune reporter visited the office OF the
Metropolitan company at No. 46 Jefferson Mar
ket. The firm has been composed of three
brothers named Demarest since the death of its
founder, Franklin p Demarest. some ten months
ago.' G. J.. Demarest the treasurer made the
following statement:
We feel that have been very unjustly treated
all the way through in this matter, and that the
Board OF Health is discriminating against We
get milk from four five sources The de-
partment has condemned one OF them and we adj
NIT that the conditions there not what they
should be We offered to close up the Blooming
Grove creamery until 1t could be put in shane
Naturally. thought the department would per
NIT to do business with pure milk from other
We were called before a meeting Of the Roa I'd Of
Health Yesterday. There five doctors there
They read us the complaint which was based on
an affidavit by James u. Rutan who until a few
weeks ago was foreman at Blooming Grove
lie has been charge there since tho death of
NV father months ago. We found thar he
was not conducting the creamery properly and
gave him two weeks notice He threateued IN
Teport us TO tho Board OF Health II we discharged
him but we disregarded the threats and this Is