The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1906-01-06

Aor honest ana Careful WORK, ana others
will gradually learn to follow the good
example or be obliged to quit supplying
milk. This you know to be true and it
holds good in any line of business, that
no work will be well done unless appre-
ciated and paid for according to value.
How about the encouragement and
appreciation milk dealer gets from his
customers? OF course, / speak of the
average crowd, but those are just the
people who use nine-tenths or more Of
all the milk entering city. What is
the first question the average consumer,
or rather, housekeeper, asks? The
price! You dairy farmers, who COM
plain Of getting such a low price lis it
really SO low? for your milk from the
dealer. do you know how cheaply much
Of it is sold in the large cities? Sweet
milk of fair quality is frequently retailed
from groceries in New York at cents
Fer quart (even less), and then the peo-
pie complain that it is partly skinned.
r. What do. they expect? One trouble
is, of course, that many dairy farmers
insist upon shipping milk into the cities
almost at any price when they have an
abundance in the summer, while when
cold weather comes and they might
realize good prices, they have none to
. .
officers loyes.to denounce the flthiness
of the rnilkmen. :sBut is it reasonable to
expect the milk dealer to become so
very neat and particular about the ap-
pearance Of boxes, bottles and cans,
when the majority of customers, no
matter: whether rich or poor, are so
dreadfnlly, yes, criminally careless about
return vessels? could write whole
chapter on the various items found in
milk bottles besides common filth, and
only wonder how some things get there.
Someone has lately observed in milk
bottles clothespins and toothbrush, but
far more provoking are remnants of all
kinds Of eatables, paint, kerosene oil,
tobacco, etc. And while such articles
fortunately are not the rule, remnants of
old milk and cream, left in the bottles
for days in warm kitchen, are more
common than bottles which have been
washed clean before returning.
Now. while ! most emphatically be-
lieve in the enforcement of all rules of
the health boards regarding the supply
of only pure. clean and cold u would
like to add "pasteurized'' milk and
cream in the cities, still am as certain
that as much good would be done by
adopting reasonable rules compelling
all consumers of milk to return both
bottles and cans in decent condition.
l say decent" because do not really
consider it necessary to compel the
housekeepers to thoroughly clean all
bottles before returning, but they should
be compelled to rinse all bottles with
cold water as. soon as emptied. This is
an easy task for any housewife. and a
thorough rinsing will almost remove all
milk, if done at once.
The same. of. course. holds good re-
garding cans supplied to grocers and
restaurants; only these should be
scrubbed out before returning, as too
much old milk adheres to the sides and
in the seams.
! am certain that as long as it is per-.
missible to return filthy cans to the
country, our milk supply will not he
what it should and might be.
While any rules of this kind may ar-
pear as hardship and somewhat expen-
sive, still it is very certain that any real
improvement in the general milk supply
necessarily increases the demand, which
will be of equal benefit to dairymen,
dealer and consumer.
]. .MOLDENHAWER,
Brooklyn, N. Y.