The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1906-04-27

| THESE statements, spread DIoaucaSI III
this way, will attract SO many farmers
to the dairy business that an over-prC-
duction will result? You need have no
fear whatever of any such results. Con-
slider the situation of Baltimore. 1t is
not surrounded by an agricultural coun-
try. No milk comes into US at all across
the bay hardly any milk comes up from
the south of the city, very little comes in
from the west of Baltimore. The section
of the country which must supply Balti-
more with milk lies almost entirely north
ward from the city. II we were stimulat-
ing the production of milk on all four
sides of Baltimore, there might be some
reasonable fear of OVERRIDING the business
hut when you reflect that only one
| quadrant of the area around Baltimore
is available as source of milk supply,
you will see at once that the production
of milk in this area can be very intensive
ly developed without any danger of over
production.
| Not only will Baltimore make steadily
increasing demand for milk from this sec
ton, it will also demand better milk.
The city will undoubtedly become more
stringent concerning the quality of the
milk sold in Baltimore, and you will have
to know something about milk STAN
| dards. At present the only legal obliga-
ton resting upon you is to send in kind
of milk which has no less than 31a per
cent. of butter fat. Any farmer who
knows how to produce milk at all can
produce a milk having 312 per cent. of
butter fat, and do not need to say an
other word to you on that subject. But
there are new standards coming about
which you. perhaps, know very little.
Bacterial standards will soon be put up
for your consideration. The bacterial
standards relate to the very tiny plants
known as bacteria or germs, which get
into your milk in spite of all that you
can do. and which affect the value of the
milk in two ways. From the city's
! paint of view some of these germs or mi
crobes are capable of producing disease,
and every possible precaution must be
insisted upon to exclude this sort of bac-
terra. There is another sort of bacteria
which is important from the farmers
point of view. These bacteria are ex-
ceedingly common. They are present in
every stable all the time, and they deter
mine how much time will elapse before
your milk sours. These bacteria are i'm
portant from your point of view. What
sort of milk do you send down to Balti-
more now? The milk which reaches the
station platform in Baltimore contains
anywhere from $4,000 or 10000 bac-
terra per cubic centimeter, up in two,
three, four or five millions per cubic GEN.
timeter. A cubic centimeter is about Is
drops, and when one sample contains
$4,000 and another sample contains sew
eral millions, this simply means that one
farmer knows how to keep these bacteria
out, and another farmer does not care
how many of them get into his milk.
Suppose the city of Baltimore should
say, if you send us down any milk that
contains over half million bacteria per
cubic centimeter, we will spill it and you
will lose it. One man might say that is
very liberal, but another farmer who is
in the habit of sending down milk with
million or two million bacteria, would
say that such regulation is most I'M
reasonable, that the city has no right to
now sent. AS a matter Of fact, it is easy
enough to keep the bacteria down to
5000 or 10000. Mr.. Van Wagenen can
tell you how this can be done. | want
to tell you how it must not be done 1t
must not be done by adding to the milk
any chemical preventative of any sort.
All of you receive circulars, and many of
you see statesmen representing that GER
tain substances, usually sold under mis-
leading names, will keep milk in just the
same way that ice will keep it. They
will also tell you that some of these
things are gases, and that when they do
the work of refrigerating the milk they
disappear and cannot be detected. A
patent medicine man could not tell big
ger lie than this. There is no substance
which will take the place of ice in pre-
serving milk, and there is no substance
which will disappear so that its presence
cannot be easily detected by chemical ex-
animation. Most of those patent things
contain formaldehyde, and formaldehyde
is also the basis of the most popular en-
balming fluids used by undertakes. The
people of Baltimore arc convinced that
they do not want any embalmed milk.
If any farmer sends down to Baltimore
milk containing only thousand bac-
terra or so, we know that some such SUBJ
stance has been added to the milk, and
it can always be proven by chemical ex-
animation. Neither do we want any
painted milk. Farmers are not very apt
to stain their milk to please city custom
ers; that is more often done by the city
dealer.
You may say to US, Suppose we COM
ply with these requirements, do you
think the people in Baltimore will do
their part They can nasty up the milk
Just as much as the farmer can, and we
know that they are not very particular,
because every now and then our cans
bring back from the city potato peeling
and ashes, and all sorts of city dirt. We
have an idea that there are as many
dirty people in the city as there are on
the farms" All can say in answer to
this is. that we will do the best we can
to make the city people take care of good
milk after they get 1t. Sometimes far
mer sends down a can of milk with a
bullfrog in it, or rat, or an old strain
ing cloth, but on the whole we have to
admit that just as much city dirt goes
out to the farm as country dirt comes
into the city. We Will mend matters in
the city as fast as we can, and we hope
that you will mend matters as fast as
you can at your end of the line. Think
over this proposition of ours and make
up your mind whether you do not want
to go deeper into this business, which
have said, is certain to grow. In May,
when we open our milk exhibit in Balti-
more, come down and see it. You can
learn a great deal down there, and you
can get such an idea as you have never
had before of the Importance of the bust
ness in which you are engaged, and into
which we want you to go more deeply.
You will meet the people who use the
milk that you produce, and you will see
that they are learning something about
the milk business. You will see that we
are trying to teach the people of Balti-
more how to take care of good milk
when they get it, and how to know good
milk when they see it. You will see the
women of the city learning that four
tenths of pint of milk per head is moth
ing like the amount of milk which they