New-York tribune., 1910-07-21
6. H. F. Sehrader Advocates a
Travelling Dairy School.
the Editor of The Tribune.

that unclean milk breeds disease and that
bad milk is largely responsible for the high
infant mortality, the reformer should direct
his efforts to remove dirt, the fundamental
cause of all milk trouble at its source-the
farm.
The farmer who sells unclean milk does
SO through ignorance, carelessness or lazi-
ness. Therefore he needs education and
stirring up
Model demonstration dairy farms and dis
trict dairy schools, as well as agricultural
colleges. are the educational channels
through which some reforners want TO
reach the farmer. The farm scheme is
good one. for nothing teaches like demon
stration; but the large capital required TO
esta blish the number OF model farms that
are needed to reach all farmers makes this
plan too costly.
The district dairy school and agricultural
college are too slow and uncertain to solve
the milk question. and they are certainly
not the most practical methods of covering
large a territory as that of the dairyins
industry.
But let us assume that such schools and
colleges were the farmers only hope for
education. Would and could he go TO school
or college?
sons cannot leave their farms-especially
dairy farms where work is continuous the
year round-for any length OF time; also
that every man on farm counts, because
farm labor is expensive and difficult to pro
cure, we must come to the conclusion that
most farmers viii not go to school.
We are dealing with an educational prob
lem in which we must not lose sight OF the
far orISin int U-h learn
ing We must make his education so sim
ple. easy, attractive and comprehensive, in
the shortest space of time. that ne can and
will learn while he is attending to his busi-
ness We must deliver knowledge at his
very door and the best way in which TO do
that is through travelling dairy schools.
have already suggested travelling lect-
urers on milk for New York, but l could
not. when I did It. speak from experience
Since expressing my views l have learned
from observation in England that the trav-
elIing dairy school is the best, the quickest
and the least expensive method of edu-
eating the farmer.
The Cornwall Travelling Dairy School
which is under the management OF the
Cornwall Education Committee, is COM
posed of one instructress. who goes from
place TO place TO instruct farmers, their
wives, daughters and employees IN re
most sanitary and up-to-date manner Of
handling milk and its products This school
is the first of twenty that will follow in
England as soon as the twenty students
now studying in college in London, as well
as on farms, will have been graduated in
dairying. theoretically and practically.
The instructress of the Cornwall Travel
ling Dairy School teaches classes in barn,
in a village school or in any building, pub
lie or private, that is placed a the disposal
Of the committee Children from eleven
years UP are taught from two 10 three
hours in the morning and adults are IN
structed the same number of hours in the
afternoon The course is from eight days
to six weeks in duration; 1t is free TO all.
and the county pays the instructress- The
complete course consists of talks on the
chemistry and bacteriology of all products
from the COW. The instruction, moreover,
embraces the hygienic and sanitary care
and keep of the COW, the COW barn and the
milk receptacles, the necessity of straining
milk and cooling it Immediately after milk
ing. and the Importance of cleanliness of
clothing.
All the practical work of dairying is
taught by demonstration Shorter courses
may be chosen by students who want to be
come efficient in only one of the branches
of dairying-miIk. butter or cheese
The advantage of the travelling dairy
school is that the entire family, and III
many instances The help. gain all the knowl-
edge they really need TO produce clean milk
and it's products They have been taught
that soap and water, labor and ice are the
only remedies against dirty milk. Thus
fao ha
know at the travelling school with practical
ly no loss of time.
Since the average farmers son cannot be
shared from home. and as his father viii
certainly not go to school, we have little 70
hope for from the older and present genera
ton under the district school and college
plan. Hence the adoption of this uncertain
method would delay a clean milk supply
another generation, and that would mean
FOO great loss of life. Furthermore, a
school or college course would insure the
edUca ton of one member Of the family
only. While all family members as well as
employees may be instructed at the travel
ling school Since women are also largely
engaged in dairying, they need education
as much as men. Another great advantage
of the travelling school is that it interests
and prepare the child in the kindergarten
of dairying
The college bred business man has rot
vet proved that he is as valuable ss the
man who graduated from the ranks in the
school of practical business life. This may
also apply 10 the college bred farmer.
Just as missionaries are sent out to make
converts, as temperance and Gospel preach
ers go from place to place TO deliver ser
mons. as bustn ass men send their statesmen
everywhere to introduce new products
through education, thus we should 50
straight to the farmer to educate him, for
It will take too long to produce results II
we wait until the farmer calls on US foz
even the little knowledge he needs to keep
milk clean.
Training the farmer up TO cleanliness has
been done in many parts of Europe by the
large milk companies in cities for the LAST
thirty years. because these companies had
seen the impossibility of supplying the con-
sun1er with clean milk. in spite of all the
care and preca ltions in their distributing
and bottling plants, without cleaner condi-
tions at farms So thoroughly is the dairy
| ia rrner in Denmark trained that its milk
and milk products are almost perfect.
To educate the thirty thousand milk pro-
ducers in New York State through milk
companies is monumental job. because of
the isolation of farms The grand Jury has
recently proved that the big milk dealer
in New York Is in business for money and
NOT to teach Combines are not ideal edu-
Gators. anyway, so let us try the travelling
dairy school 1t is not the farmer whom