The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-06-08
DIR. LEAY DECLARES MILK THAT
COMES INTO CITY ABOVE
CONTAMINATION.
TELLS ABOUT HERDS
SAYS cows or SURROUNDING
DIARIES rHRouGHLY INSPECTED
AND THE DISEASE RATE
Is VERY Low.

That Richmond mas tle osst MILK
supply of any large city in the United
States, Notwithstanding the fact that
the new regulation requiring all cows
70 be tested for traces Of tuberculosis
has not vet gone into effect, was the
emphatic statement OF Chief Health
Offcer e C. Levy yesterday In
clear account of the efforts being made
TO protect and improve the milk supply
of Richmond, DR.. Levy said
Three or four weeks ago I. j.
s++e.4eA-dairy- inspector Informed me
that a local abattoir had slaughtered a
herd of hogs purchased from farmer
in Chesterfield country, and had round
them seriously affected with tuoercu-
losis He stated further that the man
who sold these hogs to the ahattoir
was a dairyman whose milk was sold
In Richmond. without moments
hesitation | instructed Mr.. strauch to
see that this mans milk was shut out
Of Richmond until he had his entire
herd tested with tuberculln.
when the Richmond health depart
ment was reorganized. In July. 1905.
the board of health and I. the chief
health officer. had before us the tre-
rnerdous task of building up com
plete department along modern lines.
Great Importance of MIX Inspection.
"0ne Of the very first things which
ws went at was our milk supply on
May /. 1907, that Is, ten months a1ter
the reorganization Of the health ae-
partment, we started iii on this line
of work On that date Inspection OF
dairtss supplying milk to Richmond
vas hagon As was to he expected we
found that, with one or TWO exceptions
.he dairy farms sending milk TO Rloh-
mond were of the kind found every
where at the start that is. they were
utterly unfit to produce milk SAFE fos
human consumption.
THE average score Of all dairy 1aFhis
sending milk to Richmond was $50 per
cent Of perfect on the. government
score card In May and June. 1907,
over three-f ourths Of all our DAIRY
farms f75.a per cent? actually scored
under So and only rs per cent OF
these nlaces scored between 10 and
so. We rapidly brought ABOUT I'M
movements At the start 81 per cent
Of ali our dairy farms scored under 40,
but In four months all these places had
been so improved that not single
one of them scored under 40.
This work has progressed steacfly
since tneY.--- At-tha present -ilroe e " .
have no dairy farm scoring under 10,
wa orsv ~ yer cent score between 20
and so In other words. only II per
cent of our dairy farms are now as low
ea4++-sss-tAs- best ot-thec1
were at the start. and only 2.3 per
cent Of our dairy farms were able to
get as high as this at the start.
Richmond MIIks Has National Reputn-
ton.
AS result of this inoessant work,
the milk supply OF the city of Rich
nouG has a national--yes an fnterna-
tional--reputatton as being the best
Of any large city In the United States,
and, bear this carefully IN mind. the
dozens of expert judges on such mat
ters who have visited Richmond In the
last few wears tsome OF them for the
express purpose Of looking into ths}
have gone even further and publicly
made the statement that Richmond has
the best milk supply OF any city in
the world,
Not one OF the experts has given
this opinion on our say SO, but they
have gone around among our dairy
farms and seen for themselves, Nor
did any one OF these men fail to know
that we have, not as yet compulsory
tuherculin testing.
AS a matter OF fact. considerable
part of the total milk supply of Rich
mond is. even at the present time. oh
tanned from herds which have been
tested For over year no new dairy
man has been able to get a permit 10
sell milk in Richmond unless he has a
herd which has been tested with tu-
bercuiin and from which every reac-
tor has been removed. Neither can any
dairyman add any cows to his herd
without having them first tested and
shown TO be free from tuberculosis.
After September, 1915, every COW
from which milk comes to Richmond
must be tuberculin tested. Even now
we know of forty herds which have