The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-10-29

has fallen off almost to the danger
point
The Food Value of Milk-Milk is
one of our most important foods, and
has recently been proven by noted
scientists like DR.. e. V. McCollum of
Johns Hopkins University to be alb
solutely essential to the proper growth
and development of children. The
present expenditure is estimated to
be about 20 per cent of the expendi-
ture of all food, and according to
various scientists this proportion
should be increased to A per cent in
the interest of both health and econ
omy. The great value of milk and it's
products in the diet emphasizes great
ly the economic problems involved in
the production and distribution of
these prducts. The public has been
unable to understand all the factors
which have been responsible for in
creases in the price of milk from to
8 cents per quart before the war to
the present price levels, and have usu-
ally met every price increase with
complaint or a reduction in consump-
ton, or both, until today there is a
pretty general underconsumption of
this important food product. The per
capita consumption of milk in the
cities of this State today is reported
by municipal health officers does not
average over one-half pint daily, less
than it should be for both health and
economy
1t is the purpose of this publication
to point out some of the factors which
have been responsible fir the increase
in the cost of market milk in the
cities of this State, and more par
ticularly to present some of the eco
nomic problems and practical difficult
ties connected with milk production
and distribution, and to suggest some
remedy whereby the process of distri-
button may be made to be more eff
Client and thereby less costly. Consum-
ers generally do not have very clear
understanding of the problems in
volved, and it is the purpose of this
publication to present the development
and status of the industry in order
that consumers, as well as those en-
gagged in the industry, may have
broader view of the entire business of
supplying market milk.
Population increases in our cities
have been very largely responsible
for many of the changes noted in the
business of milk distribution. The
population of the State according to
the 1915 census was 2,844,342, almost
double the population of 1890 when it
was 1,444,933. Where comparatively
few years ago the milk supply of many
of our larger towns and cities was
produced in the Immediately sur
rounding country and distributed by
producers, now much of that producing
territory is covered by suburbs and
all of the milk supply, or a large por-
ton of it, is transported to the city
by train and auto truck, pasteurized
in large city plants, bottled and dis
tributed. Milk is necessarily brought
greater distances and from larger pro-
ducing areas, adding to the cost of
transportation and collecting.
With the increase in population also
came health measures designed to
better protect the milk supplies.
Where, formerly, there were few if
any milk ordinances regulating the
reproduction and handling of the
milk supply, today practically all of
our towns and cities have some sort
of control over the productin and hand
ling of the supply. Where the business
of distributing milk was formerly done
by number of milk peddlers, all of
whom dipped the supply from cans,
a method now considered unsanitary,
today practically none of our larger
towns and cities permit such practice;
but most of them do require delivery
of milk in glass bottles, large num-
Der require pasteurization of most of
the supply, and several require tuber-
culin testing of cows producing milk
to be sold in the raw state, all of which
have added to the safety of the milk
supply and also to its cost.
Many or all of these changes which
have added to the ultimate cost of milk
are directly the result of increases in
our city population and of the increase
and development of the business.
The Present Status of Production
Coincident with the increase in the
population of cities we have had de-
crease in the number of COWS in New
Jersey. In 1900 there were estimated
to have been 223,261 cows, while the
estimate for January, 1920, is 141,200