Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-11-16
THE MILK SHORTAGE-By Frederic j. Haskin

ent on the purity Of the Washington milk
supply, and the health officer of the district
is insistent that the government workers and
their families shall not have to worry over
epidemics caused by milk.
Twenty-Five years ago, nobody save few
scientists thought very much about milk as
disease carrier, but about that time Mr..
Emile Berliner, inventor Of important de-
vices connected with the telephone and talk
ing machine, and for many years president of
the tuberculosis society of WASHINGTON be-
gan to be interested in milk
Mr.. Berliners baby nearly died. and the
inventor was convinced that impure milk
was responsible. He began to inquire about
conditions in dairies, chances for bacteria to.
be transmitted from the COW and the miker'
into the milk, chances of infection from these
bacteria. Mr. Berlner organized milk So
c1ety in Washington and helped to get to-
gether the most important scientists and
health experts in the country for the Washa
ingon milk conference of 1907. He pointed
out to the people that one baby in four died
in Washington in it's first year. and that I'M
doubtedly impure milk was the cause of
large percentage of the deaths The truth
of this claim is conceded now Where twen-
ty years ago, one baby in four died, today,
with well-guarded milk supply, the loss
has been reduced to one baby in twelve.
Washlngton's present milk trouble is over
the tuberculin test. New York and Pennsyl-
van1a dairy farmers offer to supply the Dis
trict of Columbia with milk at a slightly
cheaper rate than the Maryland and Virginia
farms, but they refuse to subject their cows
to the tuberculin test which is required Of
all diaries supplying the capital
Nearby Supply Is Best
This situation shows clearly, what is often
claimed, that it is better for city to get it's
milk close at hand where inspection can be
enforced than to save few cents on milk
that cannot be easily guarded and is several,
days old before it can be delivered to the
consumer. Cheap milk from a distant dairy
is doubtful bargain.
The tuberculin test, which health officials
are struggling to obtain or to enforce is, Mr..
Berliner points out, an elementary precau-
ton herd of COWS is tested and none
is infected. Six months later the test is
again made and one or several COWS are
found tubercula If the disease was con-
tracted shortly after the first test, then the
milk from that herd may have been laden
with tubercle bacilli for several months.
The tuberculin test Is valuable to the dairy
man in that it may save his entire herd
from infection, but it is not enough Of
protection to the public. To give the pub
lie clean milk, Mr.. Berliner urges that every
city should insist on proper pasteurization
of its entire supply of milk and cream.
Pasteurization destroys SO per cent Of the
bacilli which flourish in milk, even from
well-managed dairies. Cleanliness in dairy
farming is growing, and the proportion Of
pasteurized milk and cream is steadily in
creasing, through pressure of health officials
and demands of the public, and also because
the dairy business is gradually separating
from the general farm. Special precautions
and ceremonies, that often seem so much ex-
ira trouble to the busy farmer who sends a
few gallons of milk to town as a side line,
become an accepted part of the routine on
a large dairy farm.
With growing efficiency in the dairy bust
ness and the dairy farmers organizing, the
milk outlook is more hopeful than it has
been though it will be some time before the
United States is raising 43 100000 COWS in
stead Of it's present herd of 23,000006 and
everybody is drinking the proper amount Of
milk to keep his diet properly balanced.