Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-01-24
VALUE OF MILK
is STRESSED
Willow Creamery Operator
Gives Educational Talk
on Dairy Products.
Community Club is Wide
Awake to Importance of
Health Topics.

At each meeting or the WILLOW
River Community Club the pro-
gram committee attempts to ar
range for health talk and be-
cause of its pertinency to this
section of the country and to Pine
county in particular, the talk
given by Andrew Wahlstrom, Of
the Willow River Creamery Co..
Is herewith published. Mr.. VAIL
srom, besides being good
creamery operator, is an author
ity on milk and milk products.
His talk follows:
Since time immemorial milk and
its products have been very important
articles of food for the human race.
and to this day are one OF the most
nourishing and palatable items of our
diet.
Butter, used as an article of food.
a medicine, and a cosmetic may he
found chronicled long before the
Christian Era, as long as 1000 years
before Christ. The word butter ap-
pears in the Scriptures as far back
as Genesis 1873, And he took butter
and milk and the calf which he had
dressed and set before them" One
of the first references to the making
of butter is that of Solomon in pro-
verbs 1898, Surely the churning of
milk bringeth forth butter" Among
the ancient Romans who made great
strides in agricultural development,
cheese appears more popular than
butter; however, butter is referred to
as an addition to bread. The HindOos
used it for the greatest and hottest
sacrifices in their worship. The
Greeks and Romans also used butter
as a remedy for injuries to the skin,
used as a remedy for sore eyes. In
Spain, as late as the 18th century.
butter was found in medicine shops
for external use only.
Among some people the possession
of butter was regarded as an indica-
tion of wealth and served to dis
tinguish the rich from the common
people. 1t was stored in the ground
and that which was kept a long time.
up to a hundred years or more, was
priced very highly.
Source of Great Industry.
Little is known about the time
when butter first became an article
of commerce. In the 18th century
butter was exported from the Scaa-
dinavian countries. and it is thought
that butter-making was first intro
duced in Europe from Scandinavia.
Milk production has grown into a
giant industry in our country. In
1898 Minnesota alone produced ever
300 million pounds; the largest in the
history of the industry. The total
value of our dairy products was
nearly $116,00O,O00. About two-thirds
of Minnesotas dairy products are
processed by comparatively owned
factories, the balance by privately
owned and centralizing plants
The state consumes about one fifth
of its total production. the balance
is shipped to the eastern markets.
One rather unfortunate situation is
that Minnesota milk, together with
the milk of other western states has
been barred from the city of New
York and other great eastern cities;
this is partly to protect eastern dairy
men and partly because our standard
Of sanitation does not measure up to
their strict requirements.
Strict on Sanitation.
Some years ago the city of New
York had very painful experience
when their board of health was
bribed by INSCRIPTIONS monglers who
adulterated milk by adding water and
chalk and sold it to the people of
the city. Hundreds Of children be-
tween the ages of one and three died
before the matter was investigated
and the guilty ones were brought to
justice. Since then they have enacted
the StricteSt laws and set a high STAR
dard in regard to the milk they use.
Our own state, as a whole, has beer
rather slow in adopting milk legis-
lation although some sections near
the big cities have adopted barn in
spection and other sanitary rules in
order to produce certified milk.
Lately, however, the federal gov
eminent. through its chemists. has
found that some of the milk. cream,
and butter shipped interstate contains
extraneous matter or dirt. and has
seized many shipments as being adult
Grated and not complying with the
Federal Food and Drugs Act. Under
this Act the shippers are liable to
criminal prosecution besides having
their product destroyed. In conse-
Quence they have started a cream i'm
proyement campaign demanding that
the industry clean up. The legisla-
ture OF our state, and other dairy
(Continued on Page 81