The Haslingden Gazette. — 1907-09-07 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

PLYMOUTH AND BREST.  M the outoome of arrangements made with the Brest fruit growers for the chartering of one of their boats during the fruit ,emson, the Great Western Railway Company have decided to inaugurate a lugular weekly steamship service between flymouth and Brest, thereby affording the most direct and convenient route between England and the North West of France. The occasional trips which have been run daring the summer of this year have been exceptionally well patronised, and very high praise has been accorded to the Company for the facilities which have been afforded. and there ia therefore every hope that the establishment of • regales service will be suseessfuh  I purpoae dealing (Ist) with the collection of the milk; land) the delivery and selling of the milk; (3rd) the storage of the milk in the home; (4th) the importance of pure milk to a child. In proceeding we will visit in imagination a dairy farm, and see the actual condition under which milk is collected at many farms. It has struck me occasionally that many farmers appear to live in a kind of happy.go-lucky-lanc; observing sincerely the old quotation that "atiffis cient for the day is the evil thereof." Ido not desire for a moment to have you imagine that I am condemning every dairy farmer, because many of them are very intelligent and work on ecientific lince with profitable result. Coming back to our visit to the farm, on arriving there we poesib'y find a herd of cattle or milking cows standing in cowsheds with floors and walLs coated with filth. The construction of many of the cowsheds makes cleanliness a matter of the greatest difficulty to the fanner; the cows' udders are dirty, whilst the tail—which is being whisked or moved about—is dirty; also dirty utensils as sieves, cans, cloths, etc.  Then comes the milker, each obtains a stool and proceeds to work; he rubs possibly every teat over with two fingers. This is to some extent a cleans. ing process, and he sometimes damps the teats with milk by drawing a little into the can and dipping the fingers in. You will find men coming direct from their work, maybe from the field, or emptying manure, or film' any of the numerous jobs which fall to the lot of a farmer, and sitting down on their milking stool, will proceed to milk without washing their hands. Then again, their c'othes are not exactly fit for a drawing.room—nobody expects that they should be—but what cart be worse than dirty udders, dirty hands, and clothes; yet we expect to get clean milk. Female milkens appear to be cleaner than male milkers. Why this is so I cannot understand thoroughly, except that the males as a rule have dirtier work to do 011 the farm. I jhink the hands ought to be washed before milking, and this and similar precautions should be, strictly enforced; and, in addition, clean overalls or milking smocks should be  Prof. Delepine, of Manchester, isays:—" Milk which is the common cause of epidemic diarrheas is frequently infected at the farm or in transit." I Since 1879 the "Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders" have been in force, and under the Order of 1885 local authorities may make regulations for any or all of the following purposes:— lit: For the inspection of cattle in dairies. 2nd: For prescribing and regulating the lighting, ventilation, cleansing, drainage, and water supply of dairies and cowsheds in the occupation of persons following the trade of cosakeepere or dairymen. 3rd: For securing the cleanliness of milk storm, milkshops, and of milk vessels used for containing milk for sale by such persons. 4th: For prescribing precautions to be taken by purveyors of milk and persons selling milk by retail against infection or contamination. In drawing our attention for a moment or two on the persona who sell the milk by retail, e.g., in small shops. I have found from past experience that such shops, particularly in the poorer pain of our towns, may he a general stores selling anything from a red herring even to lamp oil, and fried fish and chip potatoes. Upon the counter of such shore there are often pails of milk catching dust, absorbing bad smells, and being very often used in summer, by flies as places for bathing or committing suicide. Where were the flies previously It i.s a well-known fact that they are most abundant where there are heaps of decomposing animal and vegetable matter, and from such filth heaps they peas into the home, and alight on the sugar, bread, milk, and other foods. In this matter I am strongly of opinion that flies are the medium for the spread of several diseases. All small retail milk shops should be registered, and before registration inspected by the Inspector as to its general suitability. Milk in euch shops should be stored in white enamelled vemels, with a perforated He in order to ensure ventilation to the milk, and OD prevent the entrance of dust and flies. iWth respect to the contamination of milk in the home, even granting the collection and delivery of the milk is pure, it is often contaminated by the consumer owing to the insanitary condition I under which it is kept. For instance, it is a common practice for the milk seller to leave the cane containing milk at the doors of customers to be taken into the house whilst the milk seller is delivering milk at other houses. Those milk cane might through ignorance or I thoughtlessness be taken into a room whore there ' is a ease of infectious disease, i.e., scarlet fever. and contagion might get to the milk can, which would be used on its being collected by the milk seller, for other customers without being in any way cleansed. The consumer is, I think, very often to blame for this. Again, it is a common occurrence to leave a jug exposed in the yard, or on the doorstep or yard wall for an hour or two. yea. even from about 7-30 in the morning until dinner-time, and when taken into the house, the milk vessel is expoeed on the cupboard or on the shelf without a proper cover. The result is that when required the surface of the millk, is covered with particles of dust. The milk is also placed near slopstones or drains in the cellar or kitchen to absorb bad smells. All these conditions are favourable to contamination and a source of danger to the consumer. All milk should be boiled before being consumed. and afterwards stored in a clean vessel with a perforated lid attached. It should be kept in a clean. cool and well-ventilated position. One of the most common physical proofs of the contamination of milk is to observe the sediment which has fallen to the bottom of the milk vessel. This sediment is chiefly the result of the collection , of the milk on the farm premises, and may be seen in almost any basin of milk produced under ordinary farm conditiona.