Show ate AMERICAN PROBLEM of alik HEN the processes ot of nature created milk the most nearly perfect food there was no plan for any intermediate distributor between producer and con sumer the mother was the E producer and the human or animal infant consumed at the source but with the first crude groupings gro pings toward civilization the distributor en the milk picture and the milk distribution problem became increasingly important as towns and cities increased in number and size milk has been particularly in the public eye in recent months dissatisfaction of the farmers has been evidenced in strikes and riots shrink ing family budgets have been reflected in de creased consumption A tremendous overproduce tion due to a combination of large increases in the number of dairy animals and the reduced public demand has affected profits ol 01 farmer and distributor alike and nobody including the public is happy about the present situation but all of this confusion cannot ignore the tact fact that getting milk from the producer to the consumer consumers s doorstep Is one ot of the most difficult businesses in america it must reach the bus cus tomer in a state of perfect freshness and its parity purity must be assured at all times to prevent tragic epidemics therefore the distributor be comes more than a purveyor ot of food he must of t necessity be a guardian of public health the daily delivery regardless of blizzards sleet or hail hall of millions of bottles of milk to the doorsteps of america has been compared in its unfailing regularity with the united states mail in many respects however the problems overcome by milk distributors each day are greater than those met by uncle sam in the dally daily carrying of the mails for one thing milk is highly perishable while obviously mall mail is not the growth of the dairy industry and the perfection of the many processes by which ml mi k Is produced collected transported and kept pure for distribution among consumers often located kindreds kund reds of miles from the source Is one of the epic stories of modern america to understand properly this exceedingly complex structure it Is necessary to go back 50 to 75 years in 1850 the businesses of the country were viere still in the early stages of evolution this was particularly true of the milk industry little of the science which today surrounds the dis tribu tion of this basic food was known then As a consequence the milk that was sold and con fumed was one of the chief sources of sickness and death of infants practically nothing was understood then about the danger from bacteria or of how they may come from unhealthy cows unclean milkmen unclean stables lack of sterilized utensils or flies ties it was not known that milk must be kept cool so that the bacteria already present in it will not multiply because of this ignorance epi ept demies were common typhoid fever scarlet fever diphtheria tuberculosis and diarrhea were some of the milk borne diseases which annually took hundreds of lives four wheel carts resembling vict victorias orlas were the milk wagons of the days before the civil war the milk was ordinarily put into laige ans which were loaded on the carts by peddlers who themselves would sit on high seats behind the cans and go about the streets ringing bells er or calling out their wares to attract housewives one aged negro in new york city attained wide ide fame as the buttermilk man because of his but ter mil lik chant the methods of milking in vogue were even biome crude and unsanitary perhaps the worst conditions in the united states were those sur rounding much of the milk sold in new york city after pasturage tor for cows within the tile city limits bad had slowly disappeared enterprising dis tillery owners discovered that the mash or slop remaining after whiskey was made could be fed to cows and result in an even greater yield of a highly acid milk than when cows were fed nor mally so a thriving business relationship between distillery owners and dairymen sprang up p cows were clowden into small cramped stables adjacent to distilleries and slop fed to them by means of troughs running from the distilleries not only were the stables so con strutted ted that they were practically impossible to clean but no attempt was made to clean them the cows were never moved from their stalls except to be sent to the butcher in addition the milk was almost constantly diluted and adulterated it was said at the time that it if a gallon of milk bad had been merely treated with a pint of pure water it was a drink to be cherished frequently the adulterants were molasses chalk and plaster of paris it Is obal us that the death rate of infants fed this milk would be extremely high one of the first crusaders for cleanliness in the handling of milk was gall borden founder ot of the company which bears his name today public opinion was slowly being aroused over the distillery dairies when in 1851 mr borden witnessed the illness and death of infants on shipboard because of unclean milk given by cows kept in filthy quarters in the hold of the vessel later he learned ot of the thousands of city infants that died through lack of pure milk mr borden determined to seek a solution tor for these deplorable conditions by inventing a method of condensing and preserving milk in a wholesome state in cans after an almost heart breaking effort he solved this problem only to discover that his factory could get no sati satis stac fac tory steady supply of pure milk his invention was of little value without it bo mr borden became a crusader tor for cleanly bess less in milk production he concerned himself to a then unheard of degree in the way bis his ff Z 4 4 BUTTER AND MILK MAN 1840 wa ter color draw 4 ing by N colino B balyo 1799 1884 A curtesy oUr tesy of the aseem of city of new york 1 scientific MILKING at plainsboro Plain N J 50 blooded cows are bathed dried and milked in one drie revolution of the actor 2 automatically SAMPLES each batch of milk as it comes into the bottling plant samples are held for tests 3 MILK BOTTES BOTT ES are filed by machinery without manual handling 0 0 farmers fed and handled their cows and milked them furthermore he launched a militant cam laign on the subject enlisting the aid of national publications to clarity clarify his objectives he drew up a code of 0 milk regulations which were so fundamental that for or many years the rules he had dratted drafted were models tor for state a and nd even federal sanitary codes today they are the basis of much legislation affecting the purity of the nation nations s milk supply step by step the standards of milk sanitation have been raised the discovery of the Pa pasteen process and its utilization early in the twentieth century gave a tremendous impetus to the cause of pure milk perhaps the walker gordon actor at plainsboro Plain N J by means of which 50 cows are milked automatic aut auto matt cally at one time Is the ultimate in sanitary milk production the highest conceivable stand aids of cleanliness and sanitation are made pos sible by centralizing washing drying and milk ing of cows on a revolving platform certainly there Is a great distance between the distillery dairies of 1850 and the modern dairy of today As milk sanitation was slowly improving the problem of distribution was steadily growing more complicated in the early days farmers frequently delivered their own milk As cities grew larger dealers became necessary how ever the lack of railroads good roads and re trige ration was an effective barrier against the carrying of milk any distance finally the de of railroads solved this the ship ment of milk by rail dates from 1838 when it was as put into effect tor for boston new york did not get milk in this fashion until 1848 milk which leaves the country one morning Is delivered the next morning at the customer customers s door in addition to transportation and delivery the milk has been tested pasteurized bottled and held at the proper temperature to preserve its freshness although the distribution methods of all cities are similar those of new york are by tar far the most complicated here in detail are the adventures of a quart of milk in new york after the milk has been drawn from the cow it Is placed in sterilized cans and held at low temperature generally in ice until taken to the receiving station there it is tested weighed and placed in a sterilized refrigerated tank payment to the farmers tor for the milk is on the basis of butter tat and bacterial purity purit the better milk of the same weight receiving the higher price all milk Is immediately rejected which Is warmer than 50 degrees F or has too many bacteria before the farmer receives his milk cans back they are washed and sterilized at the receiving station the milk Is then shipped to the city in 40 quart cans in cars equipped with refrigerated glass lined tanks or in motor trucks with similar tanks A targe large portion of the milk tor for metropolitan new york even though it comes from new york state farmers arrives at new jersey terminals and must be ferried across the hud son river the milk which comes by railroad Is trans ported by huge trucks from the city railroad platforms to one of the many bottling plants the milk 1 Is removed through sterile pipes into big glass lined storage tanks where it Is held at a low temperature the milk Is then pas this Is one of several precautionary measures which had it been in effect through out the nineteenth century would have saved countless lives it effectively kills all pathogenic bacteria in the milk and so renders it sate safe pasteurization consists of running the milk into a battery of glass lined tanks where it I 1 iq heated rapidly to from to degrees F and kept at that temperature for or 30 minutes it Is then quickly cooled by going through tubes covered with brine or flowing cold water then the milk is ready to be put into bottles and sent on its last journey all ali bottles are washed and sterilized by machinery each bottle Is inspected lor for defects then filled automatically and applit a split second later capped by another machine the bottled milk Is put into delivery boxes iced teed and Is ready to be carried to welcoming breakfast tables throughout this process the milk has been untouched by human bands hands large resources are necessary to carry on these ramified operations in any volume the companies which have grown large in the bus bust ness of milk distribution are those which have functioned most efficiently experience has shown that the cost ot of milk on the one hand and the cost ot of delivery on the other leaves about two cents per quart tor for all plant opera eions administration depreciation and profit efficiencies accomplished within that two cent iange are the profit determining factors and only those companies have grown large which have been able to operate successfully within that range but the services to the community of large milk distributors are greater than the efficient and dependable distribution of milk as imbor tant as that function is those companies are vital factors in the dissemination of health in formation one large company maintains a bu reau for the advancement of education on the health giving properties of milk which cooper ates with public schools parent teacher organ lations and other civic institutions diet ad nutrition lecture and medical bureaus also are maintained the task of milk control of a city is essentially a problem of health and therefore Is the cespon sivility lity of the municipal department of hea th however most health departments have jim cited budgets and could not maintain an adequate supervision it it were not tor for the active compera tion of the distributors one of the large corn com banies reported some time ago that its ve keterina vet erlna terina rians had bad made complete physical examinations of cows in 7 dairies dairies in a year in addition there has been 65 55 inspections of dairy premises and bacterial analyses of specimens of milk besides more than chemical analyses because of their size and their consequent greater resources large milk distributors are in a position to serve the community in another way by advertising A milk comp company anys s adver using Is primarily planned of course to sell its own trademarked trade marked product and yet this Is tar far from all it accomplishes it is very definitely educational as well emphasizing the health value of milk in the diet thereby increasing gen eral consumption important basic facts about milk which the public might not obtain in any other way are available through advertising A laige part of the progress in milk research in recent years has come from the laboratories of the leading milk distributors constant study is made to improve the milk supply As a result of this research and that of other interested organizations new uses for milk have been developed within recent years the newest laboratory development la is vita min D milk which prevents and cures r rickets c ets many authorities regard this product as the greatest advance in milk production since pas two methods are utilized the ir radiation with butira utira violet light of the milk itself or the feeding of irradiated yeast to cows it Is said that when man made friends with the cow he took the first step forward in human nutrition the second step that of collecting transporting and distributing the gift of the cow to man has bas presented innumerable problems but these problems have now largely been sur mounted by the ingenuity the patience and the hard work of those who have believed that the bringing of fresh pure milk to the city s millions is a challenging opportunity tor for service |