a quality of the butter which it does
not naturally possess.

PROTECTION OF MILK

The one article of food produced on the farm about which the greatest
amount of agitation has been centered has been the adulteration of milk,
as well as the question of the production of milk under unclean
conditions. The responsibility for pure milk rests on the Department of
Agriculture of the State, on the Department of Health of the State, on
the Department of Health of the city where the milk is sold, and on the
Board of Health in the village or town where the milk is produced. In a
way, these four departments divide the responsibility for the milk, and,
as in all cases of divided responsibility, the very fact of the number
subtracts from their efficiency. The local Board of Health of the
village or town where milk is produced is not usually interested or
concerned particularly in the question of its quality.

If a case of contagious disease in any farmhouse occurs, the local
health officer should see that a proper quarantine is established and
that the individuals in such a house are instructed in the danger of
contamination and in the necessity of avoiding infection in the dairy.
It is, however, the Board of Health in the city where the milk is
consumed who have a particular responsibility. Such a board has no
jurisdiction or authority over matters outside of their city, so that
their executive cannot go out into the country, into the district of
another health board, and order improvements made in the methods of
production. All that a city board can do is to enact and publish
restrictions under which milk must be sold in that city.

This is the method pursued in the city of New York, where tons of milk
are consumed every day and where manifestly the jurisdiction of the city
officials cannot extend over the thousands of farms located in the five
states from which the milk supply is drawn. In New York City the local
sanitary code provides that no milk shall be received, held, kept,
offered for sale, or delivered in the city of New York without a permit
from the Board of Health, and the Board makes this permit depend upon
the sanitary conditions existing at the dairy or farm where the milk is
produced or handled. In order to find out whether the conditions at the
dairies and farms throughout these five states are in a sanitary
condition, the city has a force of twenty-five inspectors who are
continually engaged in traveling amo