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40
For this purpose, there are 3 mixing drums, holding 100,
50 and 50 gallons respectively, and into these drums the
different milks, received at Gipsy Hill Railway Station
from farms and other wholesale sources, are poured and
mixed together in the mixing room at the back of the
dairy, the object of the mixing being to secure an uniformity
of composition of milk before distribution. The
milk, mixed separately in the 3 drums, is not afterwards
mixed together as a whole, but is poured into
the churns for distribution from each drum when
mixed. The separate drums used receive different
milks daily, and the mixed milk in the different drums is
distributed to different districts daily. There is no
uniformity of mixing and no uniformity of distribution
of particular milk to particular districts. In this way,
no milk from an individual farm, or farms, or other
wholesale source, or sources, would be likely to be distributed
in any one particular district or districts, from
day to day, or from week to week. On the contrary, all
the districts would be supplied differently daily from
different farms or other wholesale sources. This is an
important consideration in connection with the outbreak,
and hence it is that the milk is described above as
being practically all mixed together before final distribution
amongst consumers.
In addition to the milk received from the farms and
other wholesale sources, nursery milk is supplied
separately from special cows, pastured in the open in
the neighbourhood during 9 months of the year and
stalled for the remaining 3 months in cowsheds (licensed
for 44 cows) at the rear of the dairy X—a total of 21
cows (14 Jerseys, 1 Guernsey, 3 shorthorns and 3 crossbreds).
Inspection shewed that these cows were
sanitarily housed and pastured, and veterinary examination
proved that the cows themselves were in a good
state of health at the time of the outbreak.
The farms are 18 in number—5 in Surrey and 13 in
Sussex, and the creameries and milk factories 3 in
number, The creameries and milk factories draw their
supplies of milk from farms in Dorsetshire, Wiltshire,
Buckinghamshire, Somersetshire, and Staffordshire.
Investigations were conducted at all these Farms and
other Wholesale Sources, situated outside the Borough