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54
The fixing of a definite bacterial standard for Grade A milk will
help to establish confidence in it, once its significance is understood, and
confidence is what is needed for the establishment of a sale and the
expansion of the market. Certified milk will always be demanded bv
those who want the best possible, and it serves as an education to others
and shows what kind of standard can be obtained. Grade A milk
shipped in bulk from the farm and bottled by the distributor, should
meet the public demand for a reliable milk at a reasonable price. Much
depends on the attitude of the distributing trade and on the ability of the
dairy engineers to produce the necessary plant. Where the demand for
clean milk exists farmers will be found to supply it.
I am quite aware that many think it will be another 40 or 50
years before farmers as a whole will produce clean milk on the lines
outlined, and that the public are barely interested in the subject. That
is wrong. Let me recount to you the progress in Reading. The
Berkshire farmers tested their herds with tuberculin. They co-operated
with the National Institute for Research in Dairying at Reading. They
followed clean milk production, and what happened ? Dealers would
not buy it, and so the Institute opened a sale depot of their own. The
people crowded to the depot to buy pure milk. The dealers saw which
way the wind was blowing and now everybody in Reading is going to
the five centres where Grade A milk from tuberculin tested cows is sold
at a penny a quart above the ordinary price.
Leicester City Council determined to buy pure milk for their
hospitals and schools, and they are paying threepence per gallon more
to get it.
One would expect an enlightened body like the Metropolitan
Asylums Board would buy Certified or Grade A milk for the
Infectious Disease Hospitals.
The ignorance of the farm labourer and the indifference of the
public have much to answer for. Dr. Nash knew a man who had a
herd of 120 cattle, producing milk which he supplied for many years to
an institution which has a large business in London. He got this herd
absolutely tubercle free and went to the directors of the institution and
said: I can now guarantee every drop of milk as tubercle free," and
the answer he got was, " That does not matter—What is the price ? "
What surprises me personally is that we have surgeons operating on
surgical tuberculosis cases in our London hospitals every day, and yet
1 have never heard of any of them demanding of the Board of Governors
that Certified or Grade A milk only should be supplied to the hospitals.