because it is ideal for only the young of the species for which it is
intended. Therefore, while milk is often called a perfect food, in
reality it is perfect for only the calf. When it is desired for the
feeding of a very young child, it must be changed to meet the
requirements before it can be used with good results.

3. So important is milk as an article of food that, outside of the
purely rural districts, producing the milk supply is a business of
considerable importance. This is due to the fact that the purity of milk
must be constantly safeguarded in order that clean, safe milk may be
provided for the countless numbers that depend on it. In fact, milk
undoubtedly bears a closer relation to public health than any other
food. To produce an adequate amount of clean, safe, pure milk is one of
the food problems of the city and country alike. In the city much of the
difficulty is overcome by the ordinances that provide standards of
composition and cleanliness, as well as inspection to insure them; but
such ordinances are rarely provided for in villages and country
districts.

When there is no law to prevent it, unclean milk is sometimes used in
the manufacture of butter and cheese, but when this happens, great
injustice, if not positive harm, is done to the consumers of these
articles. Then, too, unless milk is carefully inspected, tubercular milk
is liable to be used in the making of butter, and such a condition will
cause the spreading of tuberculosis as readily as the use of the
contaminated milk itself.

4. With its various products, milk helps to form a very large part of
the dietary in most homes, but while nothing can take the place of this
food and while it is high in food value, there seems to be a general