Wheeling Certified Milk Commission
-From "Report of the Health Department of City of Wheeling, West Virginia, for the two years ending June 30, 1913," pg. 32-35
Since 1910 Wheeling has been fortunate in having Certified Milk. For this supply of perfect milk, Wheeling is indebted to the late Lawrence A. Reymann. Certified Milk deserves support if for no other reason than its influence in the movement for better dairy conditions and cleaner milk. The example set by certified producers influences the whole supply to a great degree. The production of clean, cold milk involves much labor and expense, and those producing it are naturally entitled to more money for their product than is asked for milk produced under less exacting conditions. Cleanliness is the great essential, and one who visits a Certified Milk Plant has this strongly impressed upon him. The local supply is practically perfect, the average bacterial count is under 3,000 and never above 10,000 per cubic centimeter. Selling price is fourteen cents per quart.
-From Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions, 1915, pg. 364-365
Andrew W. Wilson, M.D.
The Wheeling Certified Milk Commission is pleased to report a considerable extension of its usefulness, as evidenced by an increase in product of thirty-five per cent in the past year.
Our Commission certifies milk from one dairy, the Hill Top Farm, of Wheeling, which is supported by the Lawrence A. Reymann Estate, and we are rather proud of the fact that our milk scored 94.90% at the National Dairy Show in Chicago last year.
Upon their own initiative, the owners of Hill Top Farm have recently expended an approximate sum of $3,500 in making improvements to the plant, including a remodeling of the milk room, a new floor for the barn, new stanchions, and plastered sidewalls and ceiling.
The public is beginning to show an appreciation of the fact that clean, uncooked milk from tuberculosis-free and otherwise healthy herds is a desirable food and is not intended exclusively for infants and invalids.
What may be termed the indirect usefulness of the certified plant has been directed in slightly different channels than heretofore.
Until July, 1913, Dr. W. H. McLain, Secretary of our Commission, was also Wheeling's health officer, and in all published Health Department scores and bacterial counts, Hill Top Farm and Certified Milk were used as standards for the emulation of those producing commercial milk.
The political exigencies of ward politicians dictated his removal from office at the end of his third term, thus terminating the close relationship existing between the Commission and the Health Department.
Because of this, the Pan Handle Agricultural Club, an organization of farmers with whom the United States Department of Agriculture and the State Department of Agriculture co-operate, has been the means of spreading the gospel of clean milk, healthy herds, and pure-bred dairy cattle.
During the past year a meeting of the club was held at Hill Top Farm, at which the organization of the first cow-testing association in the State of West Virginia was accomplished.
I believe the great influence that organizations of this kind will ultimately have on the quality of market milk is not generally appreciated by Milk Commissions or Health Departments.
Dr. Wilson also said: "Wheeling Medical Milk Commission occupies to a certain extent a unique position, in view of the fact that we certify but one farm, and that farm is run and maintained as a memorial to Lawrence A. Reymann, its founder. This obviates a good deal of trouble, because our producer is even more anxious than the Commission about the quality of the milk, and the work being done on the farm at the present time is absolutely voluntary and without any compulsion whatever from the Milk Commission, so that our relations with our producer are absolutely of the closest, and when anything is desired it only needs to be mentioned as a suggestion. We certified about 10,000 quarts in May to a population of 45,000 or 50,000."
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