The Sources of Animal Products 
7 
The state governments care for the health of milk consumers by in- 
specting herds and requiring cleanliness on the farm and in handling 
the milk. Great improvements have also been brought about by 
large milk companies. These are equipped not only to handle enor- 
mous quantities of milk for delivery to customers, but to make butter 
and sometimes cheese. Many of them take great care to keep the 
milk clean, and sell guaranteed” or “ certified ” milk. 
Other sources of milk. Practically all the great cities of the United 
States, Canada, and Europe are supplied with milk in the manner 
described above. In other regions other animals besides the cow 
supply milk. For instance, many pastoral tribes live mainly on the 
milk of sheep; in some rugged regions goats are the milk producers; 
the desert Arab gets his milk supply from his camels, the Laplander 
from his reindeer, and many a dweller within the tropics from his 
water buffaloes. 
In proportion to the amount of food and the care required, goats 
are the best producers of milk. The milk that they yield is as pal- 
atable as cows’ milk, and one soon becomes used to it. It has the 
creat advantage of never being infected with germs of tuberculosis, 
which sometimes are found in cows’ milk that is not properly cared 
for. By keeping a goat or two, many families in America might 
have plenty of fresh milk with little trouble and expense. 
CATTLE RAISING 
Beef has long been the principal meat used by the most progressive 
peoples. Before the days of the railroad almost every farmer kept 
a few cattle for his own supply of meat as well as for the milk, and 
the farms near the cities often kept large herds which were marketed 
by being driven into the city. Now the railroads and the steamships 
offer such cheap and convenient transportation that cattle can be 
profitably raised thousands of miles from the market. This makes it 
possible for the natural grasslands to be devoted especially to cattle 
raising. 
The cattle sections of the United States. In two sections of the 
United States cattle raising forms the most important farming 
industry (Fig. 67). The first section is the plains at the eastern base 
of the Rocky Mountains from Texas northward, which are ideal for 
cattle, since the natural grass forms excellent food even when it is 
dried by the hot summer sun. The rains are sufficient to support the 
grass and to supply drinking water, but in the western part are not 
heavy enough to make unirrigated land valuable for crops.