[Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council.

  • Fife (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1930
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1930] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    61/138 (page 61)
    While several of the dairy premises were clean and more or less in < lformity with the requirements of the draft County Dairy Bye-laws, \iich are applicable to all dairy premises, many of them were not sficiently clean and in many respects fell short of the requirements i [the Bye-laws. It is a matter of the greatest importance that, where s h an important article of food as milk is concerned, every precaution s >uld be taken to safeguard its purity. The co-operation of the dairy f mers will be sought in an endeavour to improve the general standard dairying in the District, but in order that too great hardship may not t! inflicted on the dairymen, structural alterations will be called for _! dually. (during 1930 extensive alterations were carried out in 8 dairy farms# Certified Milk is produced at Hospital Mill Dairy Farm, Springfield, le premises are entirely of modern design and every means is taken to {>mote the health of the cows. Methods and equipment are t »roughly satisfactory. A sample of milk taken for examination at ti end of the year showed a bacterial content of only 400 colonies pi' c.c., and a butter-fat content of 4 62 per cent. This is the only f jin in the District which produced graded milk, a surprising state of a iirs considering the size of its population and its eminence in agri- citural matters. ACCOMMODATION OF SEASONAL WORKERS. Seasonal workers were housed by employers under moderately s isfactory conditions. Visits of inspection were paid by the District >iitary Inspector and the provisions of the Bye-laws were enforced tia reasonable extent. Inspections Were also made by an Officer of t Department of Health for Scotland and action was taken against o 5 farmer who failed to observe the terms of the Bye-laws. STATISTICAL COMMENTS. ihe population of the District, as estimated to the middle of 1930, > 14,646. .here were 226 births, 113 males and 113 females, representing a < th-rate of 15’4 per 1,000 of estimated population as conrpared with 1|7 per 1,000 in 1929. legitimate births numbered 9, and the rate per 100 total births vs 6*6. ^inety-one marriages were registered as compared with 73 in 1929. 1? marriage rate was 6-2. i-here were 215 deaths, 91 males and 124 females. In 1929 there vre 233 deaths, 116 males and 117 females. The death rate in 1930, c rected for transfers and adjusted for age and sex distribution, was 16 per 1,000. J