36 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



If a refrigerator is not used, the milk bottle may be set in 

 cold water, changing it occasionally, or it may be placed in 

 water in an open window away from the sun. 



Milk may best be kept in the bottle in which it is delivered 

 and should be kept covered to exclude flies, dirt, etc. When 

 milk is poured from the bottle it should be poured only into 

 receptacles which have been thoroughly scalded. Milk poured 

 from the original bottle and unused should not be poured back 

 as it may have become contaminated by flies, dirt, etc., while 

 in the kitchen or on the table. Again, milk once removed from 

 the bottle may become much warmer than that in the original 

 bottle and milk of dififerent temperatures should not be mixed. 

 Therefore, only enough milk for immediate use should be 

 taken from the bottle. 



Milk in the home, as well as in the dairy, should be held at 

 50° F. or lower. Held at this temperature, good milk should 

 remain sweet for at least twelve hours after it reaches the con- 

 sumer and, ordinarily, for twenty-four hours or more. 



Milk from large dairies and creameries is usually pasteurized 

 and is, therefore, reasonably safe in respect to bearing disease- 

 producing germs. Milk delivered to the consumer directly by 

 the producer is usually fresh and, if it has been produced by 

 ordinary vigilance, should be a safe food. The space of time 

 which elapses between production and consumption is a large 

 factor which influences the bacterial content, percentage of 

 lactic acid and hence the keeping quality of the milk. Milk 

 shipped any great distance to dealers who have no apparatus 

 with which to pasteurize it should be considered suspicious 

 unless it can be pasteurized in the home. Therefore such a 

 perishable food product as milk should be purchased from as 

 direct a source as possible. 



However, milk can be pasteurized in the home at very little 

 expense, relieving all doubt of the safety in using it. 



Home Pasteurization of Milk. 

 Milk pasteurized in the home should be pasteurized in the 

 bottles in which it is delivered. To do this it is necessary to 

 have a small pail with a false bottom. A wire bottom can be 

 used or an ordinary tin plate with a few holes punched in it 

 will do. After the milk bottles have been placed in the pail, 

 fill the pail with water nearly to the top of the bottles. Place a 

 thermometer in one of the bottles by punching a hole in the cap 



