THE CARE AND HANDLING OF MILK. 49 



THE CARE AND HANDLING OF MILK. 

 By S. C. Thompson, Winterport. 



Much has been written and said about the care of milk, with 

 the idea of retaining its quality by preventing contamination, 

 thus making it more wholesome and less liable to cause illness 

 among the large number of infants and invalids as well as all 

 others who use it, and also that a better class of cream, butter 

 and cheese may be made from it. We all realize that certain 

 changes take place in milk, though we seldom know or even 

 care what causes those changes and some even positively object 

 to discussing the cause. 



It seems to me that we can not know too much about this 

 important subject, since it affects the quality of our product and 

 the quality is the one essential which governs price and estab- 

 lishes our reputation, whether it be for milk, sweet cream, 

 butter or cheese. 



Our established reputation in New England for sweet cream 

 has come from our ability to produce a better quality than our 

 neighbors produce. There is a reason for this, and the more 

 that we know about this reason, the more easily we can maintain 

 or improve the quality and thereby continue our present stand- 

 ing at the head of this important branch of dairying. The same 

 thing is true of our milk and butter. If we wish to make for 

 ourselves a reputation and sustain it as we have for cream, we 

 must produce a superior product, which can only be done by 

 knowing what conditions we must have to produce the best 

 quality and how to control the changes in order to secure the 

 desirable conditions and avoid those that are undesirable. For 

 to the operator with the most knowledge, who has the ability to 

 execute it, come best results and superior quality; so in the 

 community where thought and study are applied to the greatest 

 degree, will the product average highest; in the State in which 

 this knowledge is disseminated to the greatest number and where 

 the most people are interested and striving to know the most 

 and the whole, will the reputation for producing the best product 

 be found. Therefore, I believe the time has come when all 



