DAIRY MEETING. 1 75 



First comes the stable dust which, in our ordinary barns, is 

 always present in the air, and settling out of it. This dust will 

 contain chaff from the hay with its adhering bacteria, but will 

 largely consist of earthy and organic material from the hoofs, 

 hody and legs of the cow, which is stirred up and introduced 

 into the air by every movement of the milker and of the animal. 

 In the same way there is introduced into the air finely powdered 

 manure dust, which can also enter the milk by direct dropping 

 of the larger flakes of dried filth from the cows body, as it is 

 loosened by every movement of the cow's tail or body. It has 

 been estimated that over 600 pounds of solid dirt thus enters the 

 milk supply of New York City per day, and is paid for as milk. 

 When it is remembered that half of the organic material thus 

 introduced into the milk dissolves in it, the possibilities of 

 trouble from this source are at once manifest. Much of this 

 dust also will collect on the ceilings and cobwebs of the roof of 

 the stall and be later shaken down, some of it finding its way in- 

 to the milk. 



The milker can also be a source from which dirt, in the com- 

 mon acceptance of the term, enters the milk ; and he is likely to 

 be a very large element in the entrance of contagious bacterial 

 dirt. Unless the milker takes pains to wash thoroughly his 

 hands he should not be allowed to milk at all, for the hands of 

 any person working about a barn are sure to be contaminated 

 with much stable dirt, and the practice is but too common for a 

 man to go directly from his work about the barn to his milking. 

 No man should milk with his hands in such condition that he 

 would not come to the table for his meals with them. The com- 

 mon practice of wetting the hands with the first milk draw^n is 

 unsanitary; for not only does it loosen any dirt that may be 

 on the milker's hands, but when his hands have become dry the 

 dust from the hands will carry with it into the milk the bacteria 

 from the fore milk, which, as has been noted, is rich in these or- 

 ganisms. The milker's clothes should also be free from dust, 

 if he cannot go to the expense and trouble to maintain a milking 

 suit. 



Next in regular sequence comes the milk room. Here the 

 same element of worker's cleanliness and room dust enters as 

 in the two preceding paragraphs ; but new elements and chances 

 of trouble also enter here. First, let us note the milk pails, pans 



