l80 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



tioned, the milk has to undergo another ordeal in the vessels in 

 which it is there placed. The trouble is not from bacteria nat- 

 uial to these dishes but from those introduced upon them in 

 handling and in washing. This matter of washing is an im- 

 portant one from the standpoint of the water used. A polluted 

 water will contain the germs of the polluting material, and some 

 of these germs will remain on the dishes after the water has 

 drained away and the dish has dried. When milk is put into 

 this dish the germs at once begin to live and thrive, and usually 

 with dire results. If typhoid germs are in the well water they 

 will have a chance to contaminate any milk that is placed in 

 dishes that have been washed in such water. If the bacteria 

 that cause slimy, ropy or colored milk are present in the well 

 water, they will have a chance to produce their disagreeable re- 

 sults in the milk that later comes into the dish washed with such 

 water. 



The condition of the farm water supply is a very important 

 one, and many are the wells that need to be closed on account of 

 barnyard pollution. No well that produces water unfit for hu- 

 man use should be used for dairy purposes. ]\Iore latitude may 

 be allowed in the case of the water used by the cattle for drink- 

 ing, especially as cows are not subject to the more severe intes- 

 tinal diseases like man, and so will not eliminate these bacteria 

 in their milk. But the milk vessels can hand on such diseases 

 if the specific germs are put upon them in the water used in 

 cleaning them. The state laboratory stands ready at all times 

 to examine these farm water supplies at the mere expense of the 

 payment of the express charge on the sample. 



Not only does the dairy water supply sometimes cause trouble 

 through the transmission of disease, but it often renders the 

 milk produced on a farm unfit for use by introducing into the 

 milk those germs which cause it to become silniy, ropy or col- 

 ored. These things, of course, destroy absolutely the market 

 value of the milk. 



The necessity of a healthy cow needs no emphasis, for, while 

 we can to a great extent control contamination of the milk after 

 it leaves the cow, we can do nothing with it while it is actually 

 in the cow. Unless we have a healthy cow as the starting point 

 it is a waste of time to try to produce milk free from bacterial 

 dirt. 



