1 82 agriculture; of maine. 



ried out, milk perfectly clean both from dirt and bacteria could 

 be produced. But the success of such schemes involves ex- 

 pense that, with the present price of milk, makes their appli- 

 cation out of the question for the average milk producer. This 

 is not saying, however, that even at the present prices he cannot 

 make an increase in cleanliness that will greatly increase the 

 quality of his milk, and this at a very small cost. The differ- 

 ence between the samples submitted to us at these Conferences, 

 and those collected by the inspector from the home carts, shows 

 this very clearly; for I do not expect that any producer has 

 installed a new outfit simply to produce Conference milk. This 

 difference between the two milks is mainly one of dirt and bac- 

 teria, as otherwise the milks are generally in good condition. 

 It is not necessary for the man who owns a half dozen cows to 

 have concrete stalls, tile-lined dairy rooms and steam sterilizers 

 to produce clean milk. He can produce good milk, and clean 

 milk, and milk that will keep by simply giving careful attention 

 to a few simple details of his methods of handling milk, and 

 this attention will involve but a small expense and but a small 

 amount of his time. 



Let us again start with the cow, the starting point of our 

 milk. No person claims that the cow works to keep herself 

 clean, as does the cat. She lies down where she happens to 

 be, and in whatever happens to be about her. As a result she 

 rises dirty if the place where she happens to lie down was dirty. 

 Often she lies down on a little straw, which she has first cov- 

 ered with her manure, and spattered with her urine. Sawdust 

 and dried horse manure were used as a bedding in one dairy of 

 which we have record. 



We cannot expect to give a cow a bath before we milk her, 

 but we can use her as well as we would a dusty coat, and brush 

 off with a stiff broom the loose and dried manure and the other 

 filth that adheres to her sides and flanks. We cannot hope to 

 make the udder perfectly clean, although this is a source of 

 much dust and fine dirty particles, which will be knocked off 

 with every motion of the milker, but we can wipe off the udder 

 with a damp cloth, which will not only remove much dirt, but 

 will also leave the udder moist enough to keep any rain of fine 

 dust particles from falling into the milk. What a little care 

 in this respect will do in improving the condition of the milk 



