DAIRY MHIETING. 183 



is shown by the following figures. The bacteria that were 

 present in milk from a cow with unwiped udder numbered 

 7,058 per c. c, while those in a milk from the same cow when 

 the udder had been wiped gave but 716 per c. c. ; a decrease 

 of 6,342 bacteria per c. c, due simply to going over the udder 

 quickly with a wet rag. Also it is estimated that 32 times as 

 much solid dirt falls from the dry as from the moist udders. 

 Also we can tie down the cow's tail, so that she may not use it 

 as a club to pound off dirt from her sides, while she is being 

 milked. Such simple methods as these will give surprising 

 results in the physical appearance of the milk, and will enor- 

 mously cut down the bacterial content. 



We cannot ask for concrete floors in our stalls, which we 

 can flush clean with a hose, but we can see that the floor is 

 dropped slightly behind the cow, so that all the excrement will 

 fall to a slightly lower level, where the cow will not spend her 

 time trampling in it; and the floor of the stall can itself be 

 lightly sprinkled with water just before milking, so as to pre- 

 vent dust being stirred up from it, which dust we have seen 

 contains the causative agent of infantile intestinal diseases, as 

 well as the other inhabitants of the cow's intestine. Cob- 

 webs can be brushed from the walls and ceiling without any 

 great expense or effort, so that they will not drop the dust that 

 has accumulated on them in the milk ; and the feeding of the 

 animals can be done long enough before the milking, so that 

 no dust need be in the air from this source to contaminate the 

 milk, or the feeding may be done after the milking. 



The milk pails need not be of the wide-top variety, which 

 seem especially made to be dirt traps, but they should be of 

 the small-top variety. This small opening can even easily be 

 covered by a couple of layers of fine mesh cloth, between which 

 is a layer of cotton. This will exclude the solid dirt while 

 milking, but it does not take the place of cleanliness of animal 

 and stall, as it does not exclude the bacteria not clinging to the 

 solid dirt. If the precautions above mentioned are observed 

 in respect to the cow and stall the bacteria that pass through 

 the cotton strainer should not only be few, but should be only 

 dairy bacteria. Here also further improvement can be made 

 by the use of a pail of pressed metal in place of the common 

 pail of tin with soldered joints. This pail will contain no un- 



