CURING MILK. . 349 



Connecticut ; ttc are 120 miles from New York, and locations forty 

 miles above us, as far north as Pittsfield, Mass., send milk over 

 the same road, making- a distance of 160 miles, which milk is sent 

 to New Yoit on that line. The Harlem Railroad runs parallel to 

 the Housatonic, about twenty miles from us, on the west. The 

 farmers on that road have been engaged in the milk business for 

 many years, and we have known of the increasing- fertility of their 

 farms under this system, for before they sent milk they were en- 

 gag-ed in raising- grain mostly. We have noticed the increased 

 fertility of their farms, and their increased incomes from the milk 

 business, and the general appearance of thrift and success which 

 their farms and buildings exhibited, and we were anxious to es- 

 tablish a milk train upon our road. Three years ago it was estab- 

 lished. We have the same facilities for sending milk to market that 

 are enjoyed by persons living on the line of the Harlem Railroad, 

 the Hudson River Railroad, the Erie Railroad, and the other rail- 

 roads centering in New York. It is delivered by the railroad com- 

 panies in the city at a cent and a half a quart, they returning the 

 cans. It makes no difference whether you are 20 or 100 miles from 

 market, the charge is the same upon those roads. A can of milk 

 iu the New York market is forty quarts ; there are a few larger 

 cans and a few smaller ones, holding only twenty or thirty quarts, 

 but, practically, the milk goes to market in forty-quart cans, and 

 by a can is understood that quantity. The milk that is drawn to- 

 night and to-morrow morning leaves the dairy to-morrow afternoon 

 and is delivered to customers in New York the next morning. 



Tlie manner of preparing this milk I will now^ describe. It is 

 very simple, yet there are certain conditions which we find must 

 he complied with. The milk pails and cans, and everything con- 

 nected with them, must be perfectly sweet and clean; and we 

 find that sal soda is the best and cheapest material to facilitate the 

 washing of the cans and pails. Bought by the keg, it is very 

 cheap, costing but a inw cents a pound, and even at retail it is 

 very cheap. A very small quantity of it dissolved in water is a 

 superior substitute for soap in cleansing the dairy utensils. The 

 cans, after they are washed and scalded, must be aired. I sup- 

 posed it was an old wife's notion to put the milking pans out of 

 doors in the sun all day, and after they were washed and scalded 

 in the morning, we put the lids upon the cans, closed them up and 

 set them aside. Something wrong ! The milk was returned sour 

 — a bad odor to it. An examination of the cans by an old dealer 



