352 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



changed from can to can ; it will bear almost any reasonable 

 abuse ; but if you strain your morning's milk into a partially filled 

 can of night's milk, you spoil it. 



Souring is not the only difficulty to which milk is subject. It 

 is liable to receive a bad odor while it is in the process of curing 

 if there are any ba^ odors about the building. It must be kept 

 clean and sweet, and in a sweet place. No article is more sensi- 

 tive than milk to "bad odors. 



Milk, also, at certain seasons of the year possesses peculiar prop- 

 erties that have to be controlled. When the cows, from the scanty 

 pastures of spring and the dry hay of the barn, are first turned to 

 the full flush of feed in June, a peculiar condition of the milk is 

 induced, which must be carefully guarded against. We found that 

 those milkmen in New York knew a great deal more about milk 

 than we supposed they did. We supposed they knew very little 

 about it, but they are mostly Germans, and verj' shrewd in the 

 business. They understand the quality of the milk we send them 

 perfectly well. When the cows have a flush of feed in June, the 

 milk, unless it is prepared with extraordinary care, will be what is 

 called "strong." It will have an animal odor so strongly devel- 

 oped that it is not fit for food. It is found that there is no way in 

 which this animal odor can be so thoroughly corrected, and this 

 peculiar fault of the milk cured, so well as by the addition of a 

 small quantity of cold water at the time of milking. It is at a 

 season of the year when dairymen would not naturally desire to 

 add water, because there is a flush of milk in the market, his cus- 

 tomers do not demand more milk than he can furnish, he has, or- 

 dinarily, more than he can sell ; but in order to cure the milk with 

 perfect satisfaction, it is desirable to add a small quantity of water. 



I was sending my milk to a neighbor's spring to be cured, a dis- 

 tance of half a mile. It was sent to market perfectly pure, without 

 any water in it, and complaint came that that milk was strong. I 

 directed my man to put two quarts of cold water into one half of 

 the milk that he carried to the spring, and take down the numbers 

 on those cans so treated ; and the neighbor who had the spring in 

 charge, twelve hours after, when th(! milk was taken out, examined 

 it, and selected those cans into which the water had been put, by 

 the better condition of tlie milk. The experiment was repeated 

 several times, and he invariably selected the cans that had the two 

 quarts of cold water in them, as being entirely destitute of this 

 disagreeable odor. The necessity for this passes away in a very 



