Aprils, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 261 



by means of a sterile measure before the addition of salt or preservative. 

 From the plates it was ascertained that one gram of butter contained 443,000 

 micro-organisms. The majority of these, but considerably reduced in 

 numbers, were similar varieties to those found in sample Kl. From the figures 

 in Table I it is seen that nearly two-thirds of the total micro-organisms 

 in the cream before churning, were carried awa}' with the buttermilk. The 

 additional organisms appearing on the plates were Ba^t. ftw.rescens '}wn 

 hquefaciens, Bao.julvum and a streptococcus, the probable source of all of 

 which was the butter-wash water. 



Sam fie Ml^Butter in box after Packing. — After washing, the butter was 

 removed from the churn to another room to be salted and worked on an 

 ordinary 6-foot diameter butter worker (a circular table on which revolved 

 corrugated or fluted rollers). The churn used, as already stated, was of the 

 wooden box type, and of about 1,000 lb. butter capacity. The butter was 

 handled from churn to barrow, fiom barrow to worker, and from worker to 

 package by wooden shovels, and was packed into the latter by means of a 

 wooden rammer. This is mentioned in view of these instruments being possible 

 means of contamination. The sample for plating was taken with a sterile 

 measure from (and near the surface of) lyhe butter in the box. From these 

 plates it was shown that one gram of butter contained 2,244,000 micro- 

 organisms. Of these 1,330,000 coagulated milk with production of lactic 

 acid, 1,000,000 were of the Bad. laotis acidi type and 10,000 a lactic bacillus 

 of Bad. bulgaricus type and may be classed as desirable lactose ferraenters, 

 while 320,000 were streptococci, varieties of which are often associated with 

 disease conditions. Amongst the 724,000 gelatin liquefiers and casein 

 digesters, were present j) rote ws mirahilis, Baot. fluorescens Hquefaciens, staphJo- 

 cozcus aureus, micrococcus flaws. Bact. Zopfii, a variety of proteus which 

 does not liquefy gelatin, was also present. One thousand undesirable lactose 

 fermenters, 5«ci. /oc^is ffro^'eJtes, were found. The 150,000 making litmus 

 milk alkaline Avere of both spherical and rod forms. The yeasts and oidium 

 lactis numbered 20,000, while the 20,000 mould growths were Cladosporiiwi 

 Iierharnm and two species of Penicillium. 



Sample N — Butter Wash Water. — The water used for washing the butter 

 was obtained from the ordinary town supply, and was delivered into a large 

 tank where it was subjected to a process of chilling before using. The 

 sample for plating was collected into a sterile vessel from the delivery pipe in 

 the churn room. Fi-om the counts it was found that 1 c.c. of water contained 

 329 mici'o-organisms ; of these, twentj'-seven, comprising Bact. fluorescens 

 Hquefaciens, Bact. rnycoides, Micrococcus flavus, were able to liquefy gelatin 

 and digest the casein of milk. There were five colonies of a micrococcus 

 which produced acid in litmus milk but failed to coagulate it in three v/eeks, 

 while six streptococci readily produced both acid and clot. Two hundred 

 and eighty of the total bacteria in the water were inert or caused slight 

 alkalinity when inoculated into litmus milk. There were present two colonies 

 of pink yeast or torula, while the nine mould growths were species of Clado- 

 sporium, Phoma, PenicUlium, and Mucor. 



B 



