New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 61 



but that in practically all cases the spoon samples gave larger counts 

 than the corresponding poured sample. 



Since the thorough mixing of the milk previous to drawing a sample 

 for bacteriological study is in entire accord with the best practice in 

 drawing such a sample for any other purpose and since there is a 

 noticeable tendency for such samples to show a higher bacterial 

 content than when taken in other ways the method of collecting 

 samples with a sterile spoon was adopted throughout this study. 



It should be noted that these observations were made in connec- 

 tion with studies of the milking machine. Since in hand milking 

 the distribution of the contaminated material throughout the milk is 

 naturally more uneven than with machine milking there is here even 

 more necessity for the exercise of care in obtaining a representative 

 sample. Accordingly this technique which was adopted in connec- 

 tion with the study of the machine milking was continued in connec- 

 tion with the studies of hand milking. 



protecting the pails with cloth. 



The result of protecting the pails from the time they were cleaned 

 up to the moment when they were needed by the milkers was tested 

 as follows: Of four similar improved Loy pails which had been 

 cleaned in the same manner, two were protected by tying cloths 

 over their tops before they were placed in the steam box. All 

 the pails were then steamed for 15 minutes. 



The two unprotected pails were taken to the barn with the 

 other dairy utensils while the two protected pails were left in the 

 steam box until milking time and then were taken to the barn by one 

 of the authors ( W) . The cloths were removed and the pails delivered 

 to the milkers just as they were ready to begin the actual milking 

 process. 



Four cows were selected for this experiment and each cow was 

 milked into a separate pail, two of the pails being those which had 

 been protected by cloths and two unprotected. The following day 

 the protective coverings were placed upon the alternate pairs of 

 pails. Each cow was milked each day by the same man into the 

 same pail and care was exercised to keep all of the other barn factors 

 as nearly constant as possible. Under such experimental conditions 

 it would seem that all factors were fairly balanced except the personal 



