1902.] STORRS EXPERIMENT STATION — DAIRYING. 245 



One of the most important branches of the work of the 

 station, and the second most important to my mind, is our 

 dairy studies. I think that our most important work is this 

 study of the nutrition of animals and man with the Respira- 

 tion Calorimeter. Not so immediately practical, perhaps, 

 but, in the long run, the most important and useful. Next 

 to that, however, I think our most important work has been 

 the study of the bacteriology of the dairy. It would be very 

 unseemly for me here to tell you how very enthusiastic some 

 of tis'are getting over some of this work. My enthusiasm 

 would probably get the better of me and you might charge 

 me with blowing my own trumpet, especially if I were to 

 talk the way I feel. But I believe it all the same. The sta- 

 tion has been the pioneer among all the experiment stations 

 of the United States in this kind of inquiry. When the sta- 

 tion first started, my colleague. Prof. Conn, at Wesleyan, was 

 interested in biology and bacteriology, and I suggested that 

 he should try some experiments. He did so with a little aid 

 from the station, and has kept at the work ever since, and 

 you know more or less of what he has done by way of prog- 

 ress in that line. We have learned that one of the most im- 

 portant questions that the farmer or dairyman has to deal 

 with today arises from these little organisms — bacteria. 

 It is becoming more and more clear that success in the 

 handling of milk and making of butter and cheese is largely 

 a matter of the management of bacteria. In other words, the 

 successful dairyman needs to be a practical bacteriologist. 

 The milkman must know how to control the bacteria and 

 prevent their becoming too numerous and active in the milk 

 he sells. The butter maker must keep the wrong ones out 

 of the cream, and make sure that it contains the right ones, 

 if his butter is to have the best flavor, and bring the best 

 price. How he shall do this the science of bacteriology is be- 

 ginning to show him. If he is careful to keep his stable, his 

 cows, his milk vessels, and his dairy scrupulously clean, the 

 bacteria which get into the milk and cream will generally 

 help him to make tolerably good butter. But he cannot al- 

 ways be sure that it will be the best, and at times it is apt to 

 be damaged, in spite of the best care, unless he has some way 

 of definitely controlling the bacteria. 



For a considerable number of years Prof. Conn and his 



