No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 285 



Third: The use of a small top or strainer top milk pail with open- 

 ing held as near the udder as is practical. 



Fourth: Absolutely clean hands on the part of the milker and 

 clothing free from dust which may be scattered in the air by the 

 movements of the milker. 



Fifth: The removal of the milk from the stable atmosphere and 

 cooling to a temperature as near 45 degrees or lower as possible, 

 within a short time after milking. 



Sixth: That method of bottling and handling which gets the milk 

 to the consumer with the fewest possible exposures to the air and 

 preferably not over 24 hours from the time it is drawn from ihi 

 cow, having in the meantime been kept cold and not exposed to 

 the air. 



Whitewashed ceilings, varnished walls, cement floors, iron stalls, 

 white uniformed milkers, expensive apparatus for cooling, stone 

 milk houses, etc., may all be used in the securing of this kind of 

 milk. They may create an atmosphere and an espi^it de^ corps, 

 which makes it easier to secure milk of this quality, but after all is 

 said and done they alone will not secure it; on the other hand the 

 absence of all of these fittings but the efficient compliance with 

 the conditions I have named may secure a wholesome product with- 

 out any of them, though more effort will the required. 



The one thing that is essential in addition to what I have named 

 is moral integrity and a little knowledge of the why of these things, 

 with suflScient nerve and push to comply with the conditions twice 

 a day, 365 days in the year, without the arm of the law poised 

 threateningly over the milk producer and handler. 



I cannot leave this subject without a further word on pasteuriza- 

 tion, that excuse or substitute for what ought to have been done. 

 While there is no question that the clean, cold, raw, fresh milk 

 is very much better than any milk Pasteurized under most condi- 

 tions, it is nevertheless true that efficiently Pasteurized milk under 

 some conditions is the lesser of two evils. The objection to it is 

 that in many ca'ses it is used as a shield for carelessness, uncleanli- 

 ness, and even positive filthiness. It is all too common to run the 

 milk through a so-called Pasteurizer and assure efficient Pasteuriza- 

 tion. Many times I have asked the operator ''what temperature do 

 you Pasteurize at?" after receiving his aswer I have looked at his 

 thermometer and found his practice to 5 to 10 degrees below his 

 statement. Thus has he depended on the Pasteurizer to do certain 

 things, or to in part atone for things left undone; and then the 

 Pasteurization is so conducted as to fail to do what it might have 

 done or what it was right to expect it to have done. 



Efficient Pasteurization should heat the milk to a temperature of 

 163 degrees at least and preferably should hold it there for ten 

 minutes, while there are material advantages in heating it to a 

 lower temperature for a longer time. The commercial difficulties 

 have not made this practice general though one establishment I 

 know of heats to 145 degrees for one-half hour, and once a week 

 ships 2,000 gallons of this milk from New York to the Isthmus of 

 Panama, whore it is used during the ensuing week. In this case, 

 however, only the best milk is used for Pasteurization. 



Carelessness in the ordinary practice of Pasteurization has 



