112 THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



ogy to enhance the keeping- qualities of milk and hence make 

 it an article which can stand longer transportation than for- 

 merly, thus bringing Vermont milk as a possibility for the 

 Boston market. It is now known that the decay or souring 

 of milk is caused by the bacteria in the air which gets into 

 the milk, that in the air of a filthy barn bacteria are much 

 more numerous than where cleanliness prevails; that the first 

 half hour of the life of milk is the critical time with it. 

 Hence, if milk is drawn under as cleanly conditions as possi- 

 ble and immediately cooled, it will keep a long time and can 

 be transported many miles without deterioration. Professor 

 Conn, a well known expert in dairy bacteriology, says that in 

 many instances the milk supply of large cities which has been 

 shipped long distances is of superior quality, because increas- 

 ed precautions have been rendered necessary. 



These bacteriological investigations have led in many in- 

 stances to the establishing of fancy dairies in the vicinity of 

 large cities for the production of milk under ideal conditions, 

 for which a fancy price is received. In these stables the most 

 scrupulous cleanliness prevails. Barns are carefully swept 

 and kept as clean as any house. In some instances the walls 

 are of tile so that they can be daily washed with the hose. 

 Utensils are thoroughly cleansed and sterilized. (And right 

 here allow me to say parenthetically, that the common, every 

 day farmer should not be scared at the new-fangled, high- 

 sounding word, "sterilization.") Sterilizing is merely heating 

 to such a degree as to kill all forms of bacterie, and is noth- 

 ing more or less, so far as milk utensils are concerned, than 

 the common, old-fashioned word of "scalding." Every uten- 

 sil connected with the dairy should be thoroughly scalded. 



In these fancy dairies the uien employed are required to 

 practice great personal cleanliness, and are expected to wash 

 their hands before milking as much as before going into the 

 house to eat. They have special clothes of white duck, kept 

 scrupulously clean, in which to milk. All this may seem to 

 you over much fuss and feathers and may be impractical on 

 the everyday farm, but there is a lesson taught in the scru- 

 pulous cleanliness and attention to minute detail in these fan- 

 cy dairies which can be applied to greater or less degree with 

 profit in every dairy. 



Turning to the future, two things suggest themselves as to 

 the needs of the sale milk business. The first is studying the 

 cost of production. This has been emphasized repeatedly at 

 these meetings from the standpoint of the butter maker. It 

 has been shown by Governor Hoard what a vast difference 

 there is in the average maximum and minimum production of 

 cows making milk for butter, and what a wide variation there 



