EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 291 



before milking, otherwise the filth upon the floor may in one way or another find its 

 entrance to the milk. If the floor is dry and filth is present, or if loose straw or other 

 bedding in a dry state is under the feet of the animal, dust of the worst type must 

 arise due to the movement of the feet of the milker and the animal. It is the 

 practice in some places to use sawdust or other material on a cement floor to prevent 

 slipping. If properly managed this could perhaps be made useful, but the man who 

 uses it will have to be a very conscientious man to keep it in a fit condition. Such 

 methods are resorted to in some of our ideal plants, but frequently what is accom- 

 plished in one direction is overcome in another by a false step. It is much like the 

 surgeon who is very particular about asepsis in surgery, in the absence of germs, 

 and has everything aseptic except h.is scaljiel. It is not advisable or economical, after 

 going to great expense, to undo what has been done by a single false step. It is true 

 conditions will not be so bad, something will be gained, but by carrying the scheme 

 through there is much to be gained in several ways. 



No measure taken in efforts to obtain pure milk appeals to the mind with such 

 force as personal cleanliness of the milker. Although the number of micro-organisms 

 from this source is doubtless much smaller than from other sources, the cleanliness of 

 the milker is indicative of the other movements in the stable and dairy, and the 

 possibility of conveying infection is reduced both by his cleanliness and soundness. 

 The milker must be both a clean man and a sound man, otherwise he is unfit for 

 milking. The foregoing are objective qualifications; subjectively he must be a very 

 conscientious individual. These qualities, in addition to gentleness and pliability of the 

 hands, make a woman a far more suitable person for milking. The man who will 

 come from the field with dirty hands and dirty clothes, and proceed to milk without 

 washing of taking off his filthy outer coverings, is certainly no criterion to follow; 

 nor is he, who simply adds a white duck suit in which to feed the pigs slop, clean 

 the stables and then milk, a much superior beius'. A man who milks should wash his 

 hands before milking and after milking each cow, and should wear a clean suit for milk- 

 ing purposes only. It is nauseating to see a woman working over a meal with a filthy 

 dress or unclean hands, why sliould it not be nauseating to behold a milker in filth 

 laboring over the milk we are to drink? 



There is always danger of individuals working with milk carrying disease-producing 

 micro-organisms to the milk. Slilk is a very good food for these micro-organisms, 

 therefore it is more to be feared in this respect than other foods. If by any chance the 

 hands should be moistened with saliva, or the milker come in contact with some 

 infectious disease or should unknowingly have an infectious disease lurking about him, 

 he at once becomes an agent of disease dissemination and a source of danger to all 

 those who may use the milk coming from his hands. There can be no source of disease 

 dissemination so vitally important, except a patient, as the milker of cows. He needs 

 careful supervision through his own inspection or should be made subject to the inspec- 

 tion of someone else who is competent to judge. 



Many models have been presented to dairymen for the construction of a suitable 

 milk pail. The one principle, the decrease in the amount of surface exposed, is correct, 

 in that it lessens the possibility of contamination to some extent, but greatly increases 

 the difficulties of the milker. This fact needs no expansion, for it is obvious that an 

 increase of milk surface exposed to the contaminating influences of the stable renders 

 the milk more liable to contaminations. Strainers of various kinds can have little 

 influence other than restraining the entrance of coarse particles of insoluble dirt and 

 straws which will have their surfaces thoroughly washed by the impinging streams of 

 milk. All that is obnoxious is therefore carried through the strainer into the milk. 

 The gain will be simply the eradication of unsiLrhtly objects in the milk. The ordinary 

 milk strainers have little significance in cleansing milk from a cow. 



Whatever the nature of the milk pail may be, it is essential that it be properly 

 cleaned and sterilized. In some of our bacteriological studies of milk pails sup- 

 posedly ready for receiving milk, we have been surprised to find not only the seams in 

 the pail rich in bacteria, but also the surface itself. From five hundred thousand to 

 fifty million per gram (1.5 grains) have been estimated in material taken from the 

 corners of milk pails which had received considerable attention in cleaning, and on 

 the surface several thousand per square inch. In some moisture left in the pail which 

 had been put away and had stood for six hours, the number of micro-organisms 

 reached sixty thousand to three hundred thousand per cubic centimeter (about 20 

 drops). The practice of rinsing pails and putting them away till the next milking 

 time is not an uncommon practice. The results detailed above place this undesirable 

 method or operntion in its true light, and thev should not be passed over without 

 yielding a careful consideration of the milk pail problems. 



