The Bulletin. 71 



the milk only after it has coine to the creamery, the method up to this time be- 

 ing practically the same as far as it is possible to do it. As soon as the milk 

 comes to the milk plant — not more than an hour or so should elapse before 

 getting it to the plant — it should be treated so that it will be changed but 

 little, if any, from what it was when received. The proposition then is to 

 maintain this condition until the milk is put into the hands of the consumer; 

 to do this it is necessary to destroy the germ content of the milk as far as 

 possible, as milk two or three hours old contains large numbers of bacteria ; 

 to destroy these bacteria and not affect materially the taste of the milk is 

 what is desired to be done. This can be done by raising the temperature of 

 the milk to from 140 to 160 degrees F. and maintaining this temperature a 

 sufficient time to destroy the bacteria present; this period will be longer in 

 the case of the lower temperature ; twenty minutes at 1G0 degres F. destroys 

 practically all bacteria present in milk. This treatment is called pasteuriza- 

 tion. After the milk has been pasteurized, the germs being practically de- 

 stroyed, a condition of temperature should be provided which will prevent 

 the growth of such bacteria as may get in afterwards. This we do by reduc- 

 ing the temperature of the milk to a point at which the bacteria cannot de- 

 velop — or as near 33 degrees as possible. To maintain this temperature until 

 delivery the milk is frozen to some extent, about ten to twenty per cent of the 

 can being frozen ; this, with the protection the felt jackets give will main- 

 tain the temperature from 12 to 15 hours at about 33 to 35 degrees F. It is 

 understood that such precautions in the way of washing and sterilizing all 

 vessels used in connection with handling the milk, both before and after pas- 

 teurizing, as has been indicated, are most important. After the milk or cream, 

 as the case may be, has been pasteurized and partly frozen it can be held in 

 cold storage at a temperature of 30 degrees F. for several days without its 

 condition being affected but very slightly. Milk and cream prepared in this 

 way can be handled between points which can be reached within 3G hours 

 very successfully ; in fact, our creamery ' at Blacksburg has shipped cream 

 prepared for shipment, as has been indicated, to points requiring 30 hours to 

 make delivery. Cream has been shipped, prepared for shipment, as has been 

 indicated, from the creamery at V. P. I. to Palm Beach, Fla., a distance of 

 1,200 miles, requiring 3G hours for delivery; to New Orleans, La., 800 miles, 

 and requiring about 24 hours, also to Little Rock, Ark., and various points in 

 North Carolina — from the mountains in the west to the seacoast on the east. 

 Milk, treated in the above manner, could be as successfully handled as cream. 



