Timely Hints for Farmers. 91 



rising in a cloud of dust whenever the cows are brought in to 

 milk. In the next place, the animal should be tied during milk- 

 ing. The ordinary stanchions used on some of the ranches in the 

 Salt River Valley are cheap and efficient for this purpose. By 

 using them the cows are kept quiet and dust avoided, the animals 

 may always have a clean place to stand, they are more easily 

 handled and much time is saved. 



The body of the cow is perhaps the most fruitful source of 

 trouble. It should be brushed to remove the loose hair and par- 

 ticles of dirt, and the udder and adjacent parts dampened by the 

 use of a moist cloth or sponge. The indifferent man will scoff at 

 this suggestion, but experience has shown that it is a practical 

 thing to do. In an experiment made by Dr. Russell of the Wis- 

 consin experiment station, it was found that the contamination 

 was nearly twenty-nine times greater when these precautions were 

 not observed than when they were. 



The milker's hands and clothing should be clean. This goes 

 without saying. Yet too many fail to grasp the real meaning of 

 what they know to be true. This word, clean, is the same word 

 and has the same meaning as that word, clean, used to describe 

 the desirable condition of a Sunday shirt. 



In spite of all these precautions some germs will find ' their 

 way into the milk. If they did not increase in number their pres- 

 ence would not be especially harmful. Milk, however, is an ideal 

 food for them and precautions must be promptly taken to check 

 their growth. At a temperature of from 70 degrees F. to 90 de- 

 grees F. their development is probably most rapid. At below 60 

 degrees F. it is comparatively slow. Dr. Russell found in a sam- 

 ple of milk, held for twenty-four hours at 59 degrees F. one hun- 

 dred and sixty-three times as many germs as at first; while in 

 milk held for the same length of time at 77 degrees F. he found 

 over sixty-two thousand times as many as at first. As the tem- 

 perature of the bod}' of the cow is about 100 degrees F. the neces- 

 sity of using every available means to cool the milk down to 60 

 degrees, or better lower, as soon after milking as possible, is very 

 apparent. For this work the use of an aerator is indispensable. 

 The aeration of the milk, aside from the cooling, is especially bene- 

 ficial when the milk is to be used for cheese making. 



