STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION, 387 



command the highest price on the market, the profits will come back to 

 the producer; but if butter is made that brings two or three cents 

 less to the pound, the producer of the cream has got to take that less — • 

 he must bear the brunt of it. 



Noiv, hozo can we produce a good quality of cream? In the first 

 place, the matter of cleanliness is all important, and this is something so 

 many of us do not understand. We think that the only dirt there is, 

 is the dirt that we can see and knock off with our hands ; sure enough, 

 that is dirt — but there is in our work as dairymen a possibility of putting 

 dirt into our milk that we cannot see. The average milker does not 

 realize this, the average dairyman doesn't know he is having any trouble 

 along that line until he gets word from his creamery that his cream is 

 bad. The question of dirt is largely a question that involves the study 

 of bacteria. If we inoculate our milk with germs of any kind, these 

 germs are going to grow and develop in the milk, and it breaks down 

 certain parts of that milk; it is the breaking down of those parts that 

 gives the milk the peculiar flavor we sometimes get ; and when we speak 

 of that "cowy" odor, it is caused largely from the dirt that gets into the 

 milk pail; and the butter or cheese made from that milk will have the 

 same characteristics ; the buttermaker cannot get rid of it. 



Must Have Clean Cozus. — One of the essential things in getting 

 clean milk is to milk clean cows with clean hands. You may have 

 heard these things time and again, but it is a thing that ought to be em- 

 phasized again and again, because it is a most serious proposition with 

 you. That cow must be clean when you milk her. You will sit down 

 and go to milking when the udder is loaded with dust and straw and, of 

 course, that dirt goes into the milk pail. Now, if the dirt you can see 

 was all that went into the pail, you would not have much trouble; we 

 could run it through the separator and take that dirt out. Some people 

 do that and think that is all that is necessary ; but each particle that goes 

 into that milk contains something else besides the dirt we can see. It 

 is loaded with germ life of various kinds. That germ life enters the 

 milk when it is warm, when the conditions are best for growth — they are 

 of minute growth — just as when you put a seed of corn in the warm 

 soil, and under right conditions of warmth and moisture and sunshine, 

 that seed will begin to grow, these germs get into the milk and the con- 

 ditions are just right; there is moisture and food and warmth, they 

 grow very rapidly, they multiply themselves every few seconds, their 

 reproduction is enormous, and just as long as we leave the milk under 

 warm conditions those germs will continue to develop and the milk 

 will sour. The first step is to keep these germs out of the milk, and 



