490 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The cream trade, which has largely increased of late, is described, 

 together with the sale of skiin milk, buttermilk, condensed milk, etc. 

 The rather surprising statement is made that although a great deal of 

 surplus milk is made into butter after it reaches Boston, furnishing 

 quite a large supply of skim milk, the greater part of it is allowed to 

 run into the sewers, as there is no market for it. 



The milk laws and inspection are discussed, together with a consid- 

 eration of the quality of milk sold in different cities. 



"All of the States have laws relative to the health fulness of the milk supply. 

 Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire prohibit the sale of milk 

 from sick or diseased cows or cows fed upon the refuse of breweries or distilleries or 

 upon any substance deleterious to its quality. Connecticut prohibits the sale of 

 'impure milk' and milk from cows which shall have been adjudged by the commis- 

 sion upon diseases of domestic animals to be affected with tuberculosis or other 

 blood disease. A Massachusetts law imposes a line upon ' whoever knowingly feeds 

 or has in his possession with intent to feed to any milch cow any garbage, refuse, or 

 offal collected by any city or town.' There is, however, no especial sanitary inspec- 

 tion of milk and its sources in any New England town or city. . . . 



"Local boards of health, however, have considerable authority, and in several 

 cases they have issued orders or made regulations in advance of the average practice 

 of the State." 



The germs in milk; studies of foremilk of cows, J. Nelson {New 

 Jersey Stas. Rpt. 1897, pp. 195-223). — The following is the author's sum- 

 mary of his work in these lines: 



" Studies of the germs of milk, quantitatively considered, relative to the sources of con- 

 tamination. — Gelatin cultures were made from milk as freshly drawn from the cow, 

 and the number of bacterial colonies developing were counted; then the increase in 

 the germ content during cooling was determined; next, the increase due to the 

 process of bottling. It was found that the germs multiply during the time elapsing 

 before the milk is cooled, ami that the various utensils with which the milk comes in 

 contact during handling, cooling, bottling, etc., each contributes its quota of germ 

 contamination, so that the germ content of the milk at the time it is placed in cold 

 storage, within an hour after milking, is already 10 times as great as at first. The 

 principal source of contamination was found to be the valves of the bottling machine. 

 The first milk passing undergoes a doubling in its germ content. 



"As an appendix to this section, the use of the [Star] cooler as a pasteurizing 

 apparatus is considered. Steam is turned through the 'cooler' in place of cold water, 

 and the resultant temperature of the milk is 150° F. Germ cultures showed a decrease 

 in germ content of (>.!»"> under the crudest conditions and immediate cooling. Thus 

 it appears as if this method could, with slight improvements, become successful and 

 practicable. 



"Studies of the foremilk of cows. — The first milk drawn from the udder, with 

 aseptic precautions, was observed macroscopically. The different spurts were kept 

 in separate tubes, and from each teat of each cow 3 different samples were prepared. 

 The time elapsing before acidity developed and subsequent clotting was noted, and 

 to aid in this determination the milk was colored with litmus from the start. A 

 most complex variety of results was obtained, whose import can not be shown until 

 the various germs producing the changes have been isolated and studied in pure 

 cultures. The practical aim in this work is the development of a method of milk 

 analysis which shall be expeditious, and shall give an idea of the quality of the 

 bacterial flora which the individual cow favors and harbors in her udder. This has 



