lO^iO] 



DAIRY FARMING — DAIRYING. 



379 



years, respectively, beglnnini; in March, IDlti. Field agents employed by the 

 station kept accounts on 2't farms each year in each locality. At Howell the 

 records cover 1,240 and at Wei)i)enille 731 cow years. In both districts most 

 of the milk was sold for condensing jiurposes. A preliminary report of the 

 Livingston C(»unty data has been nott'd (E. S. R., 42, p. 377). 



Costs were computed on the "cow" ba.sis and the customary charge for 

 iiianagerial ability was included. The costs are averagetl by months for each 

 district, l)\it not as in the earlier study itemized by farms. The annual pro- 

 duction jier cow was 7,211 lbs. at Howell and G,047 lbs. at Webbervillo. In both 

 localities, milk production was heavier in winter than in summer. The follow- 

 ing table combines the data from both areas to determine the commodity cost 

 of production : 



Arcrai/e amounts of feed und hihor expended per 100 lbs. of milk. 



The sum of the costs of the indlvidiml feed and labor items multiplied by 

 the corrective factor gave the total cost of producing 100 lbs. of milk. 



In both districts each year milk was marketed at a loss. 



A comparison, with the standard plate method, of some rapid methods 

 for bacteriologic analy.sis of milk, J. E. Simmons (Jour. Infect. Discaites, 24 

 (1919), No. /,, pp. 32Z-SS6, fujs. 2).— The j.uthor, working at the Wisconsin Ex- 

 periment Station, reports parallel analyses of 136 milk samples by live different 

 methods, viz, the direct microscopic (Kreed), standard agar plate, lacto.se jjlate, 

 little plate (Frost), and methylene blue reduction test. 



The standard plate, lacto.se plate, and little plate methods gave closely com- 

 parable results for milks containing le.ss than 1,000,000 bacteria per cubic centi- 

 meter, while the direct microscopic method gave counts that were so variable 

 (raw milk alone considered) that the method is deemed unreliable for the 

 better grades of milk. For more richly see<led milk the lactose plate counts 

 were about 50 jier cent higher than the standard plate counts, the direct micro- 

 scopic counts came very close to the .standard counts, and the little plate counts 

 were lower. 



Some erratic variations occurretl in the time In which different cla.sses of 

 milk reduced the methylene blue solution. However, when these were smoothed 

 out by applying a moving average, a curve was obtained which closely approxi- 

 mated the results obtained by the culture methods. The time required for 

 reduction was .somewhat longer than that recordetl by other observers, and it is 

 suggested that a weaker .solution would make the test still more rapid. 



A clean milk sujjply, K. K. Ti-.nnk.nt (Que(n.^htnd Af/r. Jour., 13 (1920), No. 

 -}, pp. 151-1(>1, flfis. 6). — This is a general review of the problem of the bac- 

 teriological control of milk. Data secured at the Queensland Agricultural Col- 

 lege are cited to show the desirability of moisti-ning a cow's udder with a damp 

 doth just i»rior to milking. The adoption of refrigerator cars to tran.sport 

 market milk is recommended for Australia. 



