440 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



great benefit to the general community if all the milk in our large- 

 Australian towns underwent the same process. The liability to con- 

 tracting disease would be minimised, and the keeping quality of the 

 milk increased. This system has been adopted by many leading dairy 

 firms in Great Britain, and its virtues have been confirmed by bacterio- 

 logical investigations. In Adelaide there is also a firm which has 

 adopted the system with marked success ; this, however, is a mere 

 bagatelle to what is really required. What we want in our large towns 

 are central de})0ts, either municipal, co-operative or proprietary, 

 where all milk could be pasteurized and cooled before being handed 

 to the consumer. The system should be adopted not as an easy way 

 out of the dairyman's responsibilities, but as a safeguard, which any 

 practical man must feel it necessary to make, even after everything 

 possible has been done to ensure cleanliness and freedom from 

 contagion. 



There are those, however, who fear that its adoption will encourage 

 carelesness at the source of sup})ly, and are evidently prepared to let 

 our citizens run the risk of an occasional ejjidemic by their choice of 

 a probable for an absolute guarantee. It would be grand to look 

 forward to the day Avhen all who attend to the milk supply, would 

 exercise the care of a surgeon in an 0])erating theatre, but I am 

 afraid we will never attain this most desirable end. Our municipal 

 and sanitary inspectors may see that the water supply of the dairy 

 is free from contamination, and that the arrangements are everything 

 that is required. The farmer may be compelled to see that the udders 

 of the cows are healthy and clean, that the milkers' hands are 

 washed previous to milking, and that he shall give immediate intima- 

 tion of the appearance of any disease in his household or amongst his 

 cattle, but however anxious we may be to have these conditions 

 carried out, a visit to a farm on a wet, wintry morning will modify 

 the liopes of the most sanguine. 



Too often the cows are tb-iven in from the paddocks into the 

 yards, where there is no cover for them to dry, they are bailed up, the 

 udder is covered with mud and dung, and is never washed, it being too 

 dark to see, the milker begins operations at once, the rain-water comes 

 trickling off the cow's back into the bucket, gathering in its course 

 goodness knows what, and besides the water there is a large amount 

 of dirt falling from the udder. 



The milkers may wash their hands, but almost invariably it is 

 done in the same bucket of water, unless there is a tap, and their 

 hands dried with a piece of old bag, whose chief merit is that of 

 not showing when it is dirty. However, there are to be found in 

 Victoria some of the best dairymen it is possible to meet, 

 who attend to every particular detail, but these I am afraid are greatly 

 in the minority. 



The tuberculin test may be applied to the herds, but it is found 

 that in carrying out this test, there are always a few in every 

 herd that re-act in a manner which raises doubt as to their being free 

 from the disease, and often these animals are given the benefit 



