118 Journal uf A yriciiltiire, Victoria. [10 Feb., 1917. 



trouble to be anytbing but what it really is, viz., a typical ease of 

 acute mammitis. Again, although they may notice in the niilk-strainei 

 a small clot of what appears to be curd, they never think for a momem 

 to connect this trifling matter with mammitis, although it .should at 

 once be recognised as a danger signal to warn them of the disease, 

 and every care should be taken to combat it in its earliest stages. If 

 on drawing the fore-milk from a cow's teats it be found to contain 

 clots, the cow should be isolated, and treated for mammitis, as advised by 

 Mr. Talbot. 



Many cows have been found to have their milk clotted for some 

 time, then apparently became normal, and later on became clotted 

 again. These cows, where they were not treated, invariably became 

 utterly iLseless as milkers, although in some cases it took more than a 

 year to justify their exclusion from the herd. 



In a large herd, where several milkers are straining n)ilk into the 

 same can, it is harder to detect a cow that is only occasionally showing 

 clots in her milk than it would be in a smaller herd, where only one 

 or two were milking the cows. ITevertheless, no effort should be spared 

 to discover her. This can be done by examining the fore-milk drawn 

 from each teat, milked on to the palm of the hand; the clots, if present, 

 will generally stick to the hand. If this fails, each cow's milk should 

 be strained separately, until the one sought is discovered. No cow's 

 milk that is showing clots should be mixed with the bulk milk, and the 

 precaution of separately straining each cow's milk before mixing should 

 be observed in a herd where mammitis is suspected. The careful owner 

 will take no risks by considering it is only a temporary trouble that will 

 right itself; but will at once resort to the treatment for mammitis, or 

 else engage the services of a veterinary surgeon to treat the case. 



Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the advice to isolate the 

 affected cow, disinfect the hands of the milker, buckets, sheds, &c., and 

 also to destroy all milk from an affected udder. This latter is very 

 important, as sometimes a milker will throw the purulent matter from 

 an affected udder out over the yard fence, and let it lie there for the 

 flies to inoculate other members of the herd. This is one of the 

 occasions where the dirtv and careless dairvman brings trouble to him- 

 self. 



Even the cows suspected of having nuimmitis should be kept by 

 themselves, and always milked last of the herd. 



The milk from an affected udder should never on any account be 

 used for household purposes. Professional men have no hesitation in 

 saying that the consumption of milk from cows affected with mammitis 

 is a great danger to infant life, and is possibly the cause of many of 

 the bowel complaints of young children. 



People frequently continue to use the milk from a cow that is only 

 affected in one quarter, in the belief that the rest of the milk is clean 

 and wholesome. There is, of course, the bare possibility of this being 

 so; but when we consider the serious results that may happen through 

 the consumption of milk that is contaminated, it is evidently very unwise 

 to risk i^eople's health for the sake of pecuniary gain. 



To show the bearing that cleanly methods of handling cows may 

 have on this disease, in one herd where it was found to be causing 



