DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 



CONNECTICUT. 



With tlie exception of a brief article on tlie subject of frnit-culture, 

 the eighth annual report of the Connecticut State Board of Agricult- 

 ure, for the years lS74-'7o, is entirely devoted to a discussion of ques- 

 tions relating to the production and manufacture of milk. The work is 

 of more than average value, as many of the papers and discussions are 

 of an exhaustive character. 



The annual meeting was held at ISew Haven, May 27, 1874. A farmers' 

 convention, under the management of the board, convened at Wood- 

 stock, December 16, 1874, and continued for three days. Milk, its pro- 

 duction and manufacture, was the only subject discussed. Leading 

 agriculturists and dairymen were in attendance from various sections of 

 the countiy and took an active part in the discussions. 



Mr. T. tS. Gold, secretary to the Board, opened the discussion. He 

 stated that there was not only a diminished num ber of cattle in the country, 

 but also a decreased production per acre of grass and other forage-plants. 

 To remedy this evil, as it relates to, and has a direct bearing upon, dairy 

 products, he advises the rearing and keeping of a better grade of cows — 

 cows that will give more milk on the same amount of feed — thereby in- 

 creasing the profits of the dairy by decreasing the cost incident to 

 keeping a larger number of cattle. Not only the quantity of the milk 

 may be thus increased, but the quality also may be greatly improved. 

 He says : 



Cows differ almost as nnich ia the quality of their milk as they do in their external 

 form and appearance. The amount of the principal constituents, as casein or curd, 

 butter, oil, and sugar, can be easily ascertained and their variations marked, but there 

 are more subtle qualities, giving rise to flavor and to its hygienic properties, which, 

 while more difficult of determination, are of no less importance in a sanitary point of 

 view and in the estimation of the customer. If the product varies so much when the 

 animal is in health, how will it be when disease supervenes to form another important 

 element in the calculation? Cows pften continue to give a good flow of milk under 

 local and constitutional disorders. The cow-pox, the fouls, garget, disturbances of the 

 alimentary canal, foot and mouth disease, and pleuro-pneumonia, though interrupt- 

 ing, do not always prevent, the secretion of milk. The cow-pox, even in its mildest 

 form, often causes the teats to crack and bleed, and the exudation may drop into the 

 pail. Harsh handling of the udder in milking, or some slight injury, often causes one- 

 quarter to give bloody milk; and garget, when it does not entirely stop the flow of 

 milk, injures its quality in all degrees of vileness. All the secretions of an unhealthy 

 animal must be tainted, and milk is no exception. * * * Garlic and onions, and in 

 some degree the cabbage family, to which the turnip belongs, give their peculiar odor 

 to the milk. "Weedy pastures al)Ound in vegetation of strong odors and taste, liable to 

 be transferred to the milk. Drink as well as food may introduce impurities. Out of 

 one hundred and seventy families supplied with milk from a dairy in Islington, En- 

 gland, seventy suffered from typhoid fever. One hundred and sixty-eight individual 

 cases occurred in ten weeks, and thirty died. An investigation showed that the cowa 

 drank water from an old underground tank, built of wood and much decayed. * * * 

 Professor Law, of Cornell University, relates a similar case where tbe milk had a ropy or 

 slimy character, and a microscopic examination reve.aled the jjresence of certain ani- 

 mated germs, which had their rise in the filthy pool from which the cows drank. These 

 entered into the secreted milk, and there multiplied to such a degree as to render it 

 entirely unfit for food. * * * Even impure air breathed by the cow will ta;ut her 

 milk. It is reported on good authority that the milk from a dairy iu the State of New 



363 



